How does job insecurity anxiety affect productivity, safety and commitment? Read the practical steps employers can take during periods of uncertainty.
"Will salaries be paid on time this month?", "Will my department still be needed when the new machines arrive?", "Is my name on the downsizing list people are whispering about in the corridor?" Today these questions are not asked out loud in many factories, offices and shops, but they keep going round in a corner of employees' minds. Job insecurity, meaning the worry of losing your job, your income or an important part of your job, is one of the most widespread and least discussed workplace problems in Turkey in 2025–2026. In this article, for business owners, HR managers, factory managers and occupational health and safety (OHS) specialists, I look at what job insecurity anxiety is, its impact on the business, its causes, and the concrete steps organisations can take in periods of uncertainty.
What Is Job Insecurity? Real Risk Versus Perceived Threat
Insecurity can be experienced in two different forms. The first is quantitative insecurity: losing the job entirely, a contract not being renewed, the workplace closing, or the fear of dismissal. The second is qualitative insecurity: the worry of losing pay, title, shift pattern, authority or career prospects even if the job continues. For example, a rumour that a department will be moved to another city can create intense anxiety in a significant share of employees even if nobody is dismissed.
The critical point here is this: this anxiety can arise even when there is no real threat. What determines the employee's behaviour is not the plan on management's desk but the picture the employee perceives. The bigger the information gap, the more it is filled by rumours, worst-case scenarios and news on social media. So coping with a sense of insecurity is not only about protecting employment but also about managing uncertainty.
Anxiety itself is not an illness; it is a natural response to a perception of threat. But when it continues for a long time, it places a marked burden on sleep, concentration, relationships and job performance. If you are curious how worries about the future work at an individual level, you can look at the article on anxiety about the future.
The Picture in Turkey: Stress, Commitment and Uncertainty
The mood of employees in Turkey shows how deeply uncertainty is felt. According to Gallup's 2026 report, 66% of employees in Turkey say they experienced stress during a large part of the previous day; the global average is 40%. The share of employees who are truly engaged with their work is only 8%, those who say they experienced anger daily are 36%, and those who experienced sadness are 27%. In the same report, the share of those who say "now is a good time to find a job" is only 23% (Gallup, 2026; 2025 data).
This last figure is important for understanding the psychology of insecurity. If an employee does not believe they could easily find a new job if they lost theirs, the possibility of losing the current one looks far more threatening. The cost of living, rent increases, debts and having tied the family's livelihood to a single income enlarge this threat. As a result, the employee does not leave but is not fully mentally at work either: they work on guard, tense and withdrawn. This picture is not seen only in low-paid or temporary jobs; employees who have worked in the same organisation for many years, have high seniority and are their family's only earner can often be the group carrying the most intense anxiety. Because what they stand to lose is not only income but the identity, social circle and sense of order they have built over the years. It is important that managers do not overlook this group on the grounds that they are "used to it anyway".
The Cost of Job Insecurity to the Business
This anxiety is often misread by employers as "at least employees will work harder so as not to lose their jobs". In the short term some employees may really stay for more overtime; but this effort is mostly not sustainable and is related more to the worry of being seen than to productivity. The picture that emerges in the long term is this:
- Presenteeism: The employee comes to work but their mind is occupied with uncertainty. In the UK, the annual cost of poor mental health to employers has been calculated as £51 billion, and presenteeism is reported to be the largest item at about £24 billion (Deloitte, 2024). This is UK data, but it shows the nature of the problem well.
- Loss of valuable staff: In periods of uncertainty, the first to leave are usually the most qualified employees who can easily find work elsewhere. According to Deloitte's 2022 report, about 40% of staff turnover costs in the UK are attributed to mental health problems (Deloitte, 2022).
- Silence and hiding errors: An employee afraid of losing their job may avoid reporting their error or near miss. This is a direct occupational safety risk, especially in production facilities.
- Erosion of commitment and trust: A team that does not believe management's statements and says "they won't tell us anyway" also resists change projects.
Uncertainty makes employees spend their energy on guesswork rather than on work; the organisation's most expensive loss is often this invisible energy.
Organisational Factors That Increase Job Insecurity Anxiety
Economic fluctuation, sector contraction or developments in export markets are not under the employer's control. But in the same external conditions, anxiety is experienced far more intensely in some organisations and stays more manageable in others. The difference is usually created by the organisation's own practices:
- Information gaps and delayed communication: If decisions reach employees last and by indirect routes, rumours spread before the official announcement.
- Inconsistent messages: Contracts not being renewed in a department in the same week that top management says "no dismissals" damages trust for a long time.
- Unclear criteria: If it is not known who will be affected and by what measure, everyone feels at risk.
- Experiences of sudden and harsh downsizing: Dismissals carried out without warning in the past stay in the organisation's memory and trigger the same fear at every new change.
- Temporary, subcontracted or project-based employment: Having employees who do the same work with different levels of security together makes the uncertainty visible.
- Technological transformation: Announcing automation and artificial intelligence projects without answering the question "whose job will go?"
The Ministry of Labour and Social Security (ÇSGB) Psychosocial Factors Information Guide lists career development and organisational culture among its categories of psychosocial hazard (ÇSGB, 2024). The perception of insecurity sits where these two headings intersect. I cover the particular situation of employees who remain after downsizing separately, in the article on the "survivor syndrome" after downsizing.
Legislation and Standards Framework
This anxiety is not regulated directly by a statutory article; but the psychosocial risk framework puts the subject on the employer's agenda. Article 5, paragraph (f) of Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 6331 requires the employer to develop "a coherent and general prevention policy covering the effects of factors related to technology, work organisation, working conditions, social relationships and the working environment". Article 8 of the Occupational Health and Safety Risk Assessment Regulation provides for psychosocial sources of hazard to be identified and recorded too.
