How to Destroy your Employees’ Morale


Being in a place of power and authority, as a manager or administrator, can sometimes lead to false notions, leading to inappropriate attitude and bad practices. Inconsiderate attitude in leading employees leads to destruction of their morale.

  • Be uncommunicative.  One false notion is that employees should only be told what is to be done and not why it is to be done. This makes your employees perform tasks, which they don’t value because they don’t know the significance of their work in the overall objective of the team, section or organization. Someone who does not value his/her work will do an average work.

  • Be ignorant. One more mistaken belief is that knowledge of the employees’ personal lives is not necessary, only that of their professional performances is required. But the truth is that one’s personal life greatly influences work life. By being unaware of the employees’ personal relations, one can put two people, having some hostility to each other, together in some project. Or one can unknowingly hand over extra work to someone who has recently lost someone dear. In both the cases, the workers will not be performing their best.
  • 3. Be insincere. If you yourself are not fully keen about a particular venture, your employees also will not be. You can try projecting a fake enthusiasm but it’s quite likely that your employees will identify it. And when they’ll do, their morale will decrease. Motivation has to be natural and if someone doesn’t like his/her job, then he can’t convince or inspire the subordinates.
  • Compulsively look for faults. One possibly gets the administrative position because of the performances in previous positions. If someone is the head of the IT, his starting in the company must have been as a junior programmer. A thought can come that the importance as a manager is based merely on technical excellence. This causes insecurity and a defensive attitude and consequently makes one obsessed with finding faults and carping in employees’ work. Its natural that a worker will loose his/her morale if his mistakes are always pointed out.
  • Micro-manage the employees. These are managers who think that employees need to be instructed at very step. They are constantly hovering over and unthinkingly point out methodology and technicalities. They always think about minutiae, which are not under control of anyone. They hover over their staff, observing each and every activity and interfering in all decisions. This can be easily envisaged how the subordinates of a manager like that would feel when the day ends.

The morale of employees is essential for any business to succeed. But unlike other parts of the business, this is not proven. It depends on the attitude and thinking of managers and their way of interaction with the rest of organization.

Filed Under: Work & Careers

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About the Author: Vanessa Page works a career counselor in one of the leading firms in Los Angeles. She is also a blogger and gives tips on how people can tackle their work and career issues. She has 8 years of experience in this field.

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