Putting low morale into perspective

How are your co-workers affected by negative vibes in the office? We asked professionals in three different roles to find out.

Many managers consider it a dirty word which can affect their entire organization from productivity to the bottom line.

It’s delicate, it’s unpredictable and it can be very frustrating.

It’s morale. And as a manager, it’s something you must confront each day.

You’ve likely exhausted yourself reading articles and best practice papers on how to improve employee morale and how to handle an office filled with discontent. Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer.

In an effort to give you better perspective on how to deal with morale, we had a conversation with Susan Heathfield, About.com’s guide for human resources and a management and organizational development consultant; Kristen Ridley, a corporate communications executive for ACNielsen Canada; and Cheryl Howard, an employee in the finance industry.

Each provided us with perspective from three differing roles in a professional environment. As you’ll see, the elephant in the room known as morale is seen by each in a different way … though they all agree on one thing: Low morale is bad for business, and it can definitely ––be avoided.

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