It's Going to be Okay: Experiences and Perceptions of People Who Seek Reassurance at Work

This study examined the experiences and perceptions of people who seek reassurance at work using a mixed methods (focus groups and experimental) approach. Reassurance-seeking is an attempt to elicit supportive communication from another person to help one reduce experienced anxiety. First, using focus groups with 32 participants, this study found that people seeking reassurance at work develop complex cognitive structures to reduce the prospective negative impacts of reassurance-seeking behaviors, particularly for those with marginalized identities. Then, in a 3x2 between-person experimental design in which employee gender and reassurance-seeking were manipulated, participants read a transcript of an interaction between an employee and a supervisor. In the reassurance-seeking condition, the employee sought and was provided with reassurance; in the control condition, participants did not seek reassurance, but the supervisor provided the same reassurance. Participants then indicated their perceptions of employee competence, performance, social burden, and promotability; assigned a compensation amount; and indicated ostracism intentions. As hypothesized, participants perceived those who sought reassurance as less competent, which led to lower perceptions of promotability and a lower assigned compensation value. These negative impacts depended on the gender of the reassurance-seeker--non-binary people experienced the worst outcomes. Focus group participants indicated that offering proactive reassurance regarding known anxiety-inducing factors would prevent the need for reassurance-seeking and save time spent worrying. Harmonious experimental findings suggest offering proactive reassurance to prevent reassurance-seeking (when possible) would prevent the negative biasing of competence perceptions and particular bias based on gender.