My co-workers keep sending me politically charged e-mails. They think I share their views, which I do not. How do I stop this? I seem to be alone in keeping my politics to myself.

It may be easy to be a maverick on the campaign trail, but it's hard to stay one in the office by minding your own business. The challenge is to avoid making the situation worse with a confrontation that might ignite your co-workers' hostility. So, before you go rogue on your fellow employees, here are some steps to help you bail out of the situation.

First, make sure you delete these e-mails, and never pass them on to others, since that would only prolong the problem. Next, approach those co-workers informally and tell them your political beliefs are private and you would prefer they respect that privacy by excluding you from the e-mails. Finally, remind them that such messages can open the door to possible legal actions if even one of the recipients feels the e-mails create a hostile work environment.

That should do the trick. However, from now on you'll have to be vigilant about not laughing at or contributing to politically charged stories, comments, or jokes you encounter at the office. Doing that can easily re-ignite the whole process again if they see you engaging in what they view as an ongoing political dialog. When it comes to the volatile exchanges that pass for political discussion these days, the only winning move is not to play.