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Before Nov. 5, one-third of voters — more than 75 million — had cast ballots in this year’s bruising presidential election race. Tensions among voters have caused conflict in workplaces.
The contentious presidential race has sparked workplace conflicts, decreasing morale and productivity at U.S. companies so sharply that many are having their employees work from home this week because they don’t expect Election Day to ease the tensions.
In a new survey from ResumeBuilder among more than 1,000 U.S.-based managers, two in five plan to have employees work remotely during election week. About 3 out of 10 said the election has caused conflicts among employees, and seven out of 10 fear tensions will balloon after Nov. 5, the survey shows.
Before Tuesday, one-third of voters — more than 80 million — had cast ballots in the bruising race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, The New York Times reports. But political conflicts in the workplace began even before early voting did, according to the ResumeBuilder survey.
Managers reported dealing with strained relationships, verbal altercations, and a decrease in team cohesion, the study showed. Respondents said disagreements over politics are distracting employees and reducing overall output. About one-fourth of staff members refused to collaborate with coworkers who didn’t share their political views and asked to work remotely in order to avoid potential conflict, according to the survey.
Event organizers, too, have and likely will face their share of political divisiveness among attendees at events held in the upcoming weeks. Jess Pettitt, CSP, a speaker and consultant with decades of expertise in diversity and inclusion topics, told Convene earlier this year that the day after the 2016 election “people showed up ready for a funeral — or with party hats on,” at events “where they thought everybody was like them.” Many groups, Pettitt said, have not recovered from the effects of the polarization that grew in the U.S. after that election.
One could argue that the political divide — and stress it caused — has exploded since 2016. In October, an American Psychological Association poll found that more than nearly seven out of 10 American adults are stressed about this year’s election.
According to Pettitt, planners can ease potential stress among their participants by establishing how they will respond to political conflict in advance. Include more connection points for event participants, Pettitt told Convene, such as having a phone number available for participants to reach someone to talk to about conflict and discomfort over politics.
But, as Pettitt said, this and other approaches take some advanced planning. Organizers and participants facing the possibility of political conflict at their events this week can try to adopt the workplace responses suggested by Robert Kovach, Ph.D., who writes Psychology Today’s The Psychology of Work blog.
No matter the outcome of the election, many people will be disappointed, and others will be ecstatic. “My advice for those who are happy with the outcome,” Kovach wrote, “Try to be restrained. There will be four more years to enjoy the victory. Give the other side a minute.”
For those aligned with the unsuccessful candidate, he wrote, “this might be a day to consider working from home or taking a mental health day.” Maybe take the week — an immediate outcome is unlikely.
If you choose to go to work or to your event, connect with other people on shared beliefs, not differences. Those attending a professional conference may or may not share similar political views as you, so to Pettit’s point, don’t make assumptions about who you can celebrate or commiserate with.
Curt Wagner is digital editor at Convene.
RELATED
- Jess Pettitt offered three ways that meeting organizers and organizations can approach events in a politically divided world in “Navigating Political Polarization at Your Events.”
- How the systems designed by Paula Brantner, founder of Accountability Ignited, to deal with harassment can work to defuse political conflicts at events. Read “Planning for Conflict at Your Events.”
- Convene Podcast: A Conversation With Paula Brantner.