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For many people, the 2024 U.S. presidential election feels like déjà vu, riddled with stress and anxiety. The American Psychological Association reported that the 2016 election was a “very or somewhat significant source of stress” for 52 percent of American adults. Eight years later, election anxiety has not subsided—it’s grown worse. This year, the American Psychiatric Association’s annual mental health poll reported that 43 percent of adults are feeling more anxious than they did the previous year, with 73 percent of adults citing the 2024 U.S. election as a source of their stress.
Organizational culture is expected to shift dramatically due to the rise of election anxiety. For example, the Society for Human Resources Management reported in March that “one-third of U.S. workers believe workplace conflict will increase over the next 12 months.” Workplace conflict can result in uncivil workplace behaviors—like addressing people disrespectfully—becoming normalized, causing harm to employee well-being. This erodes psychological safety and creates barriers to “authentic self-expression” in the workplace.
The resulting impacts on employee well-being are high for individuals with minoritized identities. Minoritized individuals are likely to experience higher amounts of election stress. Already feeling pressure to code-switch or change behaviors and language to fit into the dominant workplace culture, minoritized employees are also the most vulnerable to experiencing unique well-being challenges in the workplace. Moreover, recent legislation directly affects the lives of women, the LGBTQ+ community and immigrants in negative ways.
With a strong need to focus on workplace mental health and well-being, higher education institutions and other organizations must prepare for the impacts of the election in the workplace and its toll on employee well-being, regardless of political affiliations. How can higher education institutions responsibly prioritize employee well-being for all employees during an election year? As diversity, equity and inclusion professionals who use trauma-informed approaches for workplaces, we offer strategies and practices to support employee well-being during an election year. With thoughtful reflection, planning and action, higher education institutions can continue to cultivate supportive workplace environments.
Acknowledge Uncertainty by Leaning Into Your Values
When navigating uncertainty, organizations and their leaders might attempt to remain adaptive by taking a “wait and see” approach to election results or avoiding the issue altogether. However, this approach may cause additional stress for minoritized employees who already feel ignored and invisible during this election cycle. Acknowledging uncertainty without overpromising or practicing toxic positivity is a vital first step for trauma-informed organizations to help reduce employee stress.
To do so authentically, we encourage leaders to reflect on how values like transparency, trust and vulnerability might support employee well-being during uncertainty. Leaning into these values can offer creative approaches that center employee experiences. For example, leaders can practice open and frequent communication as an approach to establishing trust and, in turn, demonstrate their care for all employees by sharing their own struggles and stories.
Support Minoritized Employees by Centering Their Voices and Well-Being
With the Pew Research Center recently reporting that 87 percent of voters support open discussions about mental health, trauma-informed workplaces must proactively support and center employee well-being by prioritizing the mental health of minoritized employees. This is essential because minoritized employees are more vulnerable to experiencing workplace traumas. Centering the voices of minoritized employees allows leaders in the institution to co-create spaces in an inclusive and supportive manner.
For example, offering restorative justice–based community circles to process how social injustices, tragedies and the upcoming election impact the workplace can allow minoritized employees to practice vulnerability and community healing. When possible, we strongly encourage collaborating with your institution’s employee resource groups. This practice can also cultivate safe spaces for minoritized employees who may feel anxious to share with their supervisor or team how these issues affect them at work. Community circles can be coupled with sharing internal resources in easy-to-navigate ways, like mental health–focused employee assistance programs, so employees know what support benefits are available.
Cultivate Trust by Building Coalitions
Uncertainty, like not knowing the result of an election, brings new challenges and unexpected situations. To navigate uncertainty, leaders can adopt a shared equity leadership model to create “culture change by connecting individual and organizational transformation” in service of employee well-being. Shared equity leadership allows individuals to reflect on the personal, collective and institutional work necessary to create organizational change while reducing the emotional labor placed on minoritized employees to drive these changes. Reconnecting with individual and institutional values, shared equity leadership allows everyone to understand their roles in creating social change within an organization.
Using this model to implement one or two positive changes could result in a strong impact on employees, especially during an election year. For example, coalition building during the COVID-19 pandemic led to accelerated pivots toward flexible remote work. The flexibility of remote work had a profoundly positive impact on employee well-being that we continue to see today, especially for Black employees and neurodivergent and disabled employees. During periods of high stress and uncertainty, as in an election year, workplaces can lean back into these practices that can reduce employee workloads by offering flexibility with deadlines and work hours while also developing policies that allow for employees to use sick time to prioritize their mental health. Remaining agile while prioritizing employee well-being is essential for organizations as unpredictable events arise.
Conclusion
Though it is impossible to eliminate election stress and anxiety, higher education institutions can take a proactive approach without predicting every election scenario. Showing commitment by addressing the uncertainty, rather than postponing or avoiding it, demonstrates to employees that they matter. Higher education institutions can take action-oriented approaches to prioritize employee well-being by acknowledging the situation, supporting and centering minoritized employee needs and building trust through coalitions. Taken collectively, these strategies use a trauma-informed approach to create a more supportive workplace environment during the stress of an election.
