I am certainly not the first person to post regarding issues of work related discrimination based on political beliefs. I certainly don't think that my story demands the most angst or outrage. Nothing has happened to me, personally, but still.....
I work at a small business. Let's just say that I am a physician in a group practice. We have a lot of staff. Our staff is not extremely diverse, however, there are differences of political opinion. The most common set of political beliefs runs towards apathy. Then there are the conservatives. There are a few of us who, IMHO, see the current administration for what it is AND understand that McCain is nothing more than its' latest incarnation.
Some of our physicians are extremely conservative and see any "tax and spend liberal democrat" as a personal threat to their paycheck. One of them, who is part owner of the practice, not only asked some of our nurses who they were voting for, but then berated the Obama supporters as "stupid" and said "Well, if we have to cut back, you'll be the first to go.....laughter"
His obvious defense would be "I was just joking." My attitude is that there are many things in life to joke about. Someone's employment is not one of them.
He doesn't know about the Obama stickers on my car, and I'm not about to take them off. Unfortunately, now I feel like I am working in hostile territory. I knew his political views, but always thought that he kept that sort of thing to himself. I hear, now, that he has approached other staff with "You're not voting for Obama, are you?"
To me it speaks of intimidation (albeit not of the extreme or violent variety). I'm sure I'm not the only one on this site to have these issues, but I had to vent. My job is generally ok and I am not going to leave. I did have to kvetch for a bit though. This entire thing has me thoroughly alienated.