VOTE OUR WAY OR LOSE YOUR JOB - A CASE OF POLITICAL HARRASSMENT!

bet.com

Is tomorrow the day you receive the email, letter or phone call from your boss, Chief Executive Officer or owner directing you how to vote in the upcoming presidential election?  It just may be!  Sadly, it appears to be happening across the nation as Chief Executives and owners are sending emails to their employee groups warning them of a vote for President Obama. 

Warnings include higher gas prices, unprecedented regulation, runaway inflation, Obamacare and a host of other terrible, terrible things.  The most significant warning is that you could lose your job if the President is reelected.  I have read three of these emails sent to employee groups.  Each of the emails has been carefully crafted to create a sense of anxiety and fear within their respective employee base.  One has to wonder if the entire corporate marketing team was pulled off other marketing efforts to brainstorm the best approach to creating anxiety in their workforce.  Who knows?  Maybe it was an intern from the local university.

asg.com

Each email makes a point or disclaimer might be the better description to point out that every employee should vote for the candidate who best represents their views.  Somehow, that seems to soften the directive received from the guy who signs his name to your check every two weeks.  Obviously, it is not enough to show up every day, show up on time and put forth the work you are employed to do. 

The word is fear.  It works!  Create a level of fear, a feeling of anxiety and all of a sudden, people will fall in line so that they do not suffer the consequences.  If you vote this way, bad things will happen.  If you vote that way, you get to keep your job.  Arthur Allen, Chief Executive Officer of ASG Software Solutions, wrote to his employees, “If we fail as a nation to make the right choice on November 6^th, and we lose our independence as a company, I don’t want to hear any complaints regarding the fallout that will most likely come.” Ooooohhhhh.  The Boogie Man!

I am reminded when I read such statements of a man I worked for who owned his own business.  All he would do was talk about how tough it was for him.  It was always “woe is me.”  He worked hard, no question.  He’s the one who took the risk to be in business.  He’s the one who built the business.  However, he did not do it alone.  Everyone including the folks who worked for this man had their own burdens and responsibilities.  The only thing is, they hardly ever took the line, “woe is me.”  More often than not, they accepted their challenges with glad faces, saved their money and provided for their families.         

These types of tactics almost remind me of the ‘casting couch’.  How can you call it anything else?  Sleep with the boss or get fired.  Sleep with the boss or don’t get promoted.  Political harassment is alive and well just as voter suppression seems to be the order of the day with all the new voting identification restrictions across the nation. 

David Siegel, Chief Executive Officer of Westgate Resorts, sent an email to his employee group warning of layoffs if President Obama is reelected.  “It’s quite simple.  If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company.  Rather than grow this company I will be forced to cut back.  This means fewer jobs, less benefits and certainly less opportunity for everyone.” 

How can you argue with that?  The boss has spoken.  Climb aboard or see you.  First it was Citizens United and the opening of the floodgates to unlimited political financial contributions by corporations.  Now, let’s make sure we tell our employees how to vote.  America – land of liberty and freedom – you think?