In which I receive another reminder as to why I don't discuss politics at work.

[klook]

10. Oh, wow -- sometimes there really is no place to start.

I have always avoided talking about politics at work, unless I meet a liberal co-worker who tips his/her hand first. I have a small number of co-workers in that category, and enjoy talking about the events of the day with them on occasion. But for the others, it's just not important enough to me to try to score points with conservatives at work when that could mess up an otherwise good working relationship.

A few times over the years I've had to abruptly break off a conversation, for example:

Con Co-Worker: "Fox News is the conservative network. CNN is the liberal network."
Me: "Interesting. Oh, look at the time, I have a meeting in 5 minutes! Better run now! See ya!!"

Same Con Co-Worker, another time: "If you work for an enterprise of any size, there's really only one way to vote, and that's Republican."
Me: "Well, I guess people have a lot of different reasons for voting the way they do.... Uh-oh, time for my 2:00 meeting! See ya!!"

Then there was the time when another guy decided he just had to know my religious views. (I am an atheist, but sure wasn't going to bring that up at work, especially with a Religious Right type like this guy.)

He kept pressing me on it, so I finally just said --
Me: "I don't really have the same religious beliefs as most people."
Religious Right Co-Worker (looking *very* concerned and agitated): "Well, what are ya, then? Some kinda Buddhist er sumthin?"
Me, laughing: "No, no..."
Religious Right Co-Worker (eyes starting to bulge a little): "What is it, then? Some New Age crystal thing or sumthin like that?"
Me (smiling): "I'll fill you in on it some other time."

This guy got canned soon thereafter, not because of any of this -- I didn't report him, anyway, even though this kind of probing was clearly against stated company policy. So he didn't get a chance to corner me again.

Funny thing was, before he left I spent a lot of my personal time, after hours, reviewing, editing, and re-writing this guy's resume and giving him a lot of job-hunting advice (and he ended up getting a really good management job elsewhere, maybe partly because of my help). If I hadn't edited the hell out of that resume, he'd have never gotten an interview, because it was obviously the work of a semi-literate person.

So did I ever get one word of thanks from this good Christian? Ha!