Election season in the workplace – what companies can contribute

The next presidential election is 63 days away. And it feels inescapable – social media, front lawn signs, tv commercials, mailers, you name the medium and candidates are using it.

As an enthusiastic policy nerd, I’m invested in following the twists and turns of the season. But not everybody treats elections like the latest prestige drama. According to various early 2024 studies, roughly two-thirds of Americans are:

• Stressed about the current political climate (APA)

•  Always/often exhausted when thinking about politics (Pew Research)

• Likely to vote anyway, if 2020’s 66.8% turnout is any indication (Census.gov)

Even though most workplaces aren’t political, when something is this omnipresent, employees can’t just “leave it at the door.” A February Gallup survey reported that almost half of American employees have conversations about politics at work (and this was before the assassination attempt and candidate change).

And, as we all know, politics at work has the potential to be tricky. Civic Alliance, a nonprofit, pro-democracy business coalition, states that political polarization can contribute to avoidance behaviors on teams, employee alienation, and lower job satisfaction. So, a lot of companies find themselves in a hard place.

It might be easier for HR if “voting” or “democracy” were four-letter words, but they are not.  Organizations have a role in encouraging active civic participation and fostering respectful conversations among colleagues with differing perspectives.

Luckily, there are actually a lot of interesting, tangible resources out there for what civic engagement and civil dialogue can look like in the workplace. I think about an organization’s potential role in three tiers:

• Election educator: provide election information, send reminders, and allow space for voting on election days. Some ideas include:

  • Encouraging people to register at their new addresses when they’ve notified HR that they’ve moved

  • Scheduling Slack messages with important dates (e.g., primaries, windows for early or absentee voting)

  • Having a “no-meeting” day on election day so that everyone has the time to vote

  • + See the Civic Alliance Elections Toolkit for more ideas

• Democracy promoter: actively provide resources and/or compensation for civic engagement. This could include:

  • Providing paid time off to vote or be a nonpartisan poll worker

  • Running a voter registration drive or donating facilities as a polling place

  • Advocating for voting access or running an external-facing civic campaign

  • + See NationSwell’s Civics Inc. Report for more info

• Civility leader: encourage thoughtful conversations among colleagues with differing views (who want to participate). This could include:

  • Addressing false polarization to lessen perceptions of extreme differences in opinion that may not actually exist among colleagues

  • Training colleagues in conversational receptiveness techniques to increase their ability to navigate complex conversations (Civic Alliance’s Employer Guide to Bridge-Building)

  • Hosting a “civil conversation” to practice discussing controversial, but lower stakes topics like “is Taylor Swift overrated” (Rising Team has a free tool to make this easy)

Not every company is going to feel comfortable at every tier. But every organization can do something. Companies are little communities and communities operate better when everyone’s voices are heard.  

Thanks for reading,

Shannon

P.S. yes, that is my cat, Gazpacho, rocking an “I voted” sticker in 2018