The old political alliances are broken. It’s a free-for-all at this point.
Because a former Obama advisor went on CNN and started throwing punches.
The End of Political Posturing at Work
Corporate America is done with the woke circus. After years of pandering to progressive activism, companies are slamming the brakes on employees turning workplaces into political battlegrounds. Former Obama advisor Van Jones, once a champion of progressive causes, has joined the chorus calling for a reset.
“This is not going to make me popular, but I’m not mad [about the change], because it got ridiculous,” he said on CNN’s Saturday panel. The shift is seismic—businesses are finally prioritizing productivity over ideological crusades.
The early 2020s saw companies tripping over themselves to embrace DEI, social justice, and corporate activism. Every major brand had a cause, a statement, or a rainbow logo to flaunt. But the pendulum has swung back hard. CEOs are fed up with employees treating the office like a Reddit thread. “For some companies, the new message to employees is ‘Check your politics and your activism at the door when you come to work,’” CNN host Abby Phillip said. “CEOs are making one thing clear, ‘The office is not the public square,’ and they‘re probably not wrong about that.”
Workplace Chaos: From Reckoning to Wrecked
Van Jones, an employer himself, didn’t mince words about the chaos activism brought to workplaces.
“I mean, I‘m an employer and at a certain point, your Slack channel just turns into Vietnam every other day because something happened that had nothing to do with the workplace,” he said. Companies were forced to play therapist, hiring counselors to handle employees’ meltdowns over issues unrelated to their jobs. “This is not camp, guys, we’re trying to make money,” Jones added, cutting through the nonsense.
The obsession with “reckonings” over every social issue turned offices into emotional minefields. Jones, who once cheered these movements, now admits they went too far. “So, I enjoyed the moment, for a while, where we were having our reckonings about everything. We done wrecked, OK?” he said, sparking laughter. “We went from reckoning to wrecked. We need to move on.” His blunt assessment resonates with business leaders tired of navigating endless workplace dramas.
A Bipartisan Wake-Up Call
This isn’t just a conservative talking point—there’s rare agreement across the political spectrum. CNN global affairs commentator Sabrina Singh echoed Jones’ sentiment, emphasizing personal responsibility.
“I take a similar approach,” she said. “I think what you do in your own free time, whether you want to participate in political activism or whatever it is, whatever cause you take up, I think you have to do that on your own time.” The message is clear: your job isn’t your soapbox.
Even Republican strategist Lance Trover couldn’t resist celebrating the moment. “You need to mark this moment in this show down,” he said. “This may be where we all agree here at this table, here tonight. I mean, yeah, ‘Welcome to the real world, Gen-Z wokesters.’ I don‘t know what to tell you.” It’s a rare day when a progressive like Jones and a Republican like Trover see eye to eye, but the backlash against workplace activism has united them.
Abby Phillip pointed out how public perception was manipulated by corporate PR stunts. Recalling her work on a book about Jesse Jackson, she noted how he once pushed companies from the outside for change. But the flood of corporate statements in recent years was just smoke and mirrors.
“People may have gotten fooled that these corporations were doing anything other than what they needed to do to survive,” she said. Companies played the game to avoid backlash, not because they believed in the causes.
The corporate world is waking up to reality. Employees can still have their free speech, but as Phillip put it, “employers are just like, ‘Do your job and don‘t do anything else.’”
The era of Slack wars and workplace protests are over. Businesses are reclaiming their focus on profits, productivity, and common sense, leaving the political posturing where it belongs—outside the office door.
