As Political Tensions in the Workplace Ramp Up, Experts Call for Action on Civility

Incivility is already a big workplace issue, causing problems for both employees and employers.

But as the November presidential election nears—along with the political tensions, contentions, and disagreements that go along with it—many employers are preparing for things to get worse.

“As the campaigns crescendo over the next few months, there is potential for incivility and political tensions in the workplace to also increase and intensify,” says Vicki Salemi, career expert at jobs site Monster.

That’s already starting to show up in the data.

SHRM’s latest Civility Index, released Aug. 7, found that U.S. workers encountered more uncivil acts in their everyday lives now than they did three months ago, with more than 201 million acts of incivility per day in everyday life in August, up from 171 million per day in May. On average, U.S. workers personally experienced or witnessed more than one act of incivility in their everyday lives per day (average of 1.22), or more than eight per week (average of 8.51 per week).

The Index gauges how often people say they have experienced or witnessed uncivil behavior both in their workplace and in their everyday life and rates civility scores on a 100-point scale (0 being incivility never occurs, and 100 being incivility almost always occurs). SHRM found that the workplace-level Civility Index score dropped slightly to 36.3 (down 1.2 points from May), while the societal-level Civility Index (in and out of work) score rose to 45.6 (from 42.3 in May).

“With this year being an election year in the U.S., we anticipated incivility to be on the rise given the likely heated nature of politics,” says SHRM Senior Researcher Derrick Scheetz. “We believe that we are seeing this prediction begin to play out in the data.”

The acts of incivility experienced or witnessed by U.S. workers both at work and in their everyday lives are often influenced by differences of opinion on politics, according to SHRM’s Civility Index.

That’s not surprising, says Edward J. Beltran, CEO of global leadership development and training company Fierce.

“The current social and political climate, marked by heightened tensions and divisive rhetoric, is geared toward eliciting an emotional response. We don’t separate our lives into neat compartments where work is one compartment and private life is another,” he explains. “Political turmoil and societal divisions spill over into professional environments, affecting behavior and interactions. As a result, employees bring these heightened emotions and reduced patience into the workplace, leading to more frequent uncivil interactions.”

Elections are often contentious, says Richard Birke, chief architect of JAMS Pathways, a conflict resolution firm that works with employers. But factors such as social media—in which people can easily post and spread statements or share content that may make others uncomfortable—are exacerbating political tensions.

“Political tension is not new, but it’s new in intensity,” Birke says. “Social media is a personalized echo chamber, and the reliance on social media for feeling connected to the world has made face-to-face interaction more difficult for people.”

Combine that with recent and dramatic developments in U.S. politics—including the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in July, the calls for President Joe Biden to stop seeking re-election, and the subsequent nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate for president—and strong opinions about politics seem nearly impossible to avoid.

Are employers prepared for exacerbated political tensions and incivility in the workplace? Not enough, experts say.

“There’s opportunity for improvement for employers to recognize political tensions and incivility in the office,” Salemi says.

Birke agrees. “It doesn’t matter what storm I saw coming—I’d want to prepare for it,” he says. “Employers should absolutely prepare for a heightening of issues in the next several months.”

Beltran adds that if a company does nothing to address this issue, the data “would show the trend won’t stop; instead, uncivil workplace behavior could likely worsen.”

“Especially as we get closer, employees may become more vocal about their political beliefs,” he says. “If employees and organizations don’t have a game plan or their culture is already toxic, these heightened emotions will drive polarizing opinions and uncivil behavior.”

Reasons for Employer Action

Taking action isn’t just the right thing to do—it also makes good business sense. For some employees, constant exposure to political drama may lead to emotional distractions, decreased productivity, lower morale, and higher absenteeism, while interpersonal conflicts can strain relationships and reduce teamwork, Beltran says.

SHRM’s latest Civility Index found that U.S. organizations collectively lose more than $1.2 billion in reduced productivity per day due to uncivil behavior at work and $828 million per day due to absenteeism caused by incivility. (Calculations are based on a number of figures, including the average number of workers, an average pay rate of $32.67 per hour, and the total number of collective acts of incivility occurring in the workplace each day.)

