If your office is anything like mine, questions are still rippling through the company lunchroom related to immigration, green cards and visas.
We have colleagues from many nations in our relatively small office. Among them are incredible people from the Middle East, India, China, Mexico, Ukraine and at any given time, more than dozen or so other homelands or countries of origin.
Each trip to the coffee machine feels a bit like a walk on a corporate tightrope. How can I be supportive and express solidarity at work without diving into the fractious sea of U.S. politics?
I’m not alone. I witness coworkers watching CNN with one eye while keeping tabs on the microwaved burrito with the other. You can almost hear them thinking, listening, wondering, “How can I remind our colleagues they are supported members of our company family, including those not born in the U.S.A.?” What support is meaningful? What’s too much? What’s not enough?
I see the calls on this network to keep things professional. To leave such commentary for Twitter or Facebook. “This is a professional site, leave politics out of it.”
How is that even remotely possible?
We’re a high-tech company in the liberal city of Seattle, with an employer who encourages open communication and friendships with colleagues. Our executive leadership works with some of the best immigration attorneys in the practice area to ensure our immigrant employees meet all U.S. requirements and regulations. I trust with full confidence our leadership is working hard with the right people to manage immigration’s inevitable change. We can assume we’ve created a dynamic workplace, a culture of acceptance where our coworkers can feel safe and valued no matter their country of origin. However, these feel like times when assumptions are not enough.
So…what do we do? We’re openly asking questions. That must be a good start. And if Calvin Coolidge was right, “The chief business of the American people is business,” then surely the business of cultivating and supporting a diverse, multi-cultural, uniquely American workforce has a place here on LinkedIn.
The more restrictive travel and immigration Executive Orders and rhetoric out of the other Washington are being challenged through the federal court system out of thisWashington and are causing concern for real people. There is honest to goodness distress in offices around the country measurably impacting productivity. And it could be just the beginning of a long journey to unravel what is real, legal and impactful to us and our foreign-born colleagues. So, as we buckle up, keeping our eyes on our business goals, ready to move forward, setting and meeting key business milestones, what more do we do?
Listen.
The first thing to do is become educated on the issues. Imagine making already vulnerable colleagues explain the details of this nation’s laws to us. It is our responsibility to spend a little private time with our favorite search engine, while at the same time recognizing we don’t need to become an expert on the topic of H1 B visas. If your colleagues want to share their story and experiences, don’t debate them or try to correct them, and don’t offer empty reassurances that it “will all be okay.” Focus on honing your active listening skills. If your coworker wants to talk about what’s recently transpired and what it means to them, listen without interrupting. And listen again.
Get active.
If you’re passionate about this, if your business depends on your immigrant workforce, do something.
There are plenty of resources out there where you can funnel your curiosity and passion. Choose a course of action right for you, and then do something. If that sounds bothersome, think for a moment how much your colleagues invested in coming to this country perhaps even to work for your company. Think of how hard you’d have to work to replace them. There are plenty of tasks you can choose to make honest, forward movement in less than 15 minutes a day.