I was looking outside when I glanced a luxurious car parking under what looked like a healthy tree. Suddenly, a big branch of the tree fell on the car and damaged it. This reminded me of the Fallen Tree Branch Syndrome. A tree that looks healthy is not.
My mind drew analogy between the fallen branch syndrome and the fallen branch of employees’ morale.
Researchers are still undecided on the reasons why a healthy-looking tree drops its branches suddenly. One reason is due to overwatering the tree and rotting its roots. This leads to the sudden fall of the tree branches.
There are early indicators of the fallen branch of the employees’ morale by lowering their emotions state. Morale in the workplace is a key driver of a company’s success. Detectable signs of fallen morale include
- Lower productivity compared to previous performances.
- Increased gossiping, backbiting and spread of rumors in an organization.
- Increased illnesses among employees and reporting late to work.
- Lower quality of customers’ service
- Increased waste of time due to increasing mistakes by employees.
- Forgetting appointments
- Sleeping during meetings and agreeing with the group without serious discussions
- Increased floor dirt such as thrown napkins on the floor
- Increased conflicts among employees
- Employees not putting their maximum effort in the work
- Fallen creativity and continuing doing the same without attempting to improve work
- Late to respond to customers’ phone calls and complaints
- Prevalence of toxic culture
When employees’ morale is high, they engage, contribute and care for the quality of their work. This is because employees with good morale levels value their work.
This results in higher team unity and productivity. Employees care to work in keeping with the companies’ mission, vision and goals. Those employees try again if they fail and learn from their failures. They care to improve their work and generate new ideas.
Be careful to assume that what looks a healthy morale tree may drop its branches and fail the work. Care to detect the early signs of falling morale.