Internationally, ISO 45003:2021 addresses psychosocial hazards under the headings of work organisation, social factors and the work environment. This guideline is not a certification standard, but for organisations with an ISO 45001 system it shows the way to include psychosocial risks in the management system. A major restructuring, shift change or automation project should be thought of as a change for which the risk assessment needs to be reviewed. For the details of this process, you can look at the article on psychosocial risk assessment.
What Can Employers Do in Periods of Uncertainty?
Organisations cannot always promise job security; a dishonest promise, instead of reducing anxiety, completely destroys trust later on. The aim is not to bring uncertainty to zero but to build a footing on which employees can cope with uncertainty. Here are practical steps:
1. Say what you know, what you do not know and when you will know. A statement such as "There is currently no confirmed downsizing plan. We will clarify the status of new orders at the end of the month and give you information within the first week" creates far less anxiety than silence. Giving the date of the next update reduces the employee's need to stay constantly on guard.
2. Give the message to managers first. Employees usually put their questions directly to their supervisor. If foremen and team leaders do not know what to say, they either say "I don't know" or share their own guesses. Before every important announcement, give managers a short briefing and answers to frequently asked questions.
3. Make the criteria and process clear. If a restructuring is unavoidable, explain in an understandable way which criteria will be used, the timetable and the rights that will be offered to employees. A process seen as fair leaves less damage both among those who leave and those who stay, even if the outcome is negative.
4. Open an official channel for rumours. An anonymous question box, regular short briefing meetings or a desk where HR answers questions at set times slows the speed at which rumours spread.
5. Expand the areas employees can control. Offering employees skills development, cross-training and internal rotation opportunities gives a concrete answer to the question "what will I do if my job changes?" A person feeling some control over their own future is one of the most effective antidotes to anxiety.
6. Train managers to notice signs of distress. In the World Health Organization's guidelines on mental health at work, the recommendation with the strongest evidence is to train managers in mental health (WHO, 2022). In periods of uncertainty, this training helps managers both to manage their own anxiety and to talk properly with their team.
7. Offer confidential support. In a survey carried out in Europe, 50% of employees think that disclosing a mental health problem would harm their career (EU-OSHA, 2022). In periods of uncertainty this reservation grows further. So it must be made clear that the support service is confidential and that no information is given to the manager.
8. Do not put individual measures in place of organisational measures. The ILO stresses that individual measures should complement, not replace, organisational measures (ILO, 2026). Organising a stress management workshop for employees while leaving the communication uncertainty as it is does not touch the source of the problem.
Imagine that in an auxiliary-industry factory in Anatolia, the main customer's orders have fallen and management has been weighing the options for a few weeks. During this time, a rumour that "the night shift will close" has spread among employees, and two experienced maintenance technicians have started talks with another firm. Management can explain the situation to the shift teams even without making a final decision: it can say that orders have fallen, that there is currently no confirmed decision to close a shift, until what date the assessment will last, and that any decision will be explained to them first. This statement does not end the uncertainty but significantly reduces the power of the rumour.
How to Start in Your Organisation
For organisations that want to manage insecurity anxiety, a three-stage path can be followed:
Needs analysis: Recent data on staff turnover, absenteeism, short-term sick leave and near-miss reports are examined by department. With a survey whose confidentiality is guaranteed, employees' level of information, trust in management, workload and perception of the future are measured. Focus group discussions help in understanding which subjects turn into rumours.
Programme: According to the analysis results, a communication plan, manager training, briefing meetings for periods of change, cognitive-behavioural-based stress management workshops and confidential individual counselling are planned together. In a meta-analysis examining workplace stress management programmes, cognitive-behavioural-based programmes were found to show consistently larger effects than other types (Richardson and Rothstein, 2008). However, such programmes make sense when applied together with organisational steps that reduce uncertainty. You can look at how a structure suited to your organisation can be set up on the corporate services page.
Measurement: The initial indicators are monitored again at set intervals. Among the monitoring indicators recommended by the ILO are absenteeism, turnover, use of support services and employee surveys (ILO, 2026). Short pulse surveys carried out before and after a major announcement in particular show whether the communication has worked.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are employees anxious even when there is no job insecurity?
Because what determines anxiety is not real risk but perceived risk. In organisations where information is not given, the reasons for decisions are not explained or sudden changes have happened in the past, employees can feel insecure even when there is no concrete threat. Regular and consistent communication is the most effective way to reduce this perception.
Is it right to tell employees something when there is no certain information?
Yes, but what is said must be honest. Explaining that no decision has yet been made, by what date the assessment will be completed and when employees will be informed creates far less anxiety than saying nothing at all. An untrue promise that "nothing will happen to anyone", on the other hand, damages trust later.
Does job insecurity affect workplace accidents?
It can. Anxiety distracts attention, disrupts sleep patterns and can lead an employee to avoid reporting their errors or near misses. So job insecurity is not only an HR matter but an occupational safety matter that needs to be addressed in psychosocial risk assessment.
How should I approach an employee whose anxiety is very intense?
Starting from the change you have observed, talk calmly and without judgement, share the accurate information you have and avoid promises that are not certain. If you notice marked impairment in sleep, eating or daily functioning, hopelessness or thoughts of self-harm, refer the employee to a mental health professional; in emergencies, 112 (emergency services) should be called. It is also useful to remind both employees and managers that seeking professional support is always an option.
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Eda Erkan Alapala
Klinik Psikolog. İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi Klinik Psikoloji Tezli Yüksek Lisans mezunu; bilişsel davranışçı terapi, çocuk merkezli oyun terapisi ve çocuk-ergen psikoterapisi alanlarında eğitimlerini tamamlamıştır.
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