To mark the end of our grant, my co-researcher, Triston Thomas, and I presented our research project titled “Don’t Assume Everything is OK: Creating Psychological Safety in a Virtual Workplace.”
Our clearest finding suggests online managers communicate busyness way too often. Those “I’m too busy for you” cues have a direct impact on psychological safety. One participant called it “Perceived Frenzy”. He said that when there is no other information about a manager’s accessibility and openness, it is easy to assume they don’t have the time for a question or concern. Eventually online workers will quit asking.
According to our participants, some of the clearest busyness cues include short Slack messages, distracted ZOOM meetings, cancelled meetings, meetings that end abruptly (“oh, I’ve got to go”), long response times, or forgotten responses. The psychological safety literature suggests that when the busyness cues outnumber the caring, supportive listening cues, the team will become less trusting, less satisfying, less committed, less innovative, and less productive. Hmmm. Maybe it is time to start paying attention.
Peggy Kendall 