Politics have always been a touchy subject in the workplace, but with recent tragic news events igniting fierce debates about everything from race relations and sexual harassment to global warming to gun control, they can’t really be ignored.
Using its extensive database of employee reviews, Comparably sought to find out how workers have been directly and indirectly affected by some of the most sensitive topics on the national stage right now. The data, which comes from the responses of thousands of employees at small, mid-size, and large public and private companies, was collected between March 2016 and September 2017.
Respondents were asked:
–Do the political views of your coworkers affect your working relationship with them?
–Does your company encourage open discussion of workplace issues related to gender diversity?
–Is your company supportive of LGBTQ employees?
–Do you feel you’ve been held back in your career because of your gender?
–Do you think there are enough women in leadership positions at your company?
–Have you ever been sexually harassed at work?
–Have you ever experienced racism in the workplace?
–Which of the following company values is most meaningful to you?
Check out the results and our methodology below.
Young people are most likely to say their coworkers’ political views affect them
–36% of all workers 18 to 25 say the political views of their coworkers affect their working relationships. That was the highest rate among any age group.
–Workers aged 56 to 60 reported the lowest rates of feeling this way (22%).
–30% of workers overall say their coworkers’ political views affect their working relationships.
— The split was identical between men and women. The rates were 32% for men and women in tech, and 25% for men and 24% women outside of the tech industry.
Tech:
Non-tech:
–Workers with a doctoral degree were more likely to report that their coworkers’ views impact their working relationships (41%) vs. those with a high school diploma (28%).
–African Americans were most likely to say they are affected by their coworkers’ working relationships (26%).
Gender and diversity issues are openly addressed by most companies
–64% of men and 59% of women in all industries say their companies encourage open discussion of workplace issues related to gender and diversity. The rates in tech and out of tech were nearly identical.
–This sentiment remains consistent among all age groups. Between 60% and 67% of workers 18 to 60 feel their employers encourage open discussion of gender issues.
–The three tech departments least likely to feel this way. Workers in legal, customer support, and operations at tech companies were least likely to agree that gender and diversity are being openly addresses at their company.
–Hispanic and Latino workers are most likely to say their companies encourage open discussion of workplace issues relate to gender and diversity.
Most workers say their employers support LGBTQ employees
–82% of all workers say their companies are supportive of LGBTQ employees. The rate is slightly higher in the tech industry (84%) and lower in industries out of tech (79%).
–Men in tech report the highest rates of feeling this way (87%).
–The youngest workers are the least convinced. The youngest group of workers seem to have slightly less faith in their company’s support of LGBTQ workers than other age groups (83%-84% all other age groups).
–The most LGBTQ-friendly cities. The cities where employees were most likely to say that their employers are gay and transgender-friendly are San Francisco, Seattle, and New York City (all of which have 90% or above). The city with the lowest percentage of workers who say their employees are gay and transgender-friendly is Atlanta.
–African Americans are least likely to report that their companies are LGBT-supportive.
Nearly half of all women feel gender has held them back in their careers
–46% of women in all industries say their gender has held them back at work. The rate is slightly higher in the tech sector, where 50% of women say their gender has held them back. In industries outside of tech, 41% of women say their gender has held them back.
Non-tech
Tech
–1 in 4 millennials feel gender has held them back in their careers. Overall, 23% of men and women aged 18 to 35 say they feel their gender has held them back in their careers. That’s a higher concentration than workers in the 36-45 age group (19%), and mostly in line with workers aged 46 and up (22%).
–The three tech departments where women feel most held back. Women who work in the following departments at technology firms reported the highest rates of feeling held back in their careers: finance (68%), engineering (63%) and executive (63%). These rates are for all age groups.
–African Americans most often report that gender has held them back in their careers.
A majority of men say there are enough women in leadership roles
–60% of men and 49% of women in all industries say there are enough women in leadership roles at their company. That means 40% of men and 51% of women in all industries say there aren’t enough women in leadership roles at their companies.
–In the tech industry, the rates were slightly lower: 58% of men and 46% of women say there are enough women in leadership roles at their company. Outside of tech, the percentages were 63% of men and 59% of women.
