Six of us have been in the fairly secluded department at my company for nine or ten years. I'm in a pretty red state, yet there are three of us who are Democrats and decently left of center at that. We're not your usual red-state-barely-left Dems. For years, everyone, for the most part, were pretty open with our politics with daily conversations about the day's political news. There was good-natured ribbing quite often. I guess you could say it was a safe space for us.
Then, the company decided to add to add three positions to the group, up from 11. Because there was a hiring freeze, the new team members had to come from elsewhere in the company. They were 23, 26, and 27, coming into a department where I'm guessing the average was 55.
Within two weeks of their arrival, I was written up for making a comment about the company's "strong" recommendation we put preferred pronouns in our email signatures. My name is Mark. I said something like I'd take a chance that people would get my pronouns wrong considering my name was Mark. I said it wasn't like my name was Casey, Alex, or Billie.
Shortly after that, one of the moderately conservative women got worked up over "Merry Christmas" not being used in local retail stores. She went off on a mild rant ON THE PHONE with a vendor. Someone reported her to People. Written up!
A few months ago, one lady invited one of the new three to go to lunchtime mass with her a couple times (Personally, I would have never done it!). The gal reported her to our manager. There was no official write up. The lady who was making the invitation was advised not to go anywhere near anything that could be construed as religious.
Daily banter on politics in our department has basically disappeared. None of us knows for sure who did the reporting, so none of us old farts trust the new folks. I find the ocassional f-bomb necessary and useful. I expect to counseled at some point. I've gotten the eye roll and side eye from the 23 yo and the 27 yo. It really is a shame. Age diversity has been detrimental, in our case.
Risking being occasionally offended or causing an occasional offense was funnier! Lol
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