Fright here, fright now

At this time of year, I usually post a few light-hearted reflections on the darker side of science, a tradition that has taken me from horrifying healthcare to monstrous publishers and to metathesiophobia (the fear of change) [1][2][3]. While ghosts and ghouls still have their place. I feel fear itself has evolved. It’s no longer something that rattles chains or lurks in dark corners. In 2025, it hums in our devices, our data, and our doubts. Today’s fears are abstract, anticipatory and algorithmic.

In 2025’s hyper-connected workplace, the phrase “right here, right now” might as well be “fright here, fright now,” because the fear of being overwhelmed, of juggling multiple workstreams simultaneously and of never catching up has no ‘off’ button. Between mounting demands, rapid deadlines, frequent interruptions and the blurring of boundaries, workers and leaders alike face relentless pressure to be ever-present.

Fear, load, and performance

Workplace ‘fear’ is often less about terror and more about chronic anxiety, the sense of “I’m behind” or “I must do this now,” that nagging feeling carries cognitive, emotional and behavioural costs. Yerkes-Dodson Law (1908) observes that performance rises with arousal, but only up to a point, after which it deteriorates [4]. Modern research reframes the issue as cognitive overload [5]: when the demands of work exceed available mental resources, performance falters and psychological distress rises [6][7].

In the post-pandemic era, the fears have become more acute. A recent survey found that 43% of adults in the US are feeling more anxious (2024 vs. 2023), largely citing work-related demands such as deadline pressure and information overload [8]. At the organisational level, digital workplace ‘demands’ are amplified by our hyperconnectivity, frequent task switching, and ever-present notifications, A 2024 qualitative study defined this as Digital Workplace Technology Intensity (DWTI) — a construct capturing the strain of being always connected and having multiple workstreams competing for our attention [9].

I previously observed how empirical investigations show that multitasking and involvement on various projects simultaneously serves to impair performance and wellbeing [5]. Researchers reviewed over 30 studies of employee multitasking and found repeated links between task-switching, role-overload, diminished task completion and increased stress responses [10]. Their work built on earlier cross-sectional research showing that increased multitasking correlates with poorer wellbeing and performance, particularly when job autonomy is low [11]. Horror! Findings like these translate directly into a negative ‘fear now’ context: when individuals feel unable to keep pace with multiple concurrent demands, the cognitive load mounts, vigilance is reduced, mistakes occur, and anxiety grows.

In terms of organisational psychology, the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model remains a useful lens [12]. The health-impairment pathway of that model describes how excessive demands combined with inadequate resources lead to strain, burnout and sub-optimal performance. Digital overload represents a new frontier of demands that many workers face, creating fear not of singular dramatic events, but of chronic under-performance and invisibility.

Stop haunting every task

We tie our worth to our output, wearing self-reliance as a badge of honour. To ask for help feels like an admission of failure, a crack in the facade of competence. So, we push harder, trading our peace for the solitary satisfaction of having done it all ourselves, even as the weight of that ‘all’ quietly bends our back. However, being open to delegation and/or outsourcing doesn’t just lighten-the-load, you can restructure you cognitive and organisational environment, this attitude fostered the $85 billion Contract Research Organisation (CRO) industry. Delegation, when done well, functions as a resource-gain strategy: it frees up attention, clarifies roles, promotes autonomy and builds team capacity, benefitting everyone.

A plethora of studies have demonstrated the benefits of delegation. A 2023–24 empirical investigation into delegation of authority found that when managers hand over key tasks and decision-making, employee performance improves, managerial decision-making becomes more effective, and organisational outcomes are stronger [13]. Trust, clear communication and well-defined responsibilities emerged as key enablers. Similarly, a 2025 review of delegation leadership found that leaders who adopt a delegative style enhance team competency, motivation and psychological safety [14]. These observations align with the notion that fear of being overwhelmed is mitigated when individuals feel supported and enabled to distribute key tasks rather than bearing the entire burden themselves. Go CROs!

Outsourcing extends the concept beyond internal team dynamics to strategic partnership with external experts. While outsourcing research focuses primarily on cost and efficiency, recent findings underscore its role in strategic focus: a 2025 review of strategic outsourcing literature concluded that outsourcing non-core activities allows firms to centre their internal efforts on key goals and higher-order tasks like defining strategy [15]. Although that review’s focus was on a company level rather than individuals, its logic applies: by shifting tasks externally, cognitive and operational demands within teams are reduced, enabling better individual performance and lower strain.

Effectively, the act of outsourcing directly reduces the ‘fear now’ burden: when a leader no longer feels they must manage every task, the cognitive load is lowered, attention is freed, and anxiety about missing deadlines or dropping balls diminishes. A very modern example can be found in research into human–AI collaboration, which showed that allowing AI systems to take over certain tasks improved overall team performance and individual task satisfaction, largely through increased self-efficacy and reduced decision-fatigue [16]. While this study is in a human-AI context, the mechanism, reducing load via delegation—it can logically be extended to human-to-human interactions.

Fearless outsourcing

If the last 25 years has taught me anything, effective outsourcing is not simply about shifting work; it requires thoughtful structure, governance and trust. From a psychological-organisational viewpoint, several key considerations are crucial to ‘getting it right’:

1. Clarify roles and responsibilities: Delegation/outsourcing only reduces fear when recipients understand exactly what they own. Research shows that unclear delegation increases anxiety rather than reducing it [13].
2. Match tasks to capabilities: Over-delegation or mismatching tasks to delegates will backfire, leading to increased risk of failure or mistakes and increased managerial burden required for resolution [17].
3. Maintain accountability (responsibility) and feedback loops: Delegation does not mean abdication of your responsibility. The buck still stops with you! Effective oversight, maintaining clear channels of communication and providing clear feedback sustain performance [14].
4. Use outsourcing strategically: Decide what tasks truly belong outside your immediate team. The literature on strategic outsourcing warns of loss of both control and innovation if core tasks are off-loaded indiscriminately [15].
5. Build a culture of trust and psychological safety: Delegating tasks thrives where individuals feel safe to act and learn (often through limited failure); employee voice opportunities, shown to enhance organisational outcomes, are key [18].
6. Monitor and measure outcomes: Set clear performance markers and milestones for delegated and outsourced workstreams, ensuring alignment with strategic goals and mitigating the fear of ‘losing control.’

In practical terms, managers should seek to create a delegation matrix at the outset of a new project, highlight which tasks must remain in-house, and identify those aspects best suited for external partners. Outsourcing might involve specific modules of work (e.g., regulatory writing or site monitoring) that relieve internal overload while preserving strategic oversight.

Exorcising Monsters

In conclusion, despite Hollywood’s fixation with zombies, vampires and werewolves it seems that you need to look no further than everyday life for real terror [19]. The monster of ‘overwhelm’ — ‘fright here, fright now’ — is a defining feature of modern work. But it is not inevitable, there are ways to rid those monsters from under your desk. By embracing delegation and outsourcing thoughtfully, organisations can transform fear into focus, burden into bandwidth, and frantic pace into accelerated and controlled progress.

Where the haunting ends:

• Delegate tasks deliberately and clearly to reduce cognitive load and enable strategic focus.
• Outsource non-core, high-complexity activities to experts, freeing your team to deliver what matters most.
• Prioritise role clarity, trust and feedback to ensure delegation becomes empowerment, not abdication.
• Monitor performance and wellbeing regularly to tackle the anxiety of “too much to do” before it undermines results.

By acting now, you can slay those workplace demons, giving your team permission to shift from overwhelmed to organised, and from fear to forward momentum.

References

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