I admit that I have a reflexive reaction to people talking about morale. That should be obvious. To me, the Morale Police are just operatives for The Man, The Man being the boss who wants everyone to think they are happy while business - which is often Bad Business - goes on as usual.
I have worked in many work situations in which morale was, generally, quite bad. In fact, such was the case with most places I have been employed. And why was it bad? Because a fool and/or sociopath was in charge. Because people's creativity was frustrated. Because the Powers That Were were taking the institution in a direction that was distressing and violated what those with Morale Problems believed that the mission of the place should be. The usual.
But what was the real problem? Was the real problem "morale," or was it the dynamics, culture and decision-making process of the place? The latter, of course. "Morale" is a symptom, and those who are keen on raising our morale are usually uninterested in letting go of power in order to actually solve the problems. They don't want things to change. They want us to pretend that we are happy with the way they're operating.
You know, it's like being a teacher in a highly dysfunctional school in which someone decides that the way to fix teacher morale is to put a Coke machine in the lounge or something, when what really needs to be done is for the principal to clearly support teachers who want strong academic accountability or an unambigious Catholic identity. Yes, it's more complex than I let on, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to stand firm in my position against the Morale Police. I don't trust them.
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