3 • Managing Job Satisfaction and Morale
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increase and turnover will decrease.5 An office supervisor describes an in¬cident supporting this idea:
We used to have a devil of a time keeping input technicians on the job. Our turnover rate was over 40 percent. We asked technicians why they quit. Time after time they complained about a cold air draft on the floor. Management studied the situation and decided that revamping the heating system would be prohibitive in cost. We finally bought two space heaters with petty cash. Complaints about cold feet disappeared. The turnover rate for the input technicians dropped down to 9 percent within one year.
Job Stress
Job stress is the body’s response to any job-related factor that threatens to disturb the person’s equilibrium. In the process of experiencing stress, the employee’s inner state changes. If stress is prolonged, the employee may suffer a variety of ailments including heart disease, blurred vision, lower- back pain, dermatitis, and muscle aches. Almost any adverse or unusually exciting event can cause too much stress; being fired or winning a lottery can both give you severe stress symptoms.
Chronic job dissatisfaction is a powerful source of job stress. The em¬ployee may see no satisfactory short-term solution to escaping this type of stress. An employee who feels trapped in a dissatisfying job may with¬draw by such means as high absenteeism or tardiness; or the employee may quit.
Employees under prolonