“This should be mailed to every leadership team and HR leader in the country. To many, this is an election. To our LGBTQ+ folks, it’s trauma on trauma.”
A connection of mine on LinkedIn commented that on a post I created about how employers can support their LGBTQ+ employees during election season. I can’t help but agree. Not only because I wrote the post with leadership teams and HR leaders in mind, but because I’ve never received any kind of support during election season while at work. As an openly queer, nonbinary, transgender, biracial person, I could use it. And I know many others can too.
Election season is polarizing for everyone, but when your human rights are constantly being debated, it can feel like getting hit in the head with a tennis racket every time you open your phone or turn on the TV.
We spend so much of our lives at work, and the work doesn’t halt just because we have an election coming up in a few months. We are expected to perform our job responsibilities while holding ourselves together amidst daily trauma. We need support.
Here are some ways employers can support their LGBTQ+ employees during election season:
- Offer flexibility, grace, and space. We might not always be able to show up as our best selves during this time, and that needs to be okay. Allow us to show up as we are, give us permission to have our cameras off, or to work from home when we need to, no questions asked.
- Respect boundaries on talking about the election or election-related news. Don’t start meetings with small talk about the headlines or the clip you just saw on social media; we all need a break from the emotional turmoil.
- Limit meetings the week of the election or allow us to flex time off. This goes for everyone! It will be an emotionally charged week, no matter the outcome.
- Provide additional supports through your benefits package — guided meditations, apps, and mental health support that help your employees disconnect from all that is going on in the world right now. We all need a break.
- Share access to resources and tips on how to work through election anxiety — election anxiety is real! We need resources on how to work through those feelings.
- Engage in active listening. There is almost nothing worse than pouring your heart out to someone about heavy feelings and realizing the person wasn’t paying attention. Check in with your employees with intention!
- Educate yourself on what is at stake for LGBTQ+ people in this election. Just because you aren’t in the LGBTQ+ community doesn’t mean you shouldn’t understand exactly who and what you’re voting for.
- Provide processing spaces within affinity groups and ERGs. Many of us don’t have anywhere to put these feelings, and we may need space to talk to people who share our identities.
Very few of these options cost money. Many of them apply to anyone, including folks outside of the LGBTQ+ community. It takes very little effort or energy to listen and offer support to someone who needs it.
