Know when to button your lip

It’s hard to get away from talk of the election: It’s on the news. It’s on late-night comedy shows. It’s on campaign signs in front yards. It’s on T-shirts, bumper stickers and your friends’ Facebook profiles.

But with passions for politics running so high this year, some people are finding that seemingly harmless jokes, light-hearted Internet postings or just simple declarations of allegiance can be bad for business and bad for friendships.

“A client of mine was giving a speech about leadership to women at a Fortune 500 company,” says Jane Stimmler, a marketing executive from Havertown, Pennsylvania. “The speech was extremely well received until at the very end when she made a disparaging comment about the Republican ticket.”

The room went silent. The CEO hasn’t realized the women were GOP supporters.

“She had to back-pedal big time,” says Stimmler.

Etiquette experts agree that knowing your audience is critical to avoiding political foot-in-mouth.

Anna Post of the Emily Post Institute (and great-great-granddaughter of Emily) says you should only talk politics when you’re sure the other person will be receptive.

“That’s considered safe ground,” says Post. “But never assume you know someone else’s politics.”

What’s not safe ground: the workplace. Nancy Mitchell, whose firm The Etiquette Advocate advises companies on social and workplace etiquette, says anyone who talks politics in the office is looking for trouble.

Nevertheless, it comes up in the office frequently this year, especially when poltics has influenced so much viral online humor.

Michael Becce, a public relaitons agent in New Jersey says he usually instructs his clients not to discuss politics but ignored his own advice when meeting with a new client, Alteva, a tech firm in Philadelphia. The CEO had a large cardboard Sarah Palin stand-up figure in his office.

Becce noted the Palin cut-out. ‘That’s great,” Becce told the CEO. “I have my order in for Biden in a pair of shorts.’ I was trying to be funny but immediately put myself on the other side.”

The CEO, William Bumbernick, responded, “Tell me you’re not an Obama guy!”

Bumbernick says he does encourage that kind of debate and that bringing politics into the workplace isn’t always a bad thing.

“It’s actually helped productivity,” he adds.

“We’re a tech company, and a lot of the engineers spend time talking about VoIP, code, stuff our customer service side doesn’t always understand,” he says. “But when we bring politics in, it bridges gaps, it’s something people can talk about and get passionate about.”

Why not just talk about the weather?

“The weather is boring,” he laughs.

Even if you keep personal politics out of the workplace, that doesn’t mean your colleagues or clients might not learn about them elsewhere and be displeased. Facebook and other social networking sites like MySpace and Twitter have added fuel to the fire.

One New York City media executive said she confronted her daughter’s social studies teacher – who teaches about elections – after the teacher posted her political views on Facebook, but the teacher just laughed it off.

When it comes to debate among friends, how far you choose to go may be a different story – after all, your livelihood doesn’t depend on it. But your long-term happiness might.

Post says you should shut down a conversation that’s gotten overly heated, even if you have to give up the last word to save a friendship. “The hope is your friendship will last longer than an election cycle.”