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If you're a manager who isn't proactively helping folks take time off who need it, you aren't doing your job. It isn't enough to just say "take time off if you need it" once. One way you can do this is by taking some time yourself and being open about why. Modelling is important.
If you want people to be around when the crisis is over so that your company has a chance of recovering, you need to start taking care of them *now*.
Oh, one more thing: cancel all performance reviews. No one is "performing" during a global crisis. If you can afford to give raises and bonuses, just give them. https://www.adaptivecapacitylabs.com/blog/2020/04/03/troubled-times-episode-2/
One way you can do this is literally just assign everyone a day off. Did you know that this is a thing you can just... do?
As a manager, you are measured by your impact on the (sociotechnical) system, not by whether you said the right words. If people need time off and saying "you can take time off" doesn't actually lead to them taking time off, you didn't do your job.
I want to say a bit more about messaging as a manager, because it is an important skill. Jim Barker points out that a persuasive message needs three things: coherence, fidelity, and actionability. https://twitter.com/ReinH/status/1248344875000426496?s=20
Coherence and fidelity are a.k.a. "narrative rationality". Coherence is "the story makes sense": internal consistency. Fidelity is "the story matches the listener's experiences and beliefs". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_paradigm
Actionability is "ok, I get it, but I can't actually _do_ it." Maybe an example would be helpful. You say "I want you to take a day off. I think it's important for your mental health. I will make sure no one has a problem with this." Ok, this is coherent.
Whether it has fidelity depends on, e.g., whether I believe you when you say that I won't be punished. Maybe my experience in the org tells me otherwise. But even if it has coherence and fidelity, I still have to be able to _actually do the thing_.
Maybe I don't want to take time off. Maybe I need the work to distract me from the way society is currently collapsing around me. If this is the case, no matter how coherent and believable your message is, it won't persuade. It won't lead to action.
Anyway, if you as a manager are finding that your messaging is not as persuasive as you want it to be -- i.e., it isn't leading to actual changes in beliefs and actions -- look at its coherence, fidelity, and actionability, and try to figure out what might be missing.
A thing to consider here is that coherence, fidelity, and actionability are not facts about the world, they are all based on (inter-)subjective evaluations. They are socially constructed and context-dependent. In fact, a message that works for one person may not work for another.
If you find that most of your messaging problems are actionability problems, this is good news! Managers are often trained in removing obstacles / barriers, and this is seen as valuable mgmt work. They are rarely trained in "my employees think I'm a lying piece of shit, what do".
. @lara_hogan is the best. Please read her follow-up thread for her signature brand of extremely good and actionable advice https://twitter.com/lara_hogan/status/1248408379598327809?s=20
