Recession takes its toll: Employee morale drops

CHICAGO, ILL.
November 17, 2009 11:46am

Workers have navigated increased workloads, longer hours and strained resources during this recession but it’s all beginning to take a toll on workplace morale, according to a new survey.

Nearly a quarter (23 percent) rate their organization’s current employee morale as low, says the survey paid for by the online jobs site CareerBuilder.com.

Additionally, 40 percent of workers report that they have had difficulty staying motivated at work in the last year and a quarter (24 percent) do not feel loyal to their current employer.

“Low morale levels are an unfortunate side effect of this recession,” says Jason Ferrara, vice president of corporate marketing for CareerBuilder.

Workers revealed a variety of factors that could be contributing to low morale levels. Two-in-five said that their stress level at work is high and nearly half (47 percent) said that their workload has increased in the last six months. One-in-five are dissatisfied with their work/life balance.

Nearly two-in-five workers (38 percent) said they felt there was departmental favoritism at work, which could also play a part in low morale levels. More than a quarter of (28 percent) workers don’t think their department is important to senior leadership.

Sales (15 percent), human resources (11 percent) and accounting/finance (6 percent) topped the list of departments workers believe are primarily given preferential treatment at work.

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive and paid for by CareerBuilder among 2,924 hiring managers and human resource professionals (employed full-time; not self-employed; non-government; with at least significant involvement in hiring decisions); and among 4,285 U.S. workers (employed full-time; not self-employed; non-government); ages 18 and over between Aug. 20 and Sept. 9. Percentages for some questions are based on a subset, based on their responses to certain questions. With a pure probability sample of 2,924 and 4,285 one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 1.81 percentage points and +/-1.5 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.