According to the Index, workers who experienced or witnessed incivility at work reported an average productivity loss of approximately 31 minutes per occurrence, while incivility is causing others to intentionally avoid the workplace altogether. The data shows that all workers, including those who did not experience or witness incivility at work, reported intentionally staying away from work an average of 0.61 days over the past month to avoid incivility. Workers who said they personally experienced or witnessed incivility while at work intentionally took an average of 1.5 days away from work over the past month due to the problem.

And, according to a July poll from Monster, about half of workers (51%) said they would consider leaving their job if their company openly expressed political beliefs that they disagreed with.  

“It’s important for employers to realize politics at work can impact retention,” Salemi says. “It can also impact the recruiting life cycle if job seekers hear politics being talked about during interviews. They may wonder if the company culture includes political talk that may get heated and divisive.”

Clear Policies Can Reduce Tensions

There are several tactics employers can, and should, employ to minimize political tensions in the coming weeks, experts say.

One of the best first steps employers can take is to “implement clear policies for respectful behavior and political discussions that align expectations across the organization,” Beltran says.

One such move is prohibiting political clothing and paraphernalia in offices. Barring employees from wearing attire or displaying items that directly or indirectly support a particular candidate may “minimize the emotional heat that is often an unintentional consequence of political expression,” says Karina Sterman, employment partner at Greenberg Glusker in Los Angeles.

Similar to how they may send a dress code reminder to everyone in April or May in preparation for the summer months, employers can issue a reminder now about political paraphernalia, Salemi says.

“It’s not too soon to prepare a statement, communicate it—in an email, conversations with managers to their teams, and part of an all-hands meeting or town hall—and truly live it,” she says. “It applies to everyone in the organization. They can include ramifications if they’re not adhered to so people recognize the consequences. Perhaps one red flag is a warning, and the second one goes in their performance review for poor behavior.”

Employers may also want to offer guidance regarding political conversations in the workplace.

In general, most employees prefer that politics do not play a big role in the workplace. The Monster poll found that 68% of workers are not comfortable discussing politics at work. While 64% of workers say they respect their co-workers’ rights to their political beliefs without passing any judgment, 33% say they have judged co-workers negatively based on their political beliefs.

Although it’s nearly impossible to ban all conversations about everything political, employers can set and communicate guidelines and best practices to steer employees in the right direction.

Salemi says organizations can foster a healthy environment by providing employees with pointers on how to react if a political discussion comes up, such as walking away, pivoting to a different subject, or even addressing it directly. “[They can say,] ‘I don’t want to talk about politics, this makes me uncomfortable, but I’d love to hear about your vacation,’ ” she says.

That rule of thumb should apply not only to workplace conversations in a conference room if people are making small talk before a meeting, but also at the watercooler or during lunchtime. And the policy also should extend outside of internal teams to clients or vendors, Salemi says.

“Conversation is going to happen,” Birke says. “The important thing is to be aware that these conversations are going to happen, then figuring out what your company stance or policy will be on it.”

Modeling Behavior Starts at the Top

Managers, company executives, and other leaders should model the behavior they want to see their employees exhibit, Birke says.

Beltran agrees, saying that having leaders focus on self-awareness is critical for promoting civility and inclusion amid political tensions.

“Company leaders must first examine their behavior and stress triggers around this topic and ensure they manage their emotions,” he explains. “If they are getting triggered and spiking a stress response around a political conversation, [they should] analyze the situation and assess what might be at the root of their emotional reaction.”

Another good tactic for company leaders is reminding employees about the company’s mission. Keep coming back to that if there are too many personal or political conversations happening, Birke says.

“Every organization has a mission, and that mission should transcend everything else,” he says. “A good supervisor can find a way to gently remind, reinforce, and make clear that that always matters. That’s what can bring employees together.”

Company and HR leaders overall will want to pay close attention to how things are looking in the office: Is there a lot of conflict? Are people having tense conversations? Are they getting aggressive? Being disrespectful? If things are appearing too heated among workers, employers may want to bring in experts, such as workplace conflict leaders, to offer training, education, and other support on working through conflict and learning how to respectfully disagree with others.

“If things are percolating, bringing in outside sources to facilitate conversations about how to improve work performance, get you back on mission, and identify what’s going on is important,” Birke says. “You want to address a problem before it gets even more difficult to solve.”