How to Boost Morale in the Workplace

[Linus]

I do believe that it's really is dependent on management to make a place positive or negative. If management doesn't recognize this and implement a morale boosting plan, there is only so much you can do. I'm lucky enough to work at a place where management looks for employee input on how to improve morale and make our company a place that people want to stay.

One of the things that happens at my company is that employees organize their own potluck every other Friday or similar. As part of the potluck, any food brought in has to have ingredients identified for allergy purposes but this helps lots.

[Sparkle]

I work in a "cooperative" that is not always so cooperative... and not always positive.

Some things I do to improve the every day atmosphere:

*Be a good listener, especially when someone is upset or angry. I have a small private office, I invite them to come have a sit down and close my door and just give them a little space to say what they have to say. I don't try to fix their problem, or offer to negotiate on their behalf; but I find that giving them a place to articulate their feelings/thoughts usually provides some sense of relief in the moment.

*Laugh freely and easily and as often as possible. Laughter is contagious. And people will remember that about you. Share silly memes of kittens doing whacky things, tell your old stories that are funny/embarrassing, laugh about the ridiculous "murphy's law" things that happen in the office. ...

*I let the children's energy affect me (I work in a k-8 school). I have bad attitude days just like everyone else. I find that if I spend fifteen minutes watching a music class I can't help but smile and my energy is changed. It might not turn around my whole day but it helps in the moment.

[Blade]

I have to agree with Linus, I believe that moral lies in the hands of management. I've worked at the same company for 27 yrs. Up until about 10 yrs ago moral was tremendous at our company. My company is privately owned, the second generation owners were great and knew how to keep moral high and treated the employees and their families good.

They gave us the highest pay per skill level in this area, we had company paid insurance for ourselves and our family. The company rewarded us monthly for safety and house cleaning, people were promoted for their knowledge and dedication to their department. In the beginning during the spring they would have like a huge carnival with rides and animals and BBQ chicken and pork and all the fixins and events for the kids and fun competition for employes. We had Christmas bonus, and if we were sick well when we got well we came back to work with a Dr note. The owners would come thru the plant and sometimes fall right in with us working. I remember working one weekend and Mr D was working with us it was hot and we were all wringing wet. He ask did anybody have a BBQ this weekend he was told yep and which fire department was doing it, he left and came back with a truck load of BBQ plates for us. We had company paid retirement. In the early 80's when the economy went south. They had employees cutting and splitting wood for their homes to keep from laying them off or cutting their time back.

Third generation owners suck, they were born with a silver spoon and believe everyone who is hired or promoted to a management or sales positon should have a college degree. Doesn't really matter in what as long as it is a degree. We have people running departments with a English degree and one has a degree in religious studies...what is that? Most of our managers and many of our foremen don't have a clue how to perform in their own departments, have never done a job or some may have minimal experience in their departments. Some of us are grandfathered into the company paid retirement, if you were hired after 2007 u don't get any. No Christmas bonus, they don't recognize Dr notes any longer unless it falls under FMLA. We pay a large portion of our and our family insurance. Just for me is over $200 a month They act like they were doing us a favor and invented Performance pay for us, only thing is we can only make 150%, but we can only make that for 7 hrs because they take us down to 100% rate for an hour a day for breaks and clean up even if you don't take a break or stop to clean up. We do have an opinion survey every 2 yrs which is a waste because they don't follow up on anything addressed with the survey. We don't have a company sponsored fun day anymore. Our safety and house cleaning bonus is together now and if one person on your team has an incedent, not a loss time accident just an incedent ya loose half of that money and yes it is taxed we get it once a year at the end of Jan. The managers however get a huge bonus of thousands of dollars. When we were on short time a few years back 28 hrs. Our manager came in one day pulling 2 new wave runners he'd bought with his bonus. Here we all were worried about losing our houses and cars and if we could buy gas and groceries and he's rubbing it in our face his new toys. We get a raise every year. With the 2nd generation owners it was .50 a year sometimes more. Now we get .50 a year period but the catch 22 is we get 30 cent added to our base rate and the rest in graduating increments up to 150%. Now here is the catch...you have to make 150% every day all day to get your full raise...as I stated before they cut us back to 100% for an hour a day sooooo ya never get your full raise. 3rd generation keeps retired managemet personal as consultants and on payroll and benefits for several yrs after retirement.Pay attention here...3rd generation owners come to the plants with body guards.....

Yeah lets hear about moral in the work place...in manufactoring about all you can do is encourage and be supportive of each other, because 3 things will get you gone....trying to unionize, rocking the boat and age, because age lowers production and that cost the company money.

[txdoc]

I know on the surface it may sound simplistic, but sometimes things profound can be found there. I used the book Fish to initiate book study discussions alleviating toxic interactions. We learned to play at work.

[genghisfawn]

I'm a consultant with a major corporation, and I lead a team of 3-4 IT technicians who build and complete the installations. The guys get along really well and I feel incredibly fortunate that they respect my instructions and decisions, but still keep me in on some of the fun (ex. I will be coming in tomorrow to find the shoes I keep leaving behind bubble wrapped.)

One of the technicians from our client's group came for an afternoon to help us out in exchange for me fetching him from the airport. He followed me out for a cup of coffee and said, "I notice you let the guys chat a lot." I said, "I never see any lack of output in the work... their output is consistent with the algorithms developed around a conservative estimate of individual accomplishment." But I said it with a smile.

He said, "So as long as the work gets done, you don't care?"

Thing is, I've learned how NOT to lead people from some of the worst examples in the business. Managers who controlled your every move, threatened your job and expected dangerous and degrading work to be performed out of scope. On the subtler side, there were managers who didn't respect an employee's knowledge, skill and capabilities. Some managers were sexist or ageist without really meaning to be. Others just could not turn in their parenting hat at the door and wouldn't let employees be themselves - they expected cogs in their machine and they weren't taking any backchat.

So I told the guy, "I do care. I want the work done and I want them happy. If they have a good day at work, I've had a good day at work."

I mean it, too. If they were stressed or unhappy and they quit, I'd be completely sunk! Workplaces need to remember that people are people, first and foremost. They can do awkward things, sometimes get sick or cranky, feel hungry and experience health trouble. Some are very sociable and gain energy from others (like everyone on my team); some are introverted and need to hide to recharge mid-day (like myself). I see their extroversion and I want to make sure they get what they need, so if they flap their gums and nobody's bothered? It helps morale. I, however, tend to leave them for the afternoon and hide in my office to get work done.

[RockOn]

When I hear people clipping their nails for more than a few minutes in a cube near me, I quit going to them and asking if they intended to cut their toenails when they were finished cutting their fingernails.

[Turtle]

We are really understaffed this week between planned vacations and then people being sick, car accidents, etc...people be VERY stressed...

...it doesn't fix being understaffed, but I'm setting up the kitchen early tomorrow morning with coffee, assorted teas, Emergen-C, juice, fruit, and goodies...especially some gluten-free something nice for the REALLY understaffed manager...