Morale is a stet of mind and spirit, affecting willingness to work, which in turn affects organizational and employees’ individual objectives. Morale indicators are the factors that tend to show the attitude of employees towards the organization and its management.
All these indicators represent the end process. Often, they may be associated with factors other than those attributable to morale.
The bad effects of low morale in the workplace are not good for any organization.
What are the Signs of Low Morale in the Workplace?
These indices of low morale among employees are as follow:
1. Employee Unrest
When morale is low, unrest may appear in different forms.
Employees may be restless and dissatisfied. They may indulge in daydreams.
They come flat for work remain absent or change jobs frequently and present a disciplinary problem.
Employees of low morale indulge in crowd behavior.
They indulge in strikes, work stoppages, go-slows, and allied group actions.
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2. Absenteeism and Tardiness
Low morale is an indicator of low job satisfaction. It creates absentees and latecomers.
If morale is high, employees try to come on time and avoid absences.
But all absences are not necessarily a sign of low morale in the workplace.
There may be genuine causes such as sickness of the employee, death in the family, and so on.
3. Employee Turnover
Workers may respond to severe unrest, discontentment, and morale problems by deserting their jobs.
However, we cannot consider all turnover as resulting from low morale.
Illness, death, layoffs, and retirement are also cause of workers turnover.
Some departments like those concerned with training or having blind alley jobs will have a higher labor turnover.
Similarly, young employees have a higher turnover rate than that of the seniors. Such cases are not necessarily a case of morale.
4. Employee Grievances
Grievances lead to lower levels of morale and may cause severe forms of unrest through social contagion.
Employee grievances may be real or imaginary and may result from numerous reasons.
Both management and labor may have grievances and unrest or any side can lower morale.
Related: Key Principles of Handling Employee Grievances.
5. Accidents
When accidents take place in large numbers in spite of the best mechanical contrivances and safeguards, the management may like to probe deeper to find if low morale is the cause for it.
6. Indiscipline
In industry, discipline, which is imposed as a measure of remedy for offense, provides indicates for low morale among employees.
It should be recognized that workers cannot be disciplined at the whims of the management.
Rather, they can be taught to visualize the rationale of rules and regulations and understand their objective.
7. Disinterest, Fatigue, and Monotony
In many industries and for many workers, jobs fail to gain and hold interest.
Although rank and file employees may complain about this condition, the more common reaction is probably too loiter, malinger, wander away from the work, resulting in wide fluctuations in productivity.
Lack of interest may also be an indicator of low morale.
The rates of fatigue vary with the intensity of motivation.
Monotony may also be an outstanding feature of low morale. It should be noted that fatigue is not merely physical.
8. Separation Rate
It may be the simplest outcome of low morale.
Serrapetion includes all quits, layoffs, and discharges.
But it is not the final indicator of the low morale of employees.
Related: How to Boost Employee Morale in the Workplace?
9. Disciplinary Problems
The most frequent violations of work rules include absenteeism, abuse of rest and luncheon periods, breaking safety rules, leaving the job without permission, insubordination, drinking, fighting, horseplay, dishonesty, garnishments, and gambling.
Each of these may, to some extent, be symptomatic of low morale.
Employee morale may be affected both by the rules themselves add by the manner of their enforcement.
Unfairness in discipline can be expected to have adverse effects on employee morale.
10. Work Stoppages
All work stoppages suggest the existence of serious employee dissatisfaction and criticisms.
To interpret work stoppages in terms of morale, management must probe beneath these stated issues.
Related: Different Types of Disciplinary Actions Applied by Companies.
11. Restrictions of Output
Intentional restriction of output is an indication of worker feelings that closely approximates the definition of negative morale.
In it, employees purposefully produce less than they can.
They set formal limits or bogeys, exerting pressure on members of their crews to enforce these limits.
In the most obvious of these practices, employees enforce work rules that prevent efficient operation.
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