US employers seek to defuse election conflict with warnings to staff

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US employers are monitoring staff social media posts, issuing guidelines for office political conversations and asking workers to remain civil as they brace for a surge in workplace conflicts ahead of the presidential election today.

Business leaders fear political turmoil could spill over into their offices amid the contentious contest between vice-president Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump.

More than four in five US employers are concerned about how the election will disrupt their workplaces, according to a survey of private sector employers by public relations firm Burson.

Reports of incivility in the workplace reached all time highs in the third quarter after rising all year as the election approached, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, a HR professional association. The incidents cost businesses $2.17bn in lost productivity each day, it found.

Human resources leaders’ concerns are fuelled by polling showing that Tuesday’s election is one of the tightest races in modern US history. Election administrators have also warned that it may take days to learn who won due to elevated rates of mail voting, prolonging the commotion.

In anticipation, some employers have taken pre-emptive steps to stop political disagreements damaging working relationships. Kate Duchene, chief executive of consulting firm RGP, sent an email to staff with guidelines on how to “remain respectful” in hopes of avoiding “a war of words” on Wednesday.

Some RGP clients have planned to address the election in all-hands meetings at the beginning of the week, to remind employees to avoid debating campaign issues and getting distracted by news coverage. 

“My bet is that everyone is saying that there is work to do,” Duchene added.

Other firms are training both executives and team leaders on how to facilitate tough conversations, said Shyama Venkateswar, senior director at diversity, equity and inclusion consultancy Seramount.

A growing number of companies are also giving workers paid time off to vote and encouraging them to do so early. Some 2,020 companies including Bank of America, Deloitte, Coca-Cola and Visa signed a pledge committing to giving staff two hours of paid leave to go to the polls. The pledge, organised by non-partisan coalition Time to Vote, had 1,910 signatories in 2020.

Executives are betting that “Tuesday won’t feel so acute” if employees cast their ballots days earlier, Duchene said. Outdoor apparel brand Patagonia, which has long closed its stores, warehouses and office on election day, shuttered last Tuesday instead for “Vote Early Day.” 

Previous elections show employers hoping to manage political talk must strike a delicate balance. After 2020, some companies including Coinbase and Google angered employees by banning political conversations in the workplace altogether.

Project management platform Basecamp banned staff from talking politics in company communication channels in 2021, and a third of its employees quit in protest.

Annie Rosencrans, people and culture director at HR software maker HiBob, said her firm’s research indicated the slowing labour market made employees less likely to resign over this election, with 60 per cent of workers saying that they would not quit because they opposed a company’s political stance.

Some employers are also considering discouraging staff from posting on social media ahead of the election, said employment law firm Littler Mendelson, after posts on Hamas’s October 7 attacks resulted in conflicts, firings and discrimination lawsuits. Controversial posts by employees can damage brand reputations and expose companies to discrimination and harassment claims, the firm added.

Companies’ efforts to defuse mounting tensions come as executives themselves have largely remained quiet on the election. Management consultants say executives are trying to avoid a repeat of the uproar that occurred after the last presidential election, and when the Israel-Hamas war began last year.

“In the last four or five years, ever since George Floyd was murdered, [political tension in the office] has become the new normal,” Venkateswar said.

Still, business leaders remain concerned about the toll on workers, team relationships and productivity, particularly given that today’s election follows an unusually turbulent campaign cycle.

As well as divisive rhetoric and sharp policy disagreement, recent months have seen two assassination attempts on Trump and President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race. These events made 44 per cent of employers concerned about the election’s impact on their workplace, even before the ballots are counted, according to Burson.

“The one thing in our favour is that people are ready for this to be over,” Duchene said.