I'm a manager of a team that appears to not have enough to do, and I can't think of any projects for them, which causes a lot of anxiety for me because I don't want to get fired, and I don't want to fire any of them.

I meet with each person on a regular basis to talk about their projects. They all are working on a few things but not enough to keep them busy 40 hours a week. And when they're supposed to send me their status at the end of the week, some of them don't even respond.

I've stressed the importance of reporting on what they're doing because managers above me have access to the information. I don't think they're purposefully ignoring my request. I think it's simply that they don't have enough work.

My manager and his manager haven't noticed or they haven't spoken to me about it. I don't want them to suddenly find out and wonder why I haven't talked to them about it. And I don't want anyone to get fired.

I am able to delegate a little, but much of my work must be done by one person for continuity's sake. As a simple example, if I make a change in one file, I must know which other files need to be updated in the same way. And when I say "files", I mean A LOT of files.

What can I do? I don't want to talk to HR for ideas because I don't think our conversation would be confidential.