No surprise.  News of recession will have a negative impact on employee morale.  Disheartened employees mean disengaged employees.  In the current economic climate if a business is to survive, the work force must be fully engaged-emotionally, physically, even spritually.

The unfortunate reality is that many companies will go under because of failure to motivate, empower, and acknowledge their employees.

Instead of deliberately and consistently communicating with employees, employers will go into “shut down” mode. THe result will be increased fear among employees and mistrust of management.

According to the Respectful Workplace Blog:

“Communicate constantly to minimize uncertainty. Uncertainty arouses the fear circuits in the brain and is an absolute killer to employee productivity. When people are unsure about the stability of their organization, their standing with their boss or supervisor, or a clear understanding of what’s expected of them, most assume the worst. The ensuing stress decreases the amount of a chemical called dopamine in the brain, a chemical that is critical for clear thinking and reasoning by the prefrontal cortex. Continuous uncertainty can also increase the levels of cortisol in the body, too much of which can permanently damage both the brain and the circulatory system.”

The morale to this story is that survival in the current economy will depend on EVERYONE in the organization bringing their best selves to work.

1.       Name the elephant in the room – yours & theirs. Acknowledge out loud that you and others are worried. It is a WASTE of emotional and psychological energy to either pretend the elephant doesn’t exist or to ignore it. 

2.       Avoid the blame game.  Self-righteousness keeps feelings of victimization on life support.

3.       Recognize that people really can’t compartmentalize their emotional states.  Happy, sad, stressed - one area of our life will seep into others.

4.       Stress, concern, and increased tension will cause people to have a short fuse. Expect more arguments and push back at work—but in strange and unexpected areas.  Help peers and yourself.  A re you angry at the person or task in front of you-or is it just a convenient target? (For action tools to address this check out The case of the convenient victim as well as the reply in the Feedback section of the next enews. )

5.       If you are targeted, attempt to recognize it as the person’s way of expressing frustration.

6.       Anger is an energy-redirect the energy. Take a walk. Take up kick boxing, write in a journal, have a 5 minute pity party, clean your workspace, jump up and down.

7.       60 second vent-write down everything that is pissing you off, irritating you or otherwise is “just not fair”. Cross out what is outside your immediate influence or it will take more time and emotional energy than you have this week.  Determine what is within your circle of influence.  Don’t ruminate over the rest. 

8.       Create best case-worst case & most likely case scenarios. Have an action plan for each.

9.       Think of 10 things that you are grateful for –write those on 10 sticky notes and post them around your work space.

10.   Then pick 1 thing that you can do something about and do just one small thing.