Unlock Editor’s Digest for free

FT editor Roula Khalaf selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

US employers are monitoring staff social media posts, issuing guidelines for office political conversations and asking workers to remain civil as they brace for an uptick in workplace conflict ahead of today’s presidential election.

Business leaders fear political unrest could spill over into their offices amid the contentious feud between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

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

Reports of workplace incivility hit record highs in the third quarter after rising throughout the year as the election neared, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, an HR trade association. The incidents cost companies $2.17 billion in lost productivity each day, it found.

HR leaders’ concerns are fueled by POLL showing that Tuesday’s election is one of the closest races in modern US history. Election administrators also warned it could take days to find out who won because of high vote-by-mail rates, prolonging the upheaval.

In anticipation, some employers have taken preemptive measures to stop political disagreements from damaging labor relations. Kate Duchene, chief executive of consulting firm RGP, sent an email to staff with instructions on how to “remain respectful” in hopes of avoiding “a war of words” on Wednesday.

Some RGP clients planned to address the election in hands-on meetings earlier in the week to remind employees to avoid debating campaign issues and being distracted by news coverage.

“My bet is everybody says it’s work,” Duchene added.

Other firms train both executives and team leaders on how to facilitate difficult 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, have signed a pledge pledging to give staff two hours of paid time off to go to the polls. The pledge, organized by the nonpartisan 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 clothing brand Patagonia, which has long closed its stores, warehouses and offices on Election Day, closed last Tuesday instead for “Vote Early.”

Past elections show that employers hoping to manage the political conversation 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 on the company’s communication channels in 2021, and a third of its employees resigned in protest.

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

Some employers are also considering discouraging staff from posting on social media before the election, labor law firm Littler Mendelson said, after posts about the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks led to conflicts, firings and discrimination processes. Controversial employee posts can damage brand reputation and expose companies to accusations of discrimination and harassment, the firm added.

The companies’ efforts to defuse the growing tensions come as executives themselves have remained largely quiet about the election. Management consultants say executives are trying to avoid a repeat of the turmoil that followed the last presidential election and when the Israel-Hamas war began last year.

“In the last four or five years, since George Floyd was killed, (political tension in the office) has become the new normal,” Venkateswar said.

However, business leaders remain concerned about the impact on employees, team relations and productivity, especially as today’s election follows an unusually turbulent campaign cycle.

In addition to the divisive rhetoric and strong political disagreement, the past few months have seen two assassination attempts on Trump and President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race. These events have caused 44 percent of employers to be concerned about the election’s impact on the workplace, even before the ballots are counted, according to Burson.

“The only thing in our favor is people are ready for this to end,” Duchene said.