I don’t talk about politics or religion at the workplace, yet there is a drama queen that loves just blurting out what she thinks to everyone around.
My way to go so far has been to ignore her, but sometimes I just want to yell at her how incoherent she is.
Then I’d be the one starting drama I guess…
I’m looking for advice to deal with these kind of people. I don’t want to work listening to conspiracy theories.
I work 100% remote, which has made it very easy for me to ignore my coworkers’ bad politics takes because they’re confined to a specific Slack channel
Someone already mentioned going to HR or talking to your boss, but if you really want to shut it down just call her out on her bullshit. Make her explain her position and ask followup questions until she can’t respond. She’s just parroting some talking head, and you can even make a game out of trying to figure out which one she’s channeling
I don’t think you should be quiet, it makes them feel like everyone is agreeing with them and makes everyone miserable. Time to introduce you to my favorite game to play with conservatives, Politics Judo!
So you hear them rant about a thing. Some dumbass talking point. Let’s use gun control. It’s pretty easy to know in advance what the talking points are since they never shut up and parrot the same problem and solution over and over. “Shouldn’t take guns, it’s a mental problem not a gun problem”.
Things are basically boiled down to a problem and a solution. A lot of people try to convince people that the problem isn’t what people think it is, and that’s hard to do. Even if they are just misinformed, it feels like trying to dismiss their fears.
So what you do is you agree with the problem, then use lefty talking points as the solution.
“Oh yeah, gun violence is pretty bad! And I love the Constitution, we shouldn’t mess with that!” (Use small words and also throw in some patriotism, makes them feel like you’re on their side. You want to sound like a right wing media con artist) “so instead of taking guns away, we should instead start having more, free, mental health care in this country. Since it’s a mental health problem and these people are crazy, that is the solution that makes the most sense!” (Don’t try to get them to agree to your solution, just state it as the obvious one)
It becomes weaponized cognitive dissonance. Their brains fry because you said the things you should to agree with them, flagged yourself as an ally, but then said the thing they were told is the bad and shouldn’t want.
If they try to argue with your solution, rinse and repeat to a different talking point. “Oh yeah it might cost more, and we shouldn’t have to pay more for it, so we should get the rich people who are screwing average hard working Americans over by not paying taxes to do that. We should shut down tax loopholes and increase funding to the IRS so they can go after them instead of the little guy”
Always sound like you’re agreeing with them, but giving solutions that they disagree with that seem to be off topic but are related.
Either they will get flustered and stop, or they will slip up and say something racist or sexist or something, and then you can have HR bust them. Document it and also see if you’re in a single party consent state.
You aren’t supposed to agree with everyone around you all the time.
Grow up or hate the world you share with the rest of the people living on it.
That’s the risk of places like lemmygrad and hexbear.
Best of luck moving forward
Reply to them in a “really? Aren’t you just adorable” tone of voice. Don’t engage with what they’re saying but treat them way you would treat a puppy that has just learned not to crap on the rug. Or a mental patient.
“Trump says he’s going to fix everything two weeks after he takes office!”
“Really? That’s amazing! Here I was thinking that you hadn’t thought this through, when clearly you had.”
Honestly, just tell her you’d rather not talk about politics. It can be incredibly passive. You do not need to elaborate. You can make up something simple like “I just want to focus on work while I’m at work,” it doesn’t even need to make sense. If she pushes back, drop it, but don’t ever say it’s okay for her to do. Then if she keeps doing it talk to your manager about it. “I’ve talked to her and asked her not to talk about politics, but she insists. I find it distracting.” Again, it doesn’t necessarily need to make sense and it doesn’t need to be over the top. Now,. hopefully your manager will sort it out. Because if it’s annoying you it’s likely annoying others.
This is probably the best and most realistic answer here. Just tell them that you’re here to work and not chitchat. I’ve done a similar thing when asked why I don’t take a break so we (my superior and I) could go on break together. I work less than 6 hours so I’m not legally required to go on a 30 minute break.
Smh at a few of those other comments that read more like someone trying to write bad fanfiction.
I straight up called a coworker, in public, a brainless idiot for falling for right wing propaganda and then spent the next half hour mocking his views.
He never spoke about them again.
I can never seem to articulate what I think, so talking politics is very difficult to me. I would love to be able to mock someone’s brain dead political views for 5 minutes. 30 seems inconceivable. Good on ya!
Right, I’m very conclusion oriented. So while I might know that I did validly get to a certain view or conclusion, I don’t always know well enough why to the point I can explain it to others or argue with someone about it.
This can even be something as simple as why I chose one product over the other. I know I had good reasons for choosing the laptop I did when I bought it, but if you ask me what specifically about it made me choose it over another I probably can’t tell you.
Wow, such smart, much progressive! No brainless idiot at all!
I’m not sure what your plan was with this comment but if it was anything other than to showcase your room temperature IQ, it didn’t succeed.
IMO you just came across as an arrogant jerk with your comment, who might as well be the type of “drama queen” OP was talking about. Somehow if you hold “the right” political views, it makes it ok.
The reason people find it ok to tell a right wing cunt to shut up is because usually you have to be a massive donkey or a proper cunt to believe it’s ok to make other people’s lives difficult just because they are different.
People who are able to think for longer than 5 seconds in a row without requiring immediate medical assistance tend to see through the constant distractions, bullshit and lies of the right wing.
Now piddle off.
AirPods?
One option…lean in, HARD! Dial the crazy up to 11… One up every point she makes, every single time.
I’ve had to deal with a family member like that and managed to shock them into shutting up about it in my company. “If you are going to shove your politics into everyone’s faces you’ll have to listen to my opinions too. You know what I think about <insert their favorite politician>? I’d love to spend my weekend slowly drowning them in a barrel of cat piss, but I’m worried it’s too good for them.” 3 years later not a pip.
Talk to your boss in private and say that political talk at the workplace makes you uncomfortable and you don’t think it’s appropriate.
This is the political answer
“Please don’t talk about politics in the workplace. It is unprofessional.”
People like that routinely ignore polite exhortations.
Skill issue
Headphones and a volume dial that goes to 11.
Or noise canceling headphones, and only up to 5 so you don’t destroy your hearing.
Not no tiny ones either, or they’ll still walk up to you with their nonsense. Get some bigass highly visible headphones.
They when they start yapping at you anyway pretend you can’t hear them. When they start waving around frantically in front of you, and this is the important part, slowly take off the headphones, look at them sideways and go “huh?”. Make them repeat themselves. Don’t engage. Get back to work asap with the headphones again.
Eventually they’ll tire of this song and dance every time and move on to someone else. Hopefully.
I, personally, have always been fond of headphones that double as ear muffs. Back in the day that meant Sennheisers - it may mean something else now, though.
Well, it’s one louder, innit?
Try to maintain a safe distance of at least 30 m at all times. If you’re stuck with her in the same room, ask lots of work related questions and keep the conversation strictly professional. Dry work stuff only. The more boring the better. As soon as the conversation is about to go off the rails, steer it back.
ignoring them is the best thing. when you start feeling super annoyed, that’s a good time to take a break & walk away for a few mins.
also, the headphones suggestion is on point.
