5 Ways to Ruin Employee Morale
Frequent commenter CK shared a response to 5 Ways to Improve Employee Morale that gave me pause. As a manager, I hope I don’t fall into the pit of despair CK’s management team has fallen into.
Job Fit - Get the person management wants (or recommended by the buddy system) and train them how to do the job they are hired to do. And if that doesn’t work out, hire a contractor to do the job and the employee to boss the contractor around.
Job Clarity - There is none. If management doesn’t like you they give you only half the information and watch you fail. This is dispite you asking for additional clarity!
Personal accountability - Only to the clique or the upper boss are you accountable. It’s a good thing the boss is a clique member as well!
Passion for work - WHY?!? You’ll get the same pay raise as everyone else! When you start out with more go-get-ers than slackers and they recieve the same amount of raises you’ll end up with more slackers!
“Take the shot” - is putting the gun to your head! No risk taking here! And if you fail - failure is not tolerated!
If these don’t kill your morale, nothing will!
What ways can you share that would ruin YOUR team’s morale?
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POSTED IN: Phil Gerbyshak, employee engagement
6 opinions for 5 Ways to Ruin Employee Morale
CK
Sep 24, 2008 at 8:28 am
I would like to take the credit but instead I have the management staff to thank! One thing I have learned while under my current employ is how NOT to conduct business. I have even had some fellow employees ask me that when I leave to think of them when hiring – that stated that they would want to work under me as manager!
One thing that I try to stress in management is honesty. Without honesty you have a failed leadership. As an example, I personally know people that we inherited when our division absorbed their department who were promised a reclassification (raise) from our department top executive … that was two years ago and they are still waiting to the raise … Do you think that they now trust management? From what I hear back from them they don’t! Trust is hard to regain once it is lost!
Some of the services that we provide use to take 10 minutes to resolve now takes two weeks because of our bureaucracy.
We are also expanding by taking over other departments when we are unable to support what we have now! An orgainization or department should not expand if they can’t support what they have now. Unfortunately, some upper managers view expantion as being a sign of success when in the long run would lead to failure.
MAPping Company Success
Sep 25, 2008 at 9:37 pm
[…] response to a comment, Phil Gerbyshak over at Slacker Manager has listed 5 Ways to Ruin Employee Morale and they’re a perfect […]
CK
Sep 26, 2008 at 2:33 am
Funny how my comments are “Perfect” and “On Target” on ways to ruin moral. That was not my intention but my employer’s reality that I face every day. Wish me luck on my adventure in seeking employment elsewhere during this bad economy!
Corinne
Sep 26, 2008 at 3:08 am
My five:
Inconsistency, bad example, favouritism, corruption, laziness.
Good luck CK
CK
Sep 26, 2008 at 5:12 am
Some may question why I am still where I’m at instead of moving on. One of the major reasons is the poor economy. What employers are hire is at a much lower wage.
I know one lady who as a Ph.D. and working as an administrative assistant for our employer (different division) because it was the only thing that she could find. And she is much better off than her sister that has four Masters Degrees! But this lady expressed that her boss is intimidated by her because she does have a higher education then he has – making her life a hell as well.
Because it is not conducive to jump ship, employers take advantage of the situation. From all that I have learned from this experience is when I finally become a manager (again) is how NOT to act towards employees. I hope that this will make me a better manager in the long-run.
PB
Oct 9, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Here’s another: Use the modern excuse for rewarding form over substance: “Perception is reality.” In other words: form is king, substance is nothing. Never mind that you went out of your way to perform above and beyond the call of duty. By excelling, you made your coworkers look bad by comparison, so the “perception” is that you’re a troublemaker.
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