Crisis Communications and Employees

Of the making of information about managing and enduring crises there is apparently no end, particularly over the last 20-some months. Michael McKinney recently posted 12 tips -- interestedly focused on employees -- that pack a considerable amount of wisdom. They appear below and a worth the 45 seconds required to review. If you want to see the blog column in its entirety, click here.

Understand that we will never get back to normal: While it is comfortable to want to seek the status quo, “normal” in times of a crisis is constantly changing. Leaders need to move on to seek better ways of doing things, letting these new ways become the new normal.
Take care of one another: Listening reduces anxiety. Provide regular updates on what is happening across the organization and expand inclusivity.
React…pause…respond: The right response will be made once information gathering, integrity, an open heart, and seeking to understand have been considered.
Talk—even when you don’t believe there is much to say: Overcommunication is essential during turbulent times. Consistent and continuous messaging prevents rumors from spreading and demonstrates the leaders’ approachability and transparency.
Be visible—now is not the time to play hide-and-seek: People become fearful when the leader goes into hiding. As a leader, be present, inform comfort, and provide strength for others.
Maintain integrity and high value morals: Current circumstances should not influence or distort your definition of integrity and other core values.
Optimize costs, with retention in mind: Make cost optimization decisions keeping employee retention in mind. This allows leaders to assess risk and make more informed decisions.
Be a brand ambassador: The organization needs people who are brand ambassadors. As brand ambassadors, you are responsible for representing the organization both internally and externally in a positive manner. This means you must refrain from making statements that might cause further turbulence.
Assess and rebuild trust: Rebuilding an injured organization requires making difficult decisions that not everyone will understand. For this reason, you and other leaders must continuously asses and rebuild trust.
Remember, leaders are human, too: Though there will be difficult times during a crisis, as leader, it is important to remain composed.
Think like a child: Try to live “in the moment,” not allowing business to consume every moment. Work/life balance can exist, even in a crisis.
Take care of your emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being: Don’t put any aspect of your well-being on hold. While change and uncertainty at work are draining, you cannot allow them to take over your life.

Hell hath no fury like a European Communist denied a Christian holy day

While many of us tense up watching the unrest unfold in Greece, as the workers of this debt-laden nation protest that female pastry chefs and hairdressers can no longer retire at age 50 (given the "arduous and unhealthy" nature of their "jobs"), we can all take comfort in the fact that the French unions restored the nationwide vacation day of "Whitmonday," an ancient tradition left over from the Middle Ages observance of Pentecost on Sunday.

You see, in 2003, thousands of elderly French residents suffered or died as a result of a heat wave, so the French government tried to do away with the national Monday "post-Pentecost party" in 2005 and effectively donate the wage proceeds on that new "Day of Solidarity" to help these poor people. But the Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT), a major trade union, would righteously have none of that.

In a 2005 OP-ED titled "Marxist Piety," the Wall Street Journal opined "Hell hath no fury like a French Communist denied a Christian day of leisure." It continued, "a self-avowedly secular Republic with diminishing church attendance fights Marxist -- aka the religion-as-opiate creed -- trade unions to drop a Christian holiday from the calender." CGT successfully objected to this state-sanctioned loss of leisure, and the French government restored the day after party in 2008, enabling the French to sustain their five-day weekend (the traditional Christian "Day of Ascension" precedes the Pentecost weekend on Thursday, which remains an official state holiday). As the WSJ concluded five years ago on this day, "In France, the real state religion is vacation." As you read this, millions of Europeans (including the now again liberated French) are happily lazing about today on May 24, continental crisis or no continental crisis.
Given this myopic, lack-of-work-ethic rubbish, is it any wonder that the New York Times today quotes a 50-year-old Italian worker lamenting the possible loss of his pension as stating "This country has no future"?

Postscript: lest you think I'm singling out the French for their national "post-Pentecost party," the day of state-sanctioned leisure is today also righteously observed by the following European countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, and Switzerland. A personal note to those governments: as you continue to spiral into unimaginable debt, enjoy your day off.

Oh, and by the way, during your time off today you might want to read a little passage addressed to Greeks from the book that authorized Pentecost observance in the first place - writing some 1,900 years ago to church members in northern modern-day Greece, the apostle Paul noted: "when we were with you, we gave you this rule: 'If a man will not work, he shall not eat.'" (I Thess. 3:10, NIV). Food for European Whitmonday thought, perchance?