In a few weeks, we will hold an inauguration ceremony for President Donald Trump in the U.S. To be very clear, SIOP is an international and nonpartisan organization, and TIP is an international and nonpartisan publication. The views in this column are my own, and the views presented by editorial columnists are their own. Yet, regardless of nationality or political affiliation, a Trump presidency affects all scientists and practitioners of I-O psychology, and it is worth reflecting on how to make sense of the next 4 years at this moment of unbelievable upheaval. What’s more, we can reflect on what our field can do to help understand and direct what happens next.

If you’re like me, the 2016 election couldn’t end fast enough—the media coverage was exhausting, social media was a battlefield, and the amount of tension was palpable in the air. I say this as a faculty member working at a university that is a blue dot in a red state. I knew that among my students—many of whom were voting in their first election—there were differences of opinions, and that sometimes the differences were very strong. I teach my two large sections of organizational behavior on Mondays and Wednesdays this semester, which meant that no matter the outcome, I would be teaching the day after the election, and I felt a responsibility to say something to my students. Often, I feel like there is this struggle we have to face as faculty when something is going on in the world—do we say something, or do we just proceed business as usual? I’ve never been much of the latter, and so it felt odd to consider not saying anything when I knew it was going to be the elephant in the room lecture hall. However, that Wednesday morning, I found myself at a loss of words for what exactly it was that I wanted to say. I began texting colleagues at my school and elsewhere, trying to get a sense for what people were going to say, or if they were going to say anything at all. It turns out that most people were in the same situation that I was, in that they wanted to speak, but the words were escaping them. It took me a couple hours that morning to figure out, but eventually I decided to just share my story in a way that I hoped wouldn’t alienate anyone in the room. I figured I’d share it here, word-for-word, in hopes that maybe the words speak to some other people out there.

America awoke on November 9, 2016 to the election of Donald J. Trump as its next president. So for many commentators, your humble author included, what might have been a ho-hum summary of the past year was transformed into the opportunity, if not the obligation, to prognosticate on the coming year. This, of course, was after the election had thrown prognostications into disrepute.

The election is finally over and Donald J. Trump has been declared president-elect of the United States.  During the campaign, over half of all Americans surveyed reported that the 2016 US presidential election has been a significant source of stress in their lives (American Psychological Association, 2016). Election stress was a bipartisan issue equally felt by Democrats and Republicans, yet across racial, ethnic, sociodemographic, age, and ability groups, stress was experienced quite differently.  Since the results of election night, stress may be over for some, but for many others, especially in the LGBT community, the stress is still very much present.  Since the days of the election, calls to suicide hotlines like the Trevor Project have doubled and Trans Lifeline calls increased tenfold (Patterson, 2016; Seipel, 2016).  Many of the concerns that have been expressed are about fears regarding the gains in LGBT rights being lost under the new president (Patterson, 2016).  These include concerns about access to trans-related healthcare, the nullification of marriage equality, and the promotion of reparative therapy, a practice that is heavily discredited by the APA. The purpose of this piece is to inform our field on what these concerns are as they relate to working LGBT employees and the training of I-O psychologists, related policy concerns, and what can be done as practitioners and academics to protect employees and students.

Greetings readers! Like most people in this country (and many other countries), I have been absorbed, fascinated and at times horrified with the recent US presidential election. OK, OK, maybe you’re sick of reading about it—sorry, but I can’t help it. It’s so interesting! I promise to try not to take sides (I’m a Canadian so my political views are easy to guess and mostly irrelevant!). What I’d like to talk about are the MANY lessons and examples this election has provided for teachers of industrial-organizational psychology. I hardly know where to start.