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Hello!

Over the past few months I've had some shifts in my team, a member was promoted to another team, two left for family reasons (moved states, family emergency), one has left for a spot in another department and today I was dealt another blow by someone leaving for another company. The person is a very strong member and will be a loss for our team.

That's 5 leaves in a little under 6 months. I'm very worried about communicating this to my already understaffed team. My manager and I are meeting tomorrow to figure out how we re-prioritize, I'm meeting with another manager who has also been through something similar.

But moral is low because of all the departures and I'm afraid this takes it down again.

I'm very self reflective and have been looking at things I can do better as well. I'm going to have to push my team like they haven't before. We've had a lot of trouble getting people in lately due to the market. The market is good and offering more the what my company is willing too.

How do I keep moral up in this time and continue to push my team?

Thanks!

zbigi's picture

That's about time to look around for new options. Like you wrote, your ship is sinking, thnakgod you're a passanges and not a captain. Look at it this way: maybe they are leaving because they know something you dont...

mrreliable's picture

Gotta be honest. I heard warning buzzers going off really loud when I read your post. People are leaving, one after the other. You're understaffed. Your team has taken the brunt of each departure, and now you have to work them to the bone. Morale has been deflating for a while, and now it's especially low. You're not having a meeting to figure out how to motivate the employees, you're having a meeting to "re-prioritize."

You're worried about communicating this to your employees, which is understandable. From my perspective, seeing this very brief description of the situation, the troubles in the company go far beyond anything that communication skills are going to address.

It's good that you look at this situation by wondering what you can do to make the situation better. That's always a good approach. But if your company is not willing to compensate to attract top employees, what do they expect?

I'd have to agree with zbigi. Time for you to look around. It seems clear the company does not value their employees. If they did, they'd be distressed that they can't keep anybody, and they'd be more worried about what they could do to improve the situations for the employees themselves, rather than resetting priorities. How do I know that the new list of priorities isn't going to include much of value for the remaining employees? It's not surprising they have another manager for counsel who has been through the same thing. It's a company-wide phenomenon, stemming from the top.

I guess one question I'd have is whether the upper management are just jerks who look down on their employees, or whether they want to do it right but just don't have the knowledge or experience. You might be able to work with them if they just don't know any better. In our company from the start we brought in the best people we could find, showered them with appreciation and compensation, and we consider them responsible for our success. The employees are the geese that lay the golden eggs. The happier our employees are the more money we all make. We don't lose employees. We have people lined up waiting to get in.