(FORTUNE Magazine) – As senior vice president of the workplace division at employee-assistance giant Magellan Behavioral Health, Bill Barr certainly wasn't surprised when his phone started ringing soon after last month's terrorist attacks. After all, Barr oversees an outfit that provides counseling for over 3,000 firms (including 20% of the FORTUNE 500).

What surprised him was the origin of the first call: It didn't come from Manhattan or Washington, D.C., or even from a client in Chicago's Sears Tower or Boston's Prudential Building. It came from a 350-person IT firm in Oklahoma City, one that Magellan had helped after the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in 1995. The most recent attacks had torn open old scars and left staffers dazed, distraught, distracted. Barr dispatched a counselor, then steeled himself for the onslaught of calls--1,000 in the first week alone.

In the days following the attacks, the nation's attention was rightly focused on the serious issues faced by victimized companies--tracking down employees, consoling colleagues and family, and finding new office space. But the tragedy has had profound repercussions in offices everywhere, from Buffalo to Boise. Even if they haven't lost someone personally, workers across the land have lost a sense of predictability, of safety, of basic control over their lives.

In the face of that anxiety, meetings and memos and the other minutiae of everyday corporate life seem downright trite. "The trauma is so overwhelming in its scope that dealing with anything else seems insignificant now," says Richard Ottenstein, CEO of the Workplace Trauma Center in Owings Mills, Md. Compounding the inertia is a disturbing feeling that "things will get worse before they get better," says Matthew Wright, an associate at a Washington, D.C.-based law firm. Toss in an economy on the brink of recession, and you're left with a malignant malaise that has pervaded the nation's factory floors and cubicles--a collective "Why bother?" that needs answering.

Crisis counselors all agree that returning to the routine and structure of work aids the healing process, but after a tragedy of this magnitude it's easier said than done. "The average company has little to no preparation for this," says Ottenstein. Faced with the delicate balancing act of getting back to business while meeting the needs of skittish employees, managers need patience, flexibility, and visibility. A good first step is to meet with employee-assistance (EA) pros who specialize in traumatic incidents. "The very first thing we do is assess management and see how it's doing," says Ottenstein. "Most managers say, 'I'm okay, help my people first,' but if we can help the people who lead, they can better help their employees."

Once briefed, you can begin to take steps toward getting your employees back on track. Lethargy is a perfectly natural response, but it manifests itself in different ways and for varying lengths of time. Some folks will show no emotion, while others will be hypersensitive. The worst thing managers can do is force people back before they're ready. "If you push people too fast, you will lose them in the long run," says Therese Rando, director of the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Loss. "You need to be up and running, but you have to cut employees some slack." If you don't, warns Jeffrey Mitchell, president of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, "you end up having angry people saying the boss is unconcerned--or even un-American."

One common symptom is an inability to focus. "It's been hard--I can't concentrate for more than 15 minutes at a stretch," says Torie Castiello, a D.C.-area native working in London. To encourage employees, break up tasks into shorter, more manageable bits and provide positive feedback when they're completed. "Mundane tasks are now a welcome relief," says Matthew Bechard, editor of a real estate trade magazine in Washington, D.C. "I try to think of near-term goals." Long-range strategic planning should probably be put on hold for a while. You shouldn't make a major life decision during a period of crisis, and the same holds true for business decisions. If changes can't wait, Barr advises, frame them in tactical steps.

An employee who doesn't respond to this incremental return to normalcy may have a larger emotional or mental health problem. That's when you call in the EA professionals for one-on-one sessions. "Managers cannot become counselors," says Tom Casey, a Vietnam veteran and former clinical social worker who now oversees the talent management practice at Unifi, PricewaterhouseCoopers' HR consultancy. What they can do is discuss options, like a reduced workload or time off. You need not kowtow to every employee request, but you do need to listen. "It's a give and take on both sides," says Mitchell of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation.

Managers want to be pillars of strength at times like this, but a tough-guy facade is not always the best approach. "It's very powerful for the manager to say, 'I've never faced something like this before--I'm having troubles too,' " says Greg DeLapp, past president of the Employee Assistance Professionals Association. "It's quite helpful for people to know that their manager can bleed like they bleed." And if the manger herself is having difficulty coping, she should pay a visit to EA while delegating authority among her fellow managers. "Let someone else lead the parade for a while," says Mitchell.

Through it all, remind your staff that by keeping busy they're doing their share, however small, for the country. "The most important thing all of us can do is go back to trying cases, trading stocks, driving buses, or whatever it is that keeps people occupied," says Wright. "Deadlines don't stop," adds Bechard. "And for once in my life that's a good thing."

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