My summer youth temp's obsession with politics is getting out of hand, for real now...

It's gone from merely being an annoyance to a legit hindrance. It's getting in the way of his work! Several times since Jackson started working here, I've had tell him to stay focused while he was letting himself be distracted from watching the news in the middle of a task I assigned to him. Today, he was out for a while after I sent him to make what was supposed to be a quick pickup from another department. I got concerned, so I headed over to where I sent him and found him chatting up with other employee about, you guessed it: politics! I had to give him another stern talking-to. I told him I understand that he's very passionate about his politics and he's even free to be so at work when we have downtime in our office (and we get plenty of it most days), but while he's supposed to be working, he needs to drop whatever he's doing and stay focused.

Yeah, I've complained about Jackson rambling about politics a few times here, but I don't dislike the kid. We get along most of the time and he's very helpful whenever he's keeping himself on track. But this letting himself get distracted by it is just unacceptable! I told him if this happens again, I'm going to have to send him home for the day and I really don't want to have to do that! Hell, I feel bad for poking fun at him on here now... I knew he was very political, but good grief, I've never seen a teenager so invested in politics like a grown-ass adult! I really hope this doesn't continue. If it does, I may very well have to have HR talk to his parents about it or something.