Office Morale

[Belsnickel]

So, as of today we have a second person in a week leaving our department of 21 people. The first one didn't make it past his probationary period. The second one did, but because he has proven to be too much of a liability to the department, the university, and to the Commonwealth, he is being asked to resign.

Has anyone else had any experience with this sort of thing? I mean, in our department that is 10% getting fired in a week and the morale is really going to take a hit. Thankfully, our director is going to be handling the brunt of this but this is a new experience for me and so I'm not really sure what I'm walking into when we make the announcement tomorrow morning.

[Beaker]

I know there's high turnover in titty bars. Where do you work?

[Bengal Dude]

Unfortunately, a lot of place I've worked at have had very low morale. My current employer didn't start off as low morale, but it has delved into such. I work in a warehouse and it seems like 1-2 people are gone every week. The warehouse has really become divided in the 3 1/2 years that I've been here. It's not an easy environment to work in.

[CKwi88]

I spent 4 years as an academic coordinator of a private English school in Brazil. It was a family run business started by an excellent pedagogical mind, but unfortunately none of her 3 daughters got her same skill in teaching or administration. Both teachers and sales consultants were treated like crap, and at the beginning of each semester it wasn't a question among the coordinators of if we were going to lose teachers in the middle of the semester (quite an inconvenience) but a question of when and how many. The sales consultant situation was a rotating door. It all led to extraordinarily low morale all around.

I guess I was lucky in the fact that it was a school in that I could honestly say that I was working more for my students and the few dedicated teachers that I was training and working with. That, coupled with the fact that I was the coordinator of a school where the administrators didn't visit, made life a lot easier.

By the end of my time there I had a whole little pep talk that I'd give to the team that was something about knowing how we all know the administration sucks, but we can't do a thing about that so let's focus on what we can change and that was the experience for students and colleagues.

And then I bailed and moved back to the USA once I couldn't take it anymore.


But it was a rather dynamic school setting. I have absolutely no idea how the same could be captured in an office setting with taxes.

[Belsnickel]

(06-02-2015, 10:12 PM)CKwi88 Wrote: But it was a rather dynamic school setting. I have absolutely no idea how the same could be captured in an office setting with taxes.

Well, I am currently in a bursars (essentially accounts receivable) office at a state university. So while still different, no longer taxes.

The big difference here is that these people were incompetent. Plain and simple. But we didn't want to spread their screw ups around when they were here and so most people don't know how bad they were doing. This causes some to think that we (the managers) were just out to get them when in reality we gave them many opportunities to redeem themselves.

[Millhouse]

If  morale does drop, then I would just be honest to the remaining employees as to what happened without going into every detail without breaking laws & such. For one they would appreciate the honesty while also stop worrying about their own job security, as anyone would. And if it was the director or manager, I would call a 5-10 minute 'gather round meeting' at the start of the shift to tell everyone what happened and why. Just get it out there immediately so folks can gossip on it for a bit, and then they will get it out of their systems quickly (I work in an office with 60 some folks, I know). However keep them in the dark, and morale will drop.\

That said, all this is based on the assumption that this would be a shock to the others. I know if a couple of folks in my department got fired tomorrow, I would probably say figures. Work gossip is what keeps us peons going half the time So there is that too.

[*bfine32*]

You might want to fire the hiring official for incompetence.

[The Noob Avenger]

(06-02-2015, 11:17 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: So, as of today we have a second person in a week leaving our department of 21 people. The first one didn't make it past his probationary period. The second one did, but because he has proven to be too much of a liability to the department, the university, and to the Commonwealth, he is being asked to resign.

Has anyone else had any experience with this sort of thing? I mean, in our department that is 10% getting fired in a week and the morale is really going to take a hit. Thankfully, our director is going to be handling the brunt of this but this is a new experience for me and so I'm not really sure what I'm walking into when we make the announcement tomorrow morning.

Call center job for going on 7 years here. I've seen a lot of breakdowns in my department over the years. 

It comes with the territory with this type of work, but is compounded by a director that's more of a numbers guy than a people guy. Morale suffers even more due to that.

[Belsnickel]

(06-02-2015, 11:40 PM)bfine32 Wrote: You might want to fire the hiring official for incompetence.

Unfortunately he is in the rung above me, and the one who hired me.

He's just had a bad run of employees. Personality wise they fit the office, but they just couldn't do the jobs. Since we're a state office we have a hard time getting qualified candidates to apply because we can't compare to the private sector in compensation.

[*michaelsean*]

(06-02-2015, 11:17 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: So, as of today we have a second person in a week leaving our department of 21 people. The first one didn't make it past his probationary period. The second one did, but because he has proven to be too much of a liability to the department, the university, and to the Commonwealth, he is being asked to resign.

Has anyone else had any experience with this sort of thing? I mean, in our department that is 10% getting fired in a week and the morale is really going to take a hit. Thankfully, our director is going to be handling the brunt of this but this is a new experience for me and so I'm not really sure what I'm walking into when we make the announcement tomorrow morning.

My wife has it where they work.  It's especially in the call center.  While above minimum wage (I think they pay $11.00 to start) it's still in the price range where you are going to bring in some rabble.  They get a lot of good workers who are just trying to start somewhere, but there are going to be a few, and they are usually discovered pretty quickly.  The thing is, they aren't bad people or anything.  They just lack personal responsibility.

[Belsnickel]

(06-03-2015, 10:57 AM)michaelsean Wrote: My wife has it where they work.  It's especially in the call center.  While above minimum wage (I think they pay $11.00 to start) it's still in the price range where you are going to bring in some rabble.  They get a lot of good workers who are just trying to start somewhere, but there are going to be a few, and they are usually discovered pretty quickly.  The thing is, they aren't bad people or anything.  They just lack personal responsibility.

The big issue with the second one was lack of attention to detail. All revenue for the university flows through us, so what we do is very detail oriented. Without it your mistakes can be huge. When your mistakes cost more than your salary, you're going to have a bad time.