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Morale makes a difference, whether we can measure it or not I was recently speaking with a manager at a company that was already fully remote before the pandemic. She shared that while people are still completing tasks, she’s noticing an increase in bugs and just a general lack of engagement. She also shared that between COVID policy inertia and cost-cutting efforts, the senior leadership has not brought back the occasional in-person gatherings that used to help strengthen relationships on the team. While it’s hard to “prove,” she sees a connection between the two, even as someone who loves remote work. It’s hard to measure morale, and even harder to identify its causes and effects. If you have a good level of empathy, you’ll understand what I mean when I say it’s possible to enter a physical room and feel the overall mood. Are people having lively conversations or sitting quietly alone? Smiling or scowling? Leaning toward each other or leaned back with arms crossed? Sitting up straight or slouching? Yes, we’re often making guesses in these situations, but they can be surprisingly accurate and helpful. It’s so much harder to gauge mood on Zoom. And I say this as someone who has been running virtual emotional intelligence workshops throughout the pandemic. So, morale problems can go undetected for a long time. You can send out company surveys to try to measure morale, and sure, there’s some benefit to that. But do employees trust the anonymity of those surveys? And if they’re truly feeling burnt out, will they even have the energy to complete the survey? A recent report from Deloitte shows just how bad leadership is at gauging employee well-being:
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