If you can't read past the first line then you're the evidence for why this policy is needed.
Politics are making work hostile for everyone. Let's avoid them altogether.
Politics are making work hostile for everyone. Let's avoid them altogether.
The point is that instead of drawing a line around topics to say which ones are acceptable and which ones are not, there should be a line that says any discussion that causes harm/hurt to colleagues is frowned upon and to be avoided?
It's quite easy to say let's avoid politics because it causes problems at work, but that stance ignores the nuance in the situation.
Salary disparities based on completely arbitrary physical characteristics is not harm, it's politics. What does gender and race have to do with your salary? Aren't you negotiating your salary based on experience and competence? Is someone actively being harmed? How so?
That's the difference.
A salary disparity is also not a political discussion but its not a easy topic to bring up as in any company there will be multiple disparities. Work hour disparities. Work freedom disparities. Perks disparities. External disparities such as commuting distance between work and home. Flexibility disparities. Skill and social contact disparities. Education disparities. There are even game theory issues such as optimizing for retention might not always end up with all employees being identical cogs that can simply be replaced.
Just recently I know a very skilled employee that left his company after almost 10 years because the company had a policy of having every employee under the same title, same wage system, and same heavily rotating schedule. That place suffer a very heavy turnover and looking at their strategy for handling employees it is not that surprising, but in fairness they have no salary disparities if you account for hours worked. Everyone is treated as an identical cogs in the machine.