It's not the Economy; It's You

Morale is more than a people issue; it's a businessissue. Low morale increases turnover, and turnover (whenunplanned) is bad for managers and their reputation,department and efficiencyand, of course, the bottomline. Low morale also causes declines in productivity andquality. No figures exist to quantify those declines, saysAnne Reustle, leader of the work-life consulting group atWilliam M. Mercer in Philadelphia, but the correlationbetween morale and business functioning isself-evident.

"StressStress and illness caused by excessive demands in workand personal life can seriously reduce a worker'sproductivity and have a direct impact on the bottom line,"Reustle asserts. Alles zu Stress auf CIO.de

Those demands are magnified in IT departments, wheremaintaining morale can be singularly challenging.

"Right now, IT's workload is increasing because oflayoffs, but at the same time their energy is ebbing andthey feel overloaded and confused," says Dennis LaRosee,senior vice president of Praendex, a Wellesley, Mass.-basedexecutive training and management consultancy. "IT leadersand workers tend to be introspective and technical innature. They feel unappreciated because no one sees thecreative effort and energy that goes into writing anapplication or completing a project." And when IT staffersdo receive feedback, LaRosee points out, it's usuallynegative.