It's the day after the election. Should we talk politics in the office?

Voters across the U.S. set out to the polls on Tuesday (in addition to early voting), and the predicted “blue wave” came to pass. For workers heading into the office today, many are still wondering, though, what the new balance in Congress could mean for their jobs, affordability, and the ongoing war with Iran.

Some may also be unsure about how best to interact with their colleagues, some of whom might be celebratory, upset, or uncertain. So how do workplaces — and the managers who run them — help their teams during this moment?

To discuss more is Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. He's out with a new book called “Vibe: The Secrets of Strong Connection in a Lonely World.” The following is an edited transcript of his conversation with “Marketplace Morning Report” host Kimberly Adams.

Kimberly Adams: Elections have winners and losers, and the supporters of candidates or parties that came out on different sides often have to show up together at work today. So, what are some tips to navigate that dynamic?

Adam Grant: Well, I think the first thing you want to do is recognize that most people don't want to talk about politics at work. My colleagues at BetterUp Labs have shown that about 70% of people would rather not have political discussion at all at work, and so the first thing I might do is just establish that consensus and let people know, “Hey, my sense is that the majority of us would rather not go there. Just wanted to make sure everyone's on board.”

Adams: This can be a particularly delicate time for managers. What sorts of things do they need to keep in mind on a day like today?

Grant: Well, beware of banning political discussion because that can backfire, and people will say, "Hey, you can't tell us what to do. We'll talk about what we want to." I think what managers are better off doing is just asking people how they're doing emotionally and extending an offer to be supportive if there's anything they can do.

Adams: What sorts of tools are available for managers to maybe help their team when folks are just distracted by everything that's going on?

Grant: One thing I've had a lot of fun with is just encouraging people to get in the habit of having small disagreements, so that we practice having different views without hating on each other. I think what a lot of us do is, you know, we tend to walk on eggshells. We're afraid that we might offend someone. We want to keep the peace, and so we just avoid disagreements until there's something really major that we have to talk about, and then we don't know how to do it. We haven't practiced the skills for it, and it just blows up. And so, I think managers can actually distract people by guiding them to debate about things that are easier to accept disagreement around and hopefully begin building the muscle to have tougher disagreements.

Adams: Let's say you have a colleague at work who you can see is having big feelings about the outcome of the election; maybe you don't want to talk politics with them, but what's a good way to check on them?

Grant: The best response I've ever seen to a situation like this actually came from a manager who said to a whole team, "It's OK to call in sick. It's also OK to call in sad." And I think that's a message that obviously I would look to managers to deliver. But there's no reason why colleagues can't reinforce it. I think it's pretty easy to say to a coworker, "Hey, I noticed that you seem stressed." It's called “emotional acknowledgement,” literally labeling what you see other people feeling and then asking how they're doing. What you're telling them is not only am I paying attention to what you're going through, but I'm here for you.

And I think just one cautionary note on this: Sometimes people make the mistake of crossing the line from empathizing with a colleague to getting enmeshed in their problems. Empathizing is about noticing somebody else's feelings and then responding with compassion. Enmeshment is where you start to feel their feelings, and then begin drowning in their pain, and you're not in a good position to help them. But you've also put yourself in a position of despair, and so I think it's perfectly acceptable and even constructive to just say, "Hey, I see you. I'm here for you."