Here’s another acronym to add to your vocabulary: VUCA. It stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, and it is just as dramatic as it sounds. A pair of economists coined the term VUCA in the late ‘80s and the US Army War College picked up on it in the early ‘90s to describe how the US was faring in the post-Cold War environment. New research suggests the country is in a similar era of volatility, and it’s impacting the workforce. Some 42% of employees say their stress is induced by fear and uncertainty in the world, and 68% report a dip in productivity, according to a report from people analytics software company meQ. “It’s been like stacking more stuff on the worry list…It’s just the idea that we aren’t sure what’s going to happen. Are we going to have a war? Are we not? Are we going to have tariffs or are we going to not have tariffs?” said Brad Smith, chief science officer at meQ. “All of these things really feed a pretty strong degree of uncertainty, and that feeds stress.” People teams need to be aware of how this moment of uncertainty and volatility is impacting how employees show up to work, Smith said. For more on what HR can do to help employees handle workplace stress and anxiety, keep reading here.—MC | 
