As the year closes out with a new presidential administration on the horizon in 2025, U.S. companies are seeing more political conversations, and disagreements, in their workplaces.
To address ways to manage a politically divided workforce, a Newsweek hosted the "Better Workplaces: How to Foster Inclusion and Civility" event, sponsored by the SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management). The panel discussion, part of the Newsweek Horizons event series, took place at the media company's World Trade Center headquarters on Tuesday, December 10.
Newsweek Workplaces Editor Aman Kidwai moderated the event. Participants included Stephen M. Paskoff, president and CEO of ELI; Gabriella Rosen Kellerman, MD, BetterUp's chief innovation officer and leader of BetterUp Labs; professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Dr. Kurt Gray; and Michael Franklin, the executive director of Speechwriters of Color.
Gabriella Rosen Kellerman, chief innovation officer at BetterUp, which helps companies build happier, more productive workforces, said that research by her organization has uncovered a 20 percent difference in well-being scores in people who are happy about the recent election results versus those who are unhappy.
"There's a real divergence in the human experience in the workplace based on those results," she said at the event. (Hear more in the video highlights of the event, playable at the top of this article.)
In his opening remarks, SHRM Chief Human Resources Officer Jim Link said his organization has found that workplace incivility is seen in connection to greater disagreements taking place outside of work.
"More than half of U.S. workers believe our society is uncivil and our workplaces are certainly not exempt from this trend that we're seeing," he said, available in the video clip below.
Link said he believes in the ability of workplace collaboration to drive change and find solutions to make every opinion "an opportunity, and every conversation…a catalyst for civility."
During the event, Michael Franklin used examples of federal politicians who are impacting the national conversation and how it is taking place around the watercooler.
At one point, he referenced newly elected Delaware Representative Sarah McBride, who will be the first openly transgender member of Congress, saying her election could serve as opportunity for companies to consider if they are keeping all of their employees safe. But it is two other national figures who, he said, are exemplifying civility in a politically divided nation.
"There's a very fun friendship in Congress that has been covered a little bit, but folks don't talk about it often, but it's the fact that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee are pretty good friends," Franklin explained. "They get along pretty well, yet they are polar opposites, completely don't agree on anything, and like, will often go at each other too in terms of their political beliefs. But there might be a video that Congressman Burchett is filmed leaving the capitol and sees her, and it's like, 'Have a great weekend Cortez.'"
For Franklin, their working relationship shows reveals how there are opportunities to be respectful with co-workers, even if you disagree with them.
Dr. Kurt Gray elaborated on finding common ground with others, giving an example of a recent Uber ride he took. During his trip he talked with the driver, and he found that they disagreed politically but, by the end of the trip, they had established a slight connection across their divergent world views.
Gray took issue with the driver comparing portions of the U.S. electorate to Nazi Germany.
"As soon as someone starts comparing someone to Hitler, it's like game over, right? Maybe a thing you can't take back, but because I listened to understand him, I said, 'Whoa, you cannot compare half of the country to Hitler,'" Gray explained. "And he says, 'You know what, you're right. I take it back. I didn't mean it like that. It's just hard to express my views. But thank you for listening.' So you can double down, but only if you have this base of respect and understanding by communicating."
After Tuesday night's panel discussion, Newsweek Executive Editor Jennifer Cunningham introduced a video revealing winners of the 2024 Civility Awards, which are presented by Newsweek and the Stubblefield Institute. This year's recipients, which were honored for their efforts to foster civil discourse, included several Republican and Democrat politicians as well as the philanthropist Kettering Foundation.
