Activism and work: How protesting can affect job prospects

While politics have long been viewed as taboo in the workplace, the next generation is not afraid to break the cycle. 

In response to the Israel-Palestine conflict in the Middle East, nearly 3,000 protesters have been arrested across at least 61 college campuses, according to recent data from Axios. Earlier this month, 50 Google employees were fired for participating in anti-Israel demonstrations that Google says violated the company's policy on political discourse. 

These instances are prompting employers and employees to grapple with how activism can impact future job prospects and current employment, as well as company culture overall. According to Dr. Ella Washington, organizational psychologist, professor at Georgetown University and a business leader herself, the answer has plenty of historical context to draw from. 

"Everyone acts like protesting is such a new phenomenon but it's not — we have seen this since the beginning of time," she says. "If you look throughout the whole 19th and 20th centuries, we see so many examples of people, especially college students, protesting things that they did not agree with, from the Vietnam War to the civil rights movement in the 1960s." 

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In the last few years alone, there have been several causes that have resulted in nation-wide protests around issues like women's rights, racial discrimination and mass shootings. But while employees may feel inspired and empowered to speak out against these issues, there is still fear around how it could affect their work: 51% of employees still believe that discussing politics will have a negative impact on their workplace environment, according to data from resume-building platform ResumeNow.

To properly manage expectations and policies around political discourse in and out of the workforce, Washington recently spoke to EBN about what employers and employees can expect: 

The idea of protesting a cause may not be new, but what has changed about the way people are protesting — and the consequences of that — today? 
What is new is the amount of information available to both employees and employers. Before, you'd only be denied a job or fired if you got arrested and had a criminal record because of protesting. Now with AI and the increase in technology, a company can be way more proactive about knowing who was at a protest. Also, most protests used to be done in person as opposed to now, where we have social media as part of the activism that people are using — whether it's convening on different social media platforms, or using their own social media platforms to talk about the causes they care about. 

So I think the big question is not what's different; it's whether organizations are finally going to be honest about their values and what they expect from their employees. Is there going to be increased transparency on both sides? We don't leave our identities at the door when we start working. For a long time, companies have pretended that they want an employee's authentic self, but if they do not want employees who are protesting certain causes in their organization, they have to be transparent about that up front, as opposed to reacting to protests after the fact. 

Are companies taking the right approach when it comes to activism-specific policy making?
Many organizations already have it outlined in their policies and will pull that up when terminating an employee. What needs to change is that if employers are going to take stances on who can be a part of the organization based on their political values, protests or behaviors, they're going to need to be really clear with their current employees and those they're interviewing. Just because a policy has been around for a while, doesn't mean that it's right for it to lay dormant especially when it's relevant to what's happening, so even with their current employees they have to be like "Hey, we have this policy so any decision you make can have repercussions." 

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That being said, there is a sense of sacrifice that comes with activism. And while that shouldn't be the case and it's not the right thing, it's what we've seen from history. Unfortunately, for some people that will be their jobs.  

Do you think we're going to see employer policies become more equitable?
We are seeing a shift to technology and a cultural shift in what employees want from their employer, so it is only fair that organizations also have to shift and make their policies more transparent. I think whatever policies they put in place from a legal perspective, it has to be protection for all parties. So if you are involved in any protests or demonstrations — no matter what you're protesting for or against — and it's considered grounds for dismissal, that has to go both ways. I do worry that organizations won't be as transparent or as fair about how they are treating these situations, but I do think they're going to have to really be tight on what their actual written policy is, and how they apply it across different employees.

How can young talent continue to prioritize activism, while navigating a career? Do you think that's possible? 
If Gen Z wants a workplace that aligns with their values, they have to be willing to walk away from workplaces that don't align with their values. So this is an opportunity to interview the companies they're being interviewed by. Before accepting any job, do yourself the benefit of examining what the employee employers stated their values are — this means not only what's on their website and in their marketing, but also speaking to the HR team and to the manager that you'll be working with to really understand what the organization's policies are on these things. Is activism something that they encourage, something they stay away from or is it something that they are vehemently against? That should always be a part of the conversation, especially for students where this is really important to them. If you hide it from companies, it can only come back to harm you later on if you're in an organization that's misaligned with your values from the get go. 

There's also a camp of folks that don't care either way because they're willing to sacrifice their job for protesting, and that's totally fair as well. We have seen people make that decision historically and it's important to remember that there is no right or wrong choice, it's a personal choice. However, you do have to be clear on what that choice is.