–The more educated you are, the more likely you are to feel that there aren’t enough women in leadership roles. Workers with a Bachelor’s, Master’s or Doctoral degree most believe that there aren’t enough women in leadership at their companies (47% of them said there are vs. 69% of those with a high school diploma, some college, or an Associate’s degree.)
–The departments where people feel there aren’t enough women in leadership. In tech, people who work in HR, business development, and marketing felt least confident in there being enough women in leadership roles at their company.
–Caucasian workers were most likely to say there are enough women in leadership. 
1 in 4 women has been sexually harassed at work
–26% of women in all industries say they have been sexually harassed at work.
–The rate is somewhat higher in tech (28% of women) vs. non-tech (24% of women).
–The highest rates by department. 33% of women in IT at tech companies say they have been sexually harassed, the highest rate of any department. Women in business development, operations, and product reported the next highest rates, at 32%, 31%, and 31% respectively. Sexual harassment rates for men, while at 7% overall, appeared to be prevalent in certain sectors as well: 20% of men in legal roles and 17% in administrative roles reported having been sexually harassed.
–Rates of sexual harassment appeared to be stronger among the older set of respondents. Sixteen percent of men and women aged 56 to 65 reported having ever been sexually harassed at work, compared to the approximately 13% averaged by men and women aged 18 to 50. (Note: These rates reflect women and men.
–Sexual harassment rates appeared to decline the longer a person spent at one particular company.
- Rates for workers just starting out at their company were at 17%; rates for workers with a decade or more of experience at their company were at 11%.
–African American and Hispanic/Latino workers reported the highest rates of facing sexual harassment, at 19% and 17%, respectively.
- Rates of sexual harassment were reported at 14% among Caucasians and 7% among Asians and Pacific Islanders.
Women experience more racism at work than men
–31% of women in all industries say they have experienced racism in the workplace, compared to 22% of men.
- The rates were similar in and out of the tech industry.
–African Americans are the biggest target. African American men and women were subject to the highest rates of racism: 52% said they have experienced racist sentiment in the workplace. Thirty-one percent of Hispanics and Latinos and 28% of Asians and Pacific Islanders said the same.
–Above age 35, the rate rises. Racism affects people of all ages mostly equally, though those 36 and older seem to have slightly higher rates than those younger than 36. The rate peaks for those aged 56 to 60, many of whom started their careers during the thick of the Civil Rights era.
–A tie to education? Workers who have achieved a high school level education report the highest rates of being subject to racist behavior (31%) while workers with a higher education report lower rates: 22% of workers with a bachelor’s degree report having been subject to racist behavior.
–Racism by city. Workers in Atlanta reported the highest rates of racism (32%) followed closely by Dallas (30%). Workers in San Diego reported the lowest rates (15%) followed next by Boston (19%).
Transparency and integrity rank as the most important company values
–39% of workers in all industries rank “transparency and integrity” as the company values most meaningful to them.
- The ranking was nearly identical for those in and out of tech.
–The least meaningful company value was “diversity and inclusion.”
–-Men and women reported similar rankings. Men valued “speed and innovation” slightly more than women while women valued “diversity and inclusion” slightly more than men.
–African Americans showed the highest rates of choosing “diversity and inclusion,” (14%) though it was still the lowest-ranked value for them.
Methodology
- Questions were in Yes/No, True/False, 1-10 scale, and multiple choice format.
- Results are based on 64,000+ responses from workers across the technology sector.
- Employees hail from small, mid-size, and large companies, predominantly at tech companies.
- Data was collected between March 2016 and September 2017.
About Comparably
Comparably is one of the fastest growing compensation, culture, and career monitoring sites in the U.S. With a mission to make work dramatically more transparent and rewarding, it is the only platform with comprehensive and structured data that can be segmented by gender, ethnicity, age, location, tenure, company size, equity, title/department, and education. Since the Santa Monica-based startup’s launch in March 2016, the site has become a popular resource for employees to anonymously input and compare salaries, rate their workplace culture and CEOs, and have their dream jobs find them. With more than 1 million ratings and hundreds of thousands of salary and culture data, over 3,000 companies are now using Comparably’s employer branding and jobs tools to recruit talent. For more information, please visit www.comparably.com
