Causes for Decline of Work Ethic and Morale

     Workplace ethics and morale have seemed to be on the decline for years. People entering the workforce have an idea on what they feel like is going to be expected of them and how everything works. Unfortunately, the only way someone gains the information they need to work, is to put in the time and take some of the lumps that come with the job. \

     Most of the decline in work ethic comes from the fact that employees assigned unwanted tasks merely get upset over the fact and choose to do a sub-par job on that task. Instead of speaking to a manager or superior about why they are disgruntled, they merely just let it affect their work. When a manager feels as though they are losing the employee, the need to micromanage them becomes more necessary, and overall negative representation of the employee is created. All these lead to employees fearing for their jobs, and excessive workloads placed on employees who show a good work ethic and can get tasks done efficiently and correctly. 

     These negatives also contribute highly towards negative workplace morale. As people begin to think negatively of each other, it becomes increasing difficult to run a successful shift. Everyone begins to focus on the "me" aspect, which is working solely for themselves and not helping others, instead of working for the team and attempting to help each other be better. 

Credit to Tavorro (T.)

     In this graph, we notice that all of the adverse effect of poor work ethic and decline are merely due to the snowball effect. Once the employee begins to feel disgruntled, there is a good chance they will eventually go through all of the aspects that negatively impact morale. If someone begins to notice an employee snowballing out of control, they need to be able to step in and fix the issues before the problem spreads.

     Other issues may include a lack on transparency from managers and a lack of recognition. These two things can kill morale within a company. Forbes talks about these is more detail and the article can be found Forbes 3 Reasons Employee Engagement is Declining. Do you feel as though there are more reasons for why work ethic and morale are on the decline?