Motivation in practice - how not to do it - lessons from Britain’s bosses

The recession of 2009 has put bosses and managers under great strain. And it seems that one result is an increasingly de-motivated workforce. That’s not surprising if the actions of some of Britain’s bosses are being repeated across the land…

KeepBritainWorking reports on some rather unfortunate examples of management behaviour which it believes are contributing to a decline in employee motivation. These include:

- A charity boss who brought in his hunting rifle and pretended to fire it at staff to make them work harder
- A boss who made staff clean toilets because she had sacked the cleaners to save money
- A boss who cut staff hours and pay while boasting about using his bonus to re-decorate his house
- A public sector boss who advised a worker that people were queuing up for her job
- A telecoms boss who chanted “hit this target, keep your job…hit this target, keep your job”

More than half the UK’s bosses - 52 per cent - have got worse at motivating their staff since the recession began, according to a survey of over 1,600 workers by the organisation.

Of course it might be that employees are more sensitive to de-motivating behaviour than they were during the boom years. The fear of redundancy and heightened anxiety about future prospects makes any management action or decision more significant.

Nevertheless, the message for managers seems to be “engage brain before opening mouth”