When can we go back to the office? Can I expense the costs for my home office? Will my temporary contract be extended? Uncertain situations raise many questions. How do you deal with them? You can read that in this blog.
Questions cause questions
Uncertainty raises questions. Visible: asked in a meeting, an e-mail or perhaps even in the group app. But also invisible: between colleagues, or only in your mind when you’re in bed at night. Unanswered questions lead to even more questions. Without answers you start speculating (among yourselves). That is why it is so important for an employer to collect all questions and to answer them where possible.
No news is not good news
Employees often think that a manager is an omniscient medium. In reality this is different. It often happens that managers and executives themselves have questions and are unable to provide a lot of answers. No news is good news, they then think. But the opposite is true. No news causes even more anxiety. Disaster scenarios only get bigger in the mind, and so does the anxiety in the team.
Update no update
How do you get rid of this anxiety? The answer is simple: keep your people up to date. Even when there is nothing to report. Then report that you are working hard to find answers to the questions. Saying once that it will be made known when there is news, is simply not enough. ‘Keep going straight unless told otherwise’ might work well during a driving lesson, but on the work floor it only causes a standstill. Make time to stay connected, even when there is no news, and maybe even take stock of the new questions. And remember: no news is bad news!
Looking for the Dutch version of this blog? Click here!
