Correcting foreigners about politics; good or bad, ok, not ok ?

[middle-aged mom]

Does your job description include attempting to change customer perceptions about things beyond your control?

Be grateful for the business. Tourism is off.

[Mac_Muz]

Originally Posted by NCN

Evidently you did not hear the report on the Christmas season this year. I don't need to read some lies on a report. I have been inside the stores.

What! Don't you know the country is doing just dandy?

There is nothing to see, we are all doing fine.. You must not have a tv.....

Sometimes I just have to turn this site off and go make a noise....

[dsjj251]

Originally Posted by Haakon

Trying to correct most people about politics is usually a waste of time, they either already agree with you or won't believe anything you say.

Trying to correct people, especially customers, about politics at work is probably a good way of losing your job, definitely not worth it.

we are actually encouraged to engage customers in regular conversations. My boss is a Notre Dame fan and has spent the better half of the month talking to Alabama fans(my store is in Alabama) and so have the majority of our associates. Politics have come up man times before, it has never been a big deal, and has never gotten anyone fired.

[dsjj251]

Originally Posted by middle-aged mom

Does your job description include attempting to change customer perceptions about things beyond your control?

Be grateful for the business. Tourism is off.

this is funny, it actually does. Its more of the McDonald's workers must promote McDonald's while wearing their uniform rather than politics though.

[desertdetroiter]

Originally Posted by dsjj251

we are actually encouraged to engage customers in regular conversations. My boss is a Notre Dame fan and has spent the better half of the month talking to Alabama fans(my store is in Alabama) and so have the majority of our associates. Politics have come up man times before, it has never been a big deal, and has never gotten anyone fired.

It should be a big deal in the workplace, and in fact, it shouldn't be coming up at the job.

I don't allow political discussions in my department. They can do it on break, or while at lunch. But in the office? That's a great way to get on my bad side, and my bad side is pretty damn hard to get on.

[theunbrainwashed]

I wouldn't. if it wrre me, I would have just ignored it, smiled, and got them through

[squarian]

Originally Posted by dsjj251

"Some times it seems neither of your main political parties agree with your president, why dont the ruling party just have some one else ascend to president "

This is an elementary but entirely understandable cultural misunderstanding.

The president of the United States fulfills two roles which in the developed world are usually separated: head of state and head of government. Because the president is usually seen acting in the latter role as head of government, people from the developed world tend to understand the office in that sense.

In the developed countries, democratic principles hold that the government should have the support of the people as expressed through a majority in the national legislature. Certain extraordinary conditions aside, the rules require the head of government to have the support of the main political party or parties. This is a concept developed by European civilization over many centuries called "representative democracy".

It's understandable that people from the developed world would have some difficulty understanding that our head of government does not necessarily have the support of the main party or parties. In their system, the will of the people, as expressed through their national legislature, determines who their head of government will be. They are unfamiliar with a system in which the head of government is not answerable to the people as embodied in the national legislature.