What's a word to describe the fear of social embarrassment in overreacting to a situation? In regard to coronavirus [closed]

What's a word to describe the fear of social embarrassment in overreacting to a situation?

For example, because of X, none of the offices in my work building have gone remote, because nobody wants to be the first to do so. Nobody wants to risk being embarrassed by being thought to have overreacted to the coronavirus pandemic.

Solution 1:

I would use 2 words...

Herd behavior

Wikipedia

Herd behavior is the behavior of individuals in a group acting collectively without centralized direction. Herd behavior occurs in animals in herds, packs, bird flocks, fish schools and so on, as well as in humans in demonstrations, riots and general strikes,1 sporting events, religious gatherings, episodes of mob violence and everyday decision-making, judgement and opinion-forming.

In other words...no explicit direction has been given by management, but workers interpret the culture that way.

and from Lexico, also 2 words:

Herd mentality
The tendency for people's behavior or beliefs to conform to those of the group to which they belong.

Solution 2:

Here is another relevant one, from the Encyclopaedia Britannica:

Bystander effect, the inhibiting influence of the presence of others on a person’s willingness to help someone in need. Research has shown that, even in an emergency, a bystander is less likely to extend help when he or she is in the real or imagined presence of others than when he or she is alone.

In the case of your office, it sounds like nobody is in immediate/direct need. However, everyone is acting as a bystanders to each other -- one person/one office sees that a second person/second office is continuing to come in to work, and so the first person/first office continues to do so as well. And this continues between all people/offices so that everyone ends up staying because it looks like no one is leaving.