It's not emails either.
Want to know where hours and hours of productivity disappear?
Not in long meetings.
Not in slow email threads.
Not in pointless check-ins.
They disappear in conversations about conversations.
“Can you believe what she said?”
“I don’t know how to bring this up.”
“What do you think I should do?”
“Do you think he meant that as a dig?”
This is what happens when a workplace doesn’t have psychological safety.
People don’t go directly to the source.
They go to five other people first.
They test their frustration.
They look for allies.
They overthink.
They hesitate.
And the actual issue?
It never gets addressed directly.
THE hidden cost of this behavior
Think about how much time this wastes.
Every hesitation, every whispered conversation, every moment spent replaying an interaction instead of resolving it and it all adds up.
And guess what?
While employees are busy processing, strategizing, and venting…The real work isn’t getting done.
And that’s not their fault.
psychological safety= fewer wasted hours
Imagine a workplace where people just said the thing.
No intermediaries.
No second-guessing.
No wasted time.
That’s what psychological safety does.
It removes the unnecessary steps.
It removes the politics.
It removes the hesitation.
So before you complain about wasted time at work…
Ask yourself:
Have I built a culture where direct conversations feel safe?
Because if not, your team isn’t the problem.
Your culture is.
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