Navigating politics in the office can be tricky—especially during a U.S. election cycle that has been deeply polarizing. But now it’s crunch time, and leaders need to act accordingly.
Managers and HR are often tasked with leading through tense situations and world events. With the U.S. presidential election only one day away, tensions are bubbling to the surface, but there are some surefire ways to guide employees through the storm.
Fortune spoke with workplace professionals and people management executives to get to the bottom of the best strategies to lead through this year’s election. While they agree there isn’t a one-size-fits all approach, there are a few key methods to diffuse anxiety and conflict among workers. Experts say that leaders should stay neutral, set clear expectations around discussing politics at work, allow flexibility the week of the election, check in on staffers’ mental health, and maybe even set up a group activity to promote togetherness.
“There's a heightened sense of anxiety in this particular election,” Kurt Jeskulski, the U.S. regional managing director for Page Group, a recruitment services company, tells Fortune. “Everybody’s a little bit paralyzed waiting to see what's going to happen. So let’s remind people to be respectful in the workplace, and it's really important that our people feel safe.”
Managers should stay neutral
Experts that Fortune spoke with agree that managers and HR leaders should avoid picking sides when it comes to the election. While employees may chatter about the candidates and who they’re hoping will win, higher-ups should refrain from taking any sides due to their relative power status at the company.
“Managers should try to stay neutral, because they have influence in those roles,” Jeskulski says. “You're going to have some employees that feel they need to be aligned with what [leadership’s] political view is.”
If bosses do endorse a candidate, or are brazen about who they’re rooting for, it could cause lower-level employees to conform to their beliefs out of fear, Joe Galvin, chief research officer at Vistage, tells Fortune. “If you disagree with your boss, are you going to be denied promotions? Are you going to be denied the good projects? Is it going to impact your relationship?”
Overall, experts contend the best course of action is for managers and bosses to hear out their employees with empathy.
“Now is the time to listen,” Jeskulski says. “If you're willing to listen and show that you care, that's all people want.”
Set up a group activity
Experts tell Fortune another way to decompress amid a tense election cycle is to bring workers together in a positive way. Lupiani suggests that managers leading with empathy, sensitivity, and kindness should strategize a group activity to drive home that culture of connectivity.
“As a manager, you can build in time on the day of the election for people to practice mindfulness and togetherness,” she says. Guided meditation or a themed event that staffers can get creative with are both examples of activities. “Everybody will be tense, there will be very high emotions. Anything to bring people together in a de-stressed manner would be highly advisable.” she says.
Set clear expectations
If HR leaders haven’t already set an expectation on how to discuss politics in the workplace, then they should immediately have an all-hands meeting or send out an email to reiterate company policies.
“If you have not communicated around that yet, the first step is to send an all staff email. And the next step is to communicate directly with your leaders and management to make those expectations explicitly clear,” Natalie Lupiani, VP at BSG, a consulting firm, tells Fortune.
Once the election results come in, there is also a possibility that some staffers will brag about their candidate’s win in a way that makes their colleagues feel uneasy. In this case, HR should step in.
“If you're faced with the problem where you've got an exuberant celebration that's making other people uncomfortable, you do have to address [the policies] again with empathy and kindness,” Lupiani says. “You do have to pull that person aside and remind them that their actions have an impact on the people around them, and they have to be conscious and sensitive to other people's feelings as well.”
Allow employees flexibility
Business leaders should allow increased scheduled flexibility the week of the election.
“For starters, everybody should have the right to take off for several hours to go vote. That puts some people's minds at ease,” Jeskulski says.
And while some companies offer employees part or all of the election day off to go vote, they should also consider the fact that workers may need time to take care of themselves mentally. Lupiani says that employers can show they care by giving workers in distress time off to relax. She points out that this isn’t a ubiquitous practice among employers, but that it should be.
“I personally think it should be commonplace to allow folks to take time off to process their emotions when they're in a crisis state,” she says. “My recommendation is to be very lenient in how you apply your time off policies related to this kind of significant event.”
Check in on mental health
At the end of the day, the emotional security of staffers should come first. Politics can weigh heavily on people’s mental health—about 77% of Americans are stressed about the future of the country, and 69% are anxious about the 2024 presidential election specifically, according to a recent poll from the American Psychological Association.
“The election is responsible for increasing loneliness in American workers across industries, across sectors,” says Lupiani. “And that frequency of how often they’re feeling lonely at work because of the election is higher. Leadership needs to play a very strong role in this.”
Galvin adds that this anxiety and poor mental health is likely to reverberate for quite some time following Tuesday—after all, final election results have prolonged for days in the past. So it’s important for managers and HR leaders to stand firm in their strategies, and cultivate the best possible workplace environment for the entire week.
“It’s unlikely we'll have a clear victor on Tuesday night, like the last election. It's likely going to drag out,” Galvin says. “The anxiety you'll feel on election day, that's only going to grow and scale the longer this plays out. There's a whole world that's vibrating on this, and we need to leave that outside, and come into work focused on being better as an organization.”
