Is it OK to talk about politics at work?

Missy Jones, who works at a local call center, plans to vote for Barack Obama today, but she doesn't talk about her choice in the office.

"We kind of push productivity," said Jones, 28, of Norfolk.

Her brother, on the other hand, regularly gets into it with his Navy co-workers about the election, with no ill effects. "We talk about it all the time," said Jonathan Jones, 30, of Hampton. "We're in the military, so it's always going to come up."

In this passionate election year, political debates easily seep into the office. But before they let loose on the merits of Obama versus Hillary Rodham Clinton or Mike Huckabee versus John McCain, employees should know this:

Virginia affords workers at private companie s virtually no legal defense for political expression. Many employers say they don't regulate political banter, but at least one Virginian was fired for a political message on his truck.

"There is no law restricting a private employer in Virginia from taking adverse employment action based on political expression," said John Bredehoft, a lawyer with the firm of Kaufman & Canoles. Public employees, though, "have free speech rights that private-sector employees don't have."

A handful of private employers, such as Amerigroup Corp. and Empire Machinery and Supply Corp., said they do not limit political talk or display of bumper stickers. "You're foolish if you say don't talk about politics," said Hank Turner, the president and chief executive officer of Empire. "People are going to talk about what they want to talk about."

In the Navy, "we encourage the free flow of discussion or ideas," said Lt. Cmdr. Cindy Moore, a spokeswoman at the Pentagon. "What's not encouraged is for someone in uniform to be actively campaigning for someone." A sailor may attend a political speech in plain clothes, she said.

Cox Communications does not allow workers to solicit money for candidates, but in 2006 it began the Cox Advocacy Network, a Web site that gives workers information about politicians and issues, spokeswoman Pamela Marino said.

TowneBank forbids posting political signs - just as it does the display of film star photos. "It's a workplace," said Judy Stephenson, human resources director. "We keep everything as professional as possible."

Bredehoft and Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute in Princeton, N.J., recommend that workers ask their bosses their preferences on political expression. Even if there are no restrictions, business etiquette expert Barbara Pachter suggests ducking the subject.

"If you start talking about it and other people start talking about it, pretty soon it can get very heated," said Pachter, from Cherry Hill, N.J. "At work, you don't need that type of polarization. You need people to work together."

Political give-and-take in the office has its supporters, such as Corey Bailey, a Realtor with Keller Williams Realty in Chesapeake. He said the Realtors talk politics regularly, though never with clients, and the dialogue is instructive.

"It can be fun, it can be heated, but I don't think it causes problems in the workplace," said Bailey, who backs McCain.

Bosses, though, should avoid expressing political views, consultants and CEOs say.

"I don't think it's fair if I, as a CEO, started giving my personal values about a candidate or a position," said Michael Barrett, who runs The Runnymede Corp., a Virginia Beach development company. "That implies that an employee should support this or that candidate."

Rozanne "Roze" Worrell, a workplace consultant who writes a weekly column for the Web site of WVEC-TV, has heard from people who say they think they were "passed over for a promotion or not treated civilly because of their political beliefs."

Luis Padilla said he was fired because of his.

Padilla, who was a human resources assistant at a Cargill plant near Harrisonburg, displayed a message on his truck in support of a 2006 Virginia constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. "It was not intended to offend or create any problems with anybody," he said.

When told the message could promote intolerance, Padilla said he offered to cover it when he was at the plant or to park five blocks away.

Instead, Padilla was fired.

"I was shocked," he said. "I had no idea my actions were that serious."

Such incidents are rare, Maltby said. "There are far more common abuses in the workplace today, but this is something that just shouldn't happen in America."

Padilla's case was publicized by the media and conservative groups. Three weeks after he was fired, he was reinstated with back pay and Cargill adopted a policy protecting political expression.

Padilla, 41, said he left Cargill last summer for unrelated reasons and now works at a counseling center.

His car, he said, is festooned with messages proclaiming opposition to abortion rights and support for marriage between a man and a woman. He also has a Huckabee sticker.

No one at work has complained, Padilla said.

Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com