A friend of mine told me that his manager sent out an email that she was going to start doing bagel Mondays. He didn’t eat breakfast that following Monday because he thought a bagel would be at work waiting for him.
But, there were no bagels, and there never have been.
In fact, the manager just never brought bagels, and never mentioned it again.
It seems silly, but to be honest my friend was annoyed, if not even a little angry. It’s not that there are no piping hot bagels on Monday mornings, it’s that his manager said she’d do something and she didn’t. Couple that with the fact that she often doesn’t keep her word, and she’s quickly losing the trust of the team.
I bring this story up because I think it highlights a major point: If bagels can damage morale like that, think about how deep the damage to morale is when something happens (or doesn’t happen) that really actually matters.
Just food for thought… pun intended.
P.S. With every post I try to offer tips, tricks, worksheets, tools, job aids, scripts and other things you can use regularly to keep morale up. If there’s something you’d like to know more about, please message me and I’m happy to write a response!
For more articles on workplace environments, you can visit my blog at www.civilitypartners.com/blog
