Early this year, some Facebook employees staged a protest against CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision not to take action on a series of controversial posts from President Donald Trump, which apparently incited violence and promoted racism. Other employees are also said to have changed their profile pictures to a modified version of the iconic Facebook thumbs-up ‘Like’ icon, designed instead to be a fist of solidarity. In past years, the workplace rarely engaged itself directly with issues of social or political activism, but this has changed. It has somehow become normal for employees to protest issues separate from the job itself. How viable is this? Richard Mugisha, Regional Coordinator at International Training Institute for Skills Development, says as a matter of principle and as a global affirmative action, every individual has a right to express and be heard, the manner in which the expression or response is mainly the issue. He explains that in relation to this, there are two major points to consider, and one of them is setting clear human resource policies and procedures, because this provides fundamental rules and guidelines relating to the practices and behaviours of the people in the organisation. “Every workplace should have HR policies that allow for freedom of expression by their staff. I would not advocate for picketing per se. On the side of employers, I think it is important to speak out about social injustices and make known the company’s values and principles to the world,” he says. Mugisha also notes that employee engagement approach is very important, saying that for every workplace to have this may result in the right working conditions of all members of the organisation to give their best at work. Employee engagement is a fundamental concept that can be understood both qualitatively and quantitatively, to improve the nature of relationship between an organisation and its employees, he explains. “An engaged employee is one who is engaged to be with the organisation. However, there shouldn’t be a group of activists at the workplace, rather freedom of expression provided through the points mentioned above.” Gloria Busingye, the founder of ‘Safe Circle for Children’, says activism should be allowed at work for as long as the issue at hand affects employees in one way or another. She says, the right for them to speak up on such an issue should be preserved to them. However, there should be a clear line drawn regarding the nature or extent of protest by the employees, keeping in mind both their safety and the protection of their working environment (opting for peaceful activism). “A good example is the fact that Walmart employees have at different occasions got involved/affected by a shooting at the store. So their protest for such is mostly in the interest of their own safety, at least they should not be left to choose between risking their lives while doing their job and not doing it at all.” Jackline Tumukunde the manager of Jallyn Travels says it has become sort of normal to use the workplace to protest social issues unrelated to the job itself. This was something almost unheard of even five years ago. The workplace used to be the very last place you would want to bring attention to social issues, however important. That’s because the office or factory isn’t a democracy where activism is protected, she says. She adds that there is a big difference between marching in the street for example, as part of a black lives matter protest and walking off the job as part of that same protest. “Let’s say you have the day off, and you decide to join a march through the streets. The government can’t just arrest you or banish you to another country. But those rights fall away the minute you cross the threshold into your job. Work is for work. Save your activism for evenings, weekends or days off.”
