Work is not the place for politics.
Sometimes, I forget there are liberals and Democrats in this town. I mean, i do work in Campbell County. 
Courtesy: WaPo
When I moved to Lynchburg in June, I used to talk up that I lived in Chicago, because most people were generally interested. It’s new and exciting to meet people not from the next county over.
When I told one old woman I was from Chicago, she smiled and asked if I had voted for Barack Obama. When I told her that I had, she smiled harder. This woman told me then that she was finally proud of the vote she had cast in November for Obama. “I think he’s finally going to change something.”
But that woman and people like her are few and far between, so when I find them, it makes me all warm inside.
A woman came up to me at about 8:30pm tonight (Monday), and demanded to speak to a manager. It’s common for customers to ask, so I paged the manager on duty to the front of the store. While she waited, I turned away from my conversation with a co-worker and asked, “Is there anything I can help you with?” “No. I need to talk to a manager.”
When the manager arrived, the woman huffed, “I need to speak to you outside.”
“Uh, ma’am,” the manager replied, “I’m the only manager on duty, and we’re not really supposed to leave the store if we’re the only ones here.” This woman was not having it, and demanded that he come outside. There was quite a bit of commotion, but I couldn’t make out what was being said.
Another woman, already in the store, had started to give her view to the manager as well. “Oh,” said my coworker, “they’re talking about my car.”
Indeed, they were. That’s the “Don’t Tread on Me” sticker and a bumper sticker for Liberty University. (On an unrelated note, what does LFFL mean?)
The other woman had come back in to the store briefly, and I heard the first woman yell, “If that’s an employee’s, I’m going to take my business elsewhere.” She continued to chew the manager’s ear while I turned my attention back to the coworker. The manager was trying his best to calm the obviously irate woman down.
Not being the kind of person who steps down on political issues, my coworker yells, “Well I guess they’re the kind of people who are okay with living in a totalitarian society.”
“Dude,” I mutter to him, “don’t polarize at work. It can’t end well.”
The second woman rushed back to the front door shouting, “I now know whose that is, it’s an employee.” Both women left, and didn’t spend a dime. They probably went to CVS across the street, where politics won’t be shoved down their throat.
The manager took the coworker aside and I don’t know what they talked about, but it probably wasn’t good. Apparently that manager called several other managers to ask about specific company policy. Nobody knew it, but I intend to track it down. I’ll keep you posted.
This coworker then came up to me and stated that it was his belief that if they (Walgreens) forces him to remove it, he will get the Liberty Council to sue the company.
I tried, in vein, to explain to him that his First Amendment rights do not apply in this case, as he was AT WORK and, contrary to popular belief, Walgreens is NOT the federal government. What is it about conservatives and misinterpreting the first amendment? (Sorry, but it’s sometimes too easy to pick on Sarah Palin.)
If, then, he explained, it is to come that on Walgreens property he is not allowed to display his political beliefs (which, by his own admission was just to piss people off), he will fight to remove:
- A coworkers “Darwin” fish (which he claims was just there to piss him off)
- Another coworker’s COEXIST bumper sticker (which he says he fundamentally disagrees with)
- Another coworkers Confederate flag window cling (for which he had no ill comment)
(images pulled via a google images search, exact urls coming)
The most polarizing I am at work is a button I wear that says “Save the Internet.” But what do I know? I’m just a liberal.