If they could choose, would they stay?

In these troubled times, it’s hard for organizations to focus on employee moral and happiness. I’ve heard many ‘leaders’ say things like “they should be happy they have a job” when confronted with low moral and employee unhappiness.

My response to those ‘leaders’ is this:

Think about what will happen when the economy rebounds and the job market returns…will you be so casually responding to your employees’ low morale?  Most stare blankly at me and have no response.

I then hit them with “Do you think your employees will stay in your organization as soon as the rebound happens?”  To their credit, most have been honest and answered “no”.

Organizations *must* focus on their people during this downturn if they have any hope of surviving and thriving when the economy picks back up.

If you’re a manager, ask yourself this question to keep your focus on your people: If they could choose, would they stay?

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About Eric D. Brown
Eric D. Brown is a Dallas based Technology Consultant, and Entrepreneur focused on helping businesses and non-profits merge business, marketing and technology. He writes extensively about technology, strategy, people and projects at ericbrown.com. Eric is also an amateur Photographer and shares his photography work at Photography Minute and on his flickr photostream. Read more about Eric...

Comments

  1. Great post. I will read your posts frequently. Added you to the RSS reader.

  2. Billigflug says:

    Hey
    In this times humans work like machines- They must be funtional.
    It´s very cheerless, but this is the actualy truth. There´s nobody who ask you the question if you realy want this job- you must do it for your family/ because of high taxes and huge prices you didn´t have any choice.
    There´s nobody which support your family.
    In this time theres no room for wishes.But this system couldn´t work forever, because of missing satisfaction.I hope there will be an improvement, and everybody could take a choice and get his “pefect job”.Standing up in the morning with a smile on your face- Utopia?

  3. Eric D. Brown
    Twitter:
    says:

    Billigflug – I disagree.

    Of course, there is no utopia, but you can build an organization that gives people the ability to enjoy their work. Treating people like machines is what has built business into a soul-less beast.

  4. Eric D. Brown
    Twitter:
    says:

    Stacy – Thanks!

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