Every Friday I write about a topic of particular interest to working parents who manage people.
Recent reports from TIME Magazine, MSNBC, and The Los Angeles Times among others are suggesting that “layoff survivors” experience as much or more stress than their downsized counterparts. This makes sense to me — when there is a layoff, employees are asked to increase their individual workloads, say good-bye to friends and colleagues, and experience the stress of wondering whether they will be next. For working parents who manage a delicate balance of work and life, this kind of transition can be especially tricky.
Because staff is likely to be smaller, managers will need every hand they still have on deck during these months (hopefully not years). Morale is more than just a nice buzzword in this situation, it is an absolutely necessary part of good management. Here are six tips for keeping morale high in touch times:
1. Keep your own morale high. You as the manager need to do everything you can to set the mood in the office. Find energy in thinking about new projects, reorganizing and creative solutions that offer renewed sense of purpose. At home, treat yourself kindly. Find joy in activities outside of work so that you can face each week happy and re-energized.
2. Motivate staff with stimulating work. The Chief Happiness Officer blog created this amazing graph on employee motivation:
I love this chart because it expresses a very fundamental concept of management — an employee who has interesting and stimulating projects will be motivated. While reorganization can be demoralizing, it also offers good employees opportunities to expand and grow. Staff members may be sad for a short time after layoffs, but they can be re-energized by new and exciting work.
3. Focus on the work. In times of low morale, staff members are likely to spend a lot of time talking about frustrations, perceived slights and injustices, and challenges to getting work done. This wastes time and it doesn’t make anything better. Instead, focus meetings on current and new projects, what the department is accomplishing, and solutions. When there are obstacles, encourage employees to be very specific about what the problem is and to come up with two or three possible solutions, rather than raising the issue as an open question.
4. Take the opportunity to reorganize. You may not have chosen to lose some of your staff, but once you are in the position of working with fewer people, you may want to think about how to reorganize to ensure maximum functionality without burnout. Reorganizing also offers the ability to find new, motivating roles for existing employees that allow them to stretch and grow.
5. Forget about “team-building exercises”. Making a group of people who are frustrated and angry — and may have real and legitimate concerns — engage in summer camp trust-building exercises won’t solve your problems. Whether your employees think such a retreat is fun or not, it doesn’t change the on the ground reality of your work environment and its challenges. It also wastes time and takes people away from their increased workloads. Hildy Gottlieb has a good article on why team-building isn’t a good strategy and the right way to build a team here.
6. Meet frequently and keep your door open. During a period of transition, employees are naturally suspicious, worried, and susceptible to rumor. Communicating often, sharing as much as possible, and leaving your door open (literally and figuratively) instills a sense of trust and keeps the rumor-mill to a minimum.
More good links on managing “layoff survivor syndrome”:
- CC Holland at BNET’s Team Taskmaster writes about restoring morale after layoffs.
- Susan Heathfield, human resources expert at About.com, writes about how to cope when coworkers lose their job. This is a useful article on understanding emotional well-being in a layoff situation.
- An article from Business Management Daily about preventing survivor syndrome.
- The HR Specialist writes about prevent additional turnover after layoffs.
