Election Stress and Employee Productivity: What Leaders Can Do

I have been the CEO of a startup during several US elections. But the one that remains the most salient was 2016. After one of the longest nights of my life, I had to get up, go into the office, and deal with my team’s shock, dismay and frustration at Trump’s win. To be fair, as CEO we have to deal with a lot of challenges: layoffs, lawsuits, customer defections, Apple “Sherlocking” you, and negative press - just to name a few. So it’s not a crazy cross for me to bear. But I realized that I was entirely unprepared - and blithely distracted from - the major impact that election had on my people.

Over the years since, I’ve worked with many companies on culture issues, especially around friendship, internal relationships and engagement. What I’ve learned is this:

Your employees are stressed about this election. It is going to affect their productivity, engagement and happiness from now until November. For some, the stress will persist beyond that date depending on their affiliation and who wins. 

You are probably not ready.

If you’re just now thinking about this issue, we are less than 130 days from the election. But if you haven’t put plans in place for dealing with the stress and fallout from November, there’s no time like the present. Here are my three main suggestions for quick wins you can enact now.

1. Be Realistic

While your company culture might be “politics-free” the rest of your staff’s world is not. This is especially true if they work remotely, where their center of cultural gravity is likely the “real world” wherever they live. When they are not working, their social media, news and TV feeds are undoubtedly full of politics. Ignoring the dumpster fire happening outside the office window doesn’t make it any less distracting. 

I recommend having leadership adopt a unified acknowledgement of the political reality. Something like this, used by one of my clients:

“Hey, we know that there’s a lot of stress and noise happening with the election. We understand that you might be engaged with the process, and we’re glad you’re doing your duty as citizens and participating. While we won’t be taking an official position on the election, we do want to create space for you to engage with your colleagues that isn’t about canvassing or trying to persuade - rather just to vent and discuss. If you think it’s valuable, we’re happy to support a group or chat for each political group to connect. Again, this is not an opportunity to persuade others or to use company time for advocacy but rather a chance to communicate with each other.”

You can further acknowledge the reality with several additional offers from EAP, leadership, the mentor groups or ERGs to create opportunities for folks to vent, engage and receive support. Yes, you can mention the election directly.

2. Provide Wellness Support

The major cost of the election for your staff is stress, and the major cost to your business is lost time, engagement and focus. If your employee population is large enough, this will also result in some absenteeism and potential health costs, as stress is a powerful driver of health outcomes.

If you have a wellness program, this is a great time to deploy those resources in favor of providing stress support. You can name the election specifically or just discuss the stress of life, and offer some additional wellness options. In particular, I recommend scheduling some wellness options around key events:

1. The Debates

2. The Conventions

3. November

4. Election Day

5. Swearing In

From a health and wellness standpoint, you should treat this like a major business disruption that you know is coming in advance (if only that was more common!). And remember, the stress background here includes other workplace issues like the lack of connection in remote work, the rise of AI and economic instability. In short, it’s a stressful time to be a worker in the US, and this election isn’t going to help.

3. Weds Nov 6th Holiday or Assembly

If it’s feasible, I recommend making the day after the election a “soft” holiday. You can either give staff the day off entirely, let them work from home, or invite leadership to deprioritize major meetings on election day and the day after. If your organization is already Friend Forward, it is possible that your staff will welcome the opportunity to engage with each other on the 7th for support and camaraderie. But in most cases, team members will want to celebrate or mourn the events of the night before with their family and close friends, after a possible late night. 

In my experience, productivity that day can be as low as the Friday after Thanksgiving. Many smart companies have simply chosen to “take the win” and accept that Friday as a holiday. The day after a fraught election demands a similar thought process.

Whether you do decide to offer a day off or just a soft start, I recommend having an official statement by leadership ready to deliver. An all-hands that Thursday or a digital communique would be ideal. This statement ought to be anodyne, but supportive and highlight the company’s stability while encouraging the team to throw themselves into their work going forward as a way to celebrate or cope. 

This is an opportunity for you to position the company as a “rock” of stability in a world that’s getting more complex by the minute, and a chance for you to earn some loyalty. Take it. 

4. Remember the Other Side

While you think you might know your team’s political affiliation, don’t be so sure. Polls show a scrambling of political alignment in this election like never before, and many of your remote workers may not be who you think they are. Moreover, US presidential elections are generally extremely close, meaning even if your company has a likely political leaning (based in SF, learning focused, diverse group) - some percentage of your employees are going to be devastated on November 7. They may not be who you think they are, and they may view things differently than you do, but they will be very very upset. 

In Conclusion

I wish our elections were not this fraught, and I personally have a commitment to working to bring more centrist stability to our political environment. But until saner heads prevail, we are stuck with a US political cycle that is caustic to our shared values and damaging to employees everywhere. Social media and journalism leans in heavily during elections to generate traffic and revenue - it’s their Black Friday after all. As leaders, we need to be mindful of the opportunities and threats this presents.

We can get ahead of the problem, support our teams and build loyalty for our realistic and collaborative approach. The time to start on this is now.

Feel free to reach out and let me know if I can be helpful. 

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This post was written without AI.