No stopping employee activism

My inbox seems to be overwhelmed with articles on employee activism and politics in the workplace. The proliferation of opinion and coverage is mounting. I would not even know where to start in enumerating all of them.

For instance, today I found an article from Gartner on five categories of non-typical risks for Assurance leaders with two of them related to employee activism at work. The first non-typical risk “Politics Undermining Work” urges companies to work more closely with HR to examine their organization’s political expression policies with examples such as campaigning during work hours, using company-owned social media accounts/channels to share political views, wearing political dress such as logos buttons or T-shirts and affiliating oneself with the organization while engaging in political activities. I dare to say that with social media, it is fairly easy to figure out how people line up across the political spectrum and where they work. And I’d dare to add that many people believe that work policies undermine their right to political discussion in and out of the office and ignore any restrictions. Gartner’s advice is right on the mark however in that a careful review of all the politically expressed affiliations at work need to be reviewed alongside HR as well as the General Counsel. GCs are probably actively involved in this new battlefield like never before.

The second non-typical risk that Gartner lays out is Responding to Social Issues, one that I view as employee activism-related. We all know that it is not just CEOs who have taken on the Activist label (climate change, racial justice, immigration, gender equity). Employees now demand that their CEOs stand up for company values and make it publicly known that there is zero tolerance for profit over values. Employees who are dissatisfied with their employer silence or laissez faire on these highly charged issues are very likely to speak up in the hopes of changing corporate behavior. Employees might not protest visibly but they are certainly able to create a lightning strike internally or on social media. Thus, two of the five non-typical risks facing companies involve employees who used to be be thought of as on the sidelines.

Today, I came across an article about employee activism at Glossier, the beauty brand, and how employees were dissatisfied with its efforts to revamp alleged discriminatory practices. Some of the activist employees banded together to form OuttatheGloss to continue pushing for change despite the company’s attempts to meet their demands. CEO memos and employee responses are sprinkled throughout the article on CNBC, raising the risk to the company’s reputation.

Additionally, I also saw that tennis star Serena Williams may have withdrawn her investment in Coinbase, the cryptocurrency firm where the CEO banned all political discussion and social activism to motivate employees to focus solely on the bottom line. See here. This is a good example of investor activism (aka Serena Williams) taking a stand to support employees who might disagree with the CEO’s point of view..

The employee activism movement is only getting louder. Expect more, no less.