Practical tips for keeping up morale at work
Morale at work is not a tangible product that can be bottled and dispensed as required. Yet it affects everybody, and everybody can affect it. Alasdair Cant takes a look at how we can become more aware of it and choose to be passive or active in how we respond to the prevailing mood at work. This article was first published in JAM (issue 45 / January 2012).
Article snippet
Generalising:
Is it really typical? How many times has it actually happened in the last month? Are you sure you always do the clearing up for others, and is it fair to describe someone or everyone as ‘so selfish’, based on this incident, even if it is a recurrence?
Catastrophising:
This is where you are aware of a difficult situation, (such as funding squeeze or cuts on the horizon) and decide in your head either consciously or unconsciously that the worst-case scenario is a probability rather than a possibility.
Negative spin:
This is where you focus on one negative event to the exclusion of everything else, thereby giving too much authority to the event, allowing it to dictate your thinking about the entirety. For example, you get home in the evening declaring that the day was dreadful and the working atmosphere is awful. This is often based on one or two difficult situations and behaviours encountered. It disregards anything that has gone well and other positive interactions.
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