A good manager will notice when something seems a little off inside the office. Maybe the sense of collaboration and goodwill has been replaced with some weird tension, or maybe your workers just seem a little more tired lately, as if they all got a little sick at the same time. It’s easy to put revenue and profits above all else in today’s business climate, but if something is wrong with your employee morale, it’s eventually going to filter over and impact the bottom line. As management, it’s your job to take care of your employees. If they know you have their back, they’re more likely to be as productive as possible. Loyalty breeds loyalty, after all. Here are some possible problems and solutions.
Interoffice Conflict
Ideally, you’re close enough to your employees to simply ask what’s going on. Interoffice conflict happens a lot, and it can sometimes be resolved with just a quick meeting between the two people involved. As an example, let’s say Fred and Joel both work in accounting, and one day Joel borrowed a pen from Fred’s desk without asking, and now they’re locked in some sort of cold war that seems to involve office supplies. This is especially awkward since another employee named Mary sits between them and often caughts get in the middle. It sounds silly, but offices have crumbled under lessor stressors. Get Fred and Joel in the same room and remind them that they’re supposed to be on the same team. Remind Joel not to borrow things without asking. Remind Fred to talk to Joel if he has an issue. Remind them both that there’s a communal office supply drawer by the breakroom. Hopefully, that will be the end of it.
Sometimes, though, bigger issues come up, and you may need outside help to avoid legal liability. If you haven’t already given your employees sexual harassment prevention training, it’s long past time to do so. A lot of people aren’t aware of just how many things could constitute sexual harassment. For instance, if Sam repeatedly asks Mary on a date, even though Mary has told him from the beginning she’s not interested, that could be considered sexual harassment, depending on the specifics of what Sam is doing. Many people think sexual harassment means a boss threatening to fire someone if they don’t sleep with him, and while that’s definitely one of the most blatant and obvious ways for it to happen, it’s far from the only one. You should encourage your employees to be friendly to one another, but sexual harassment is the opposite of friendly.
The General Blahs
Not every drop in office morale can be traced to a conflict with another person or persons. Sometimes there are outside forces at work. If the town where you work has had a really bad winter, that can really do a number on employees’ mental health. Or maybe the corporate office has announced plans for layoffs, but no one knows how or when they’ll occur. That’s a tough situation, as you can’t promise someone that their job is secure if it’s not true. You can, however, encourage your employees to take care of themselves. That may mean allowing them to take a mental health day if need it, since a lot of people believe something like a cold or flu is the only acceptable reason to call in sick. You can also encourage them to set up a fitness plan for their physical and emotional well-being. Many employers offer subsidized gym memberships for their employees, but if that’s not an option, you can at least look the other way if a few employees take a slightly longer lunch to go to the gym.
The biggest thing you can do as a manager is let your employees know that you see them as a person, not just another cog in the machinery. Don’t stay hidden in your office. You want to be approachable, not cold and distant. Your employees will appreciate you for it, and so will the corporate higher-ups once they see the increased productivity.