The Tricky Politics Of Political Discourse In The Workplace

(CNN) -- It seemed like a harmless comment, or so Mario Almonte thought at the time.

The year was 1992, and Bill Clinton had just appeared on "The Arsenio Hall Show" to play a rendition of "Heartbreak Hotel" on his saxophone. Almonte thought it was entertaining; his supervisor, on the other hand, thought the stunt "demeaned the office of president of the United States," Almonte recalls.

Almonte offered his opinion to his supervisor and that he "relax." It turned out to be the wrong choice of words, he said. "He immediately got upset and started arguing with me, and for nearly half an hour, we kept arguing about the issue until we finally both walked away in disgust," said Almonte, a public relations specialist in New York who was not associated with the show or Clinton's campaign.

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