Too Much Reassurance

I'm responsible for a few departments, one of which is a segment of our sales force. The nature of the product line for which my team is responsible causes sales to decrease in June and July. This happens every year. As long as the decrease is in line with past trends, it is not a concern. We simply take advantage of the slower period to catch up on other projects.

Earlier this year, my direct manager left and her position was filled by another manager within the company. I get the impression that she is FREAKING OUT about things slowing down. Interestingly, she acts as though she is trying to prevent me from freaking out...when I know damn well that there's no need to worry.

Every day, she meets with me for a few minutes to ask about sales activity. After I provide her with an objective summary, she goes into a long pep talk about how it's perfectly normal for sales to be slipping right now. She explains that based on the projections she's seen, we should recover in August. She emphasizes several times during her talk that the current slip is only temporary.

It also seems to be very important to her that I pass her words of optimism on to the team. As she's explained, we don't want anyone to feel insecure about their jobs and leave because of this difficult time. Is she serious??? Many of the sales reps have been in their positions longer than I've been in mine; and therefore, are well aware of this annual pattern. Our newer folks have also been warned of this. It's never prompted turnover.

Of course, I've explained this to her several times. I've said everything that I can think of to reassure her that (a) I fully understand what is currently going on with sales and that they will increase in August, and that (b) our sales team does as well.

My response here doesn't seem to matter much. We go through the same pep talk daily.

Now, when passing her in the halls at work, she's started making comments to me like "thanks for your efforts today," or "I really appreciate what you do over in the East wing," or "keep that team fired up!"

Help me...