How Manufactured Emergencies Keep Employees on Their Toes
Some jobs involve genuine emergencies. Systems fail, clients experience crises, and priorities sometimes change quickly.
The problem begins when everything is treated as urgent.
Assignments arrive at the last minute. Employees are expected to abandon whatever they are already working on, immediately. Questions are interpreted as resistance, and exhaustion becomes proof of commitment.
Constant urgency keeps employees focused on immediate survival and on a path of least resistance. They have less time to ask why the issue was not addressed earlier, challenge inefficient processes, or notice that the same person repeatedly creates the crises they later claim to solve.
Urgency as a Loyalty Test
In these environments, availability may be treated as devotion.
Employees who answer after hours are praised. Those who maintain boundaries may be called inflexible, uncommitted, or insufficiently responsive.
The employee is no longer simply completing a task. They are being asked to prove loyalty through personal sacrifice.
Constant reaction also makes long-term work nearly impossible. Employees are told to drop everything for sudden demands and are later criticized for failing to think strategically.
Making Yourself Visible
When possible, ask:
“What changed that made this urgent?”
“Which existing priority should move so I can complete this first?”
You might also respond:
“I can complete the new request today. That will move the presentation deadline to Wednesday. Please confirm that this is the preferred priority.”
This places responsibility for the tradeoff back with the person setting the priorities.
