Master Sgt. Culeen Shaffer/Shutterstock.com

Politics is Distracting American Workers and May Be Killing U.S. Productivity

There is a real, measurable cost to the drumbeat of disturbing news coming out of Washington.

America’s national obsession with White House revelations tumbling out on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis appears to be sapping productivity.

We’ve had survey data for a while to suggest a hit on US productivity was coming. A February survey commissioned by goal-tracking software BetterWorks found almost a third of American workers reported lower productivity at work since the 2016 election. The survey of 500 full-time workers found about half had engaged in political arguments at work and 87% were reading political social-media posts on the clock. A second survey by the American Psychological Association (pdf) in September found one in four US employees were negatively affected by political talk at work, with those under the age of 34 particularly hard hit.

It’s finally seems to have taken a toll. The Labor Department reported the first productivity data since the November election on May 4. Although economists had been expecting a 1.3% growth rate during the first quarter, productivity (hourly output per non-farm worker) actually fell to -0.6%.

Productivity figures bounce around, so it’s too early to draw a definitive line to political distractions, but management consultant Bill Catlette, former head of human resources at FedEx, isn’t surprised. He blames the political turmoil he sees at workplaces around the country.”The workforce is more disengaged and distracted than it ever has in my lifetime,” he said told Quartz.

Catlette is now advising executives dealing with political angst invading the workplace from both conservatives and liberals. While everything from inefficient managerial structures to legalized marijuana can affect productivity, politics has shot up the ladder of concerns. “It’s beyond distraction,” he said. “It’s dysfunctional.”

The chaos that surrounded Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has only been amplified during his time in the White House. Rocked by a nearly continuous specter of scandal, the administration now faces a special counsel investigating possible improper contacts with Russian officials. And now that political turmoil is seeping into everyday American life in a deeply divisive way.

For HR departments, it feels like a siege. One consultant described it as having the March Madness basketball tournament on all the time, while another is struggling to manage the news notifications flooding employees’ phones. “People are not just concerned about the future of their jobs,” one technology executive told the Washington Post. “They’re concerned about the future of their country. It’s a very difficult environment under which you’re expected to produce creative and innovative ideas. It is a constant, constant topic.”

Don’t expect this atmosphere to go away anytime soon. Even if Trump doesn’t win a second term—or finish his first one—America’s hyper-partisan landscape is still intensifying, according to data (pdf) from the Pew Research Center. Anger at the other side of the political divide hit all-time highs last year, with 45% of Republicans and 41% of Democrats saying the other side was dangerous enough to threaten the health of the nation.

Partisanship, argues Pew, is now a powerful social identity bleeding into all other aspects of our lives, from marriage to the workplace. In a series of experiments, Pew researchers asked participants’ willingness to work for bosses of the same political party as well as take money on the condition that a donation would be made to a group with opposing political views. In both cases, Americans were willing to make themselves significantly worse off in order to align their politics with financial decisions.

That may prove to be further bad news for labor productivity, which has averaged an annualized growth rate of 1.1% since the end of 2007,according to the Bureau of Labor (pdf). That’s a historic low. No one is quite sure what’s driving the steady erosion of American productivity and, consequently, living standards. A politicized workplace surely isn’t helping.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.