This has nothing to do with freedom of speech, I’m a substitute teacher and while the election was going on, we were told we were not to discuss our political views with our students. I sub elementary grades so I don’t teach poly sci or civics and I would never get in front of a class of young children and start expressing my political views. Of course, teachers can discuss whatever they want in the teachers’ room. I’m wondering if anyone else works in a profession where political discussion is a no.
there is no fast and hard rule about it amongst the workers at my job, but I generally avoid those discussions. It is forbidden to talk politics sex religion with customers though.
I work for a political party, so talking politics on the job is not only acceptable but actually necessary. 
I avoid them, too, even with just the teachers.
Me, absolutely not – but, then, I’m currently working for the San Diego County Registrar of Voters, still (still!) opening mail-in ballots. Political talk is very strictly forbidden.
(By the way, Clinton’s popular-vote lead is still increasing.)
I work for my state’s government. Talking politics is actively discouraged, and not really smart practice to begin with. Especially with my ultimate boss being the governor.
I work for County Gov. There are no rules about discussing politics. But we don’t. Or religion. That’s the way pleasant company works out. Though I’m pretty sure everyone but my boss is anti-trump. Not sure what he thinks at all. I’ll keep it that way.
We are not a very chatty bunch beyond work. Too busy.
Allowed, yes. Advised, no. USPS data center, surrounded by conservative, ex-military Republicans.
A couple folks have ended up in HR recently, mostly for insulting those that voted the other way.
Not forbidden as a rule other than on the production floor itself where almost any conversations are frowned upon. It is case by case with us although we were told early on in the process that campaign/political t-shirts would not be allowed during this election season. This is a warehouse and fairly loose in terms of dress code but this one got enforced for real this time around.
As far as discussions in the break-room, most were fairly polite and all but I believe one or two did result in HR talking to people which is never a good thing with this employer.
(Big internet vendor whose name starts with AMA and ends with ZON and is notorious for dropping people for any reason)
My most recent job was opening ballots for the county elections office and the rules were the same.
We have all mail-in voting here in Oregon and everyone should adopt it. We actually opened ballots starting Thursday before the election. They weren’t actually counted until after the deadline on Tuesday, but they could be opened and scanned into the computer before that. Yes, that’s right, with the system our county has now, they actually scan the entire ballots into the computers. It’s not just a machine reading the filled-in bubbles like they used to have.
BTW, we were done opening the ballots about 5:30 the next morning. That included those turned in on Election Day which was maybe half the ballots. A lot of hurry-up-and-wait was involved since we had to wait for them to verify the signatures. That’s somewhat automated too, but the actual comparison of signatures was done by humans.
I work in a law firm with where the dominant practices are civil rights and immigration. I can’t fathom how we could possibly avoid talking politics - it’s part of staying on top of professional developments.
I’m an American working overseas for the government of my country of residence. Talking politics of foreign (to here) countries is fine, so long as it doesn’t interfere with work. Indeed walking our overseas hires through the process of voting from abroad is a typical part of new employee orientation.
I have had to ask one staff member to drop the conversation on US politics and leave the office since her shift was long since over and the discussion was interfering with the workload. The conversation was engrossing one of the oncoming members of staff to the point that all the work was being forced onto those who were not involved.
Talking local politics is technically allowed, but best be done so gingerly. We are just launching into our six month long election season. It’s doubtful that the local political race will raise political passions to the point of becoming a problem.
I work for a federal executive agency. The Hatch Act largely forbids us from discussing politics while on the job.
The Hatch Act forbids a lot of things related to active political campaigning and the use of one’s position as a federal employee to further the interests of a particular candidate (e.g. by wearing Hillary shirts or Trump buttons), but I don’t believe it rules out casual conversations of politics that take place between coworkers while on the job.
It’s job-relevant to discuss what’s happening and what you think is going to happen during/after the change of administration - that’s certainly happening inside every federal agency right now - but it’s a separate matter to discuss opinions of what you believe should be happening, or who you support, or which candidate’s supporters are idiots. The former is necessary to your job, while the latter can lead to fistfights if one’s audience is not chosen with some care.
I work for a brokerage firm. The behavior of a small group of loud Trumpers has been appalling and extremely unprofessional. I can handle the gloating but that doesn’t mean the basic standards of office professionalism get tossed out just because there is a new president.
I haven’t gone to HR yet, I’m hoping that the upcoming holidays and as time passes after the election that things will return to normal. If not, I will be that libtard running for my safe space by getting HR involved.
We actually talk politics quite a bit at my office…and the last two Presidential elections made for some lively discussions!
I have learned, though, that there’s one guy in the office who you should just never bring up politics with. He’s the kind of guy that only sees his side, and anyone with a differing opinion is just flat out wrong. And he’ll prove his point by incessantly emailing fake news stories, trying to show the rest of us “what your side is really doing.”
There’s always one.
As the Department of Commerce reminded those of us Federal employees under its umbrella several weeks back:
IOW, no talking politics while on the clock.
It happens, of course, but IMHO the less of it, the better. We have plenty of work that needs to get done, and it’s got a lot of moving parts, so it involves a whole bunch of different people with different responsibilities being able to smoothly function together. Talking politics on the job is NOT going to help us coordinate with one another.
My guy just goes O’Reilly and talks over everyone else.
Private company. Yes, and we do. And we talk about all sorts of things, but mostly we talk about work. My company is located at the epicenter of liberal elitism yet there are still reasoned politically diverse discussions.