It’s no secret that in America, the business world is heavily involved in politics — it’s one of the worst and most absurd features of our astonishingly broken political system.
One worker on Reddit is getting a firsthand glimpse at how this tends to shake out after their employer began making ominous declarations about how the election’s outcome might affect the company in a way that is not only unethical but might also be illegal.
The worker’s bosses are threatening layoffs if the election does not go their way.
“I am a contractor with a company in a tech-adjacent field,” the worker wrote of the telecom company they work for. “Out of the blue, they’re pushing everyone to drop their normal work and write automation test plans.”
Having your staff make AI plans is certainly ominous, and the rumor around this person’s office is that most of their contracts will be canceled and replaced by automation “if the election results goes one way.”
“I haven’t been able to learn more information when talking to others,” they went on to say. “I’m obviously really shaken… Does anyone have any opinions of which candidate winning might trigger this?”
The tech industry has largely backed Trump. But Trump has also essentially vowed to crash the economy and overturn Biden Administration economic policies.
Trump has become the darling of business leaders in all sorts of industries because of his promises to end nearly all forms of regulation, from financial rules to dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to protect the environment and cut taxes. (Raising corporate taxes is, by contrast, a cornerstone of Kamala Harris’ economic plans.)
After years as a reliable source of support for Democratic candidates, the tech industry has largely followed suit this election cycle, with even prolific Democratic donors like Allison Huynh jumping ship and backing Trump. Given the tech industry’s deep reliance on immigrant workers with H-1B work visas — a program Trump attacked in his first term — none of this makes any sense, but that hasn’t stopped the shift.
Many immediately suspected this worker’s bosses were following the lead of Silicon Valley far-right darlings like Elon Musk and trying to coerce their staff into voting for Trump. But, others theorized the worker’s employer might be doing the opposite — urging staff to vote for Kamala Harris because of scores of economists’ warnings that Trump’s plans will tank the economy.
In recent days, even Musk himself admitted that Trump’s plans will completely collapse the economy, which he claims is actually a good thing. He called it a “temporary hardship” necessary for “long-term prosperity,” a claim as absurd as it is sinister.
In any case, in a follow-up comment, the worker shared a reason to believe that their bosses might actually be Team Harris: The company has greatly benefited from grants that were part of the Biden Administration’s bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — legislation Trump has signaled he plans to axedespite the boost it has given employment and the economy overall.
Regardless, activity like this by an employer may constitute voter intimidation, a federal and state crime.
Voter intimidation is a federal crimethough what exactly constitutes it with respect to an employer doesn’t seem to be clear-cut, especially since the advent of the absurd 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United, which ruled that corporations essentially have the same political and speech rights as individuals.
State laws, however, are much clearer.
As Virginia attorney Thomas Spiggle told the Society for Human Resource Management“In most states, private employers can fire their employees for their political activities or affiliations, as long as the firing isn’t a form of voter intimidation or coercion.”
Which is not great — they shouldn’t be allowed to fire people for their political affiliations at all, of course. But, while the fact this worker’s employer has not specified a candidate may help them evade accountability, most states would consider this a pretty clear-cut violation of voter intimidation laws.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that pursuing legal action would in any way be worth it — or that the layoffs won’t come anyway, regardless of who wins.
As one Redditor told this worker, the best answer is probably to “always be applying.”
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.
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