Page 154 - Anne Bruce - Building A HIgh Morale Workplace (2002)

134 Building a High Morale Workplace

Managers Ask, “How Can I Win Back

Employee Morale?”

In the aftermath of 9/11, managers in companies of all sizes will
continue to ask for some time to come, “How can I win back
employee morale?” It’s important to point out that regaining

employee morale after tragedy strikes was a management con-
cern well before the unimaginable terrorist attacks on the United
States. However, it somehow took the enormity of these attacks
to shed greater light on

how trauma can so
Words of
destructively affect work-
Encouragement place morale in order to
“You gain strength, courage
remind us that we must
and confidence by every experience by
take care of our people,
which you really stop to look fear in
the face.You are able to say to your- first and foremost, espe-
self,‘I lived through this horror, I can cially when they have suf-
take the next thing that comes along.’” fered heartache, fear, and
—Eleanor Roosevelt uncertainty about the
future.

Managers Look to Seminars as a Helpful Resource
A customer service manager at one of the world’s largest finan-

cial services firms, located just one block away from New York’s
World Trade Center, told me in late 2001:

The first few months, it seemed like everyone was in
shock. Now the reality of what has happened has sunk in
and employees are having an extremely difficult time deal-

ing with it all and concentrating on their work. Some can
barely function. And as managers, we’ve never dealt with
anything of this magnitude ourselves. We’re still suffering
too. It seems one of our biggest challenges is building
back morale in the face of everything that’s happened.

It wasn’t long after this interview took place that this manag-
er contacted me about customizing an employee seminar for
their workers and a separate seminar for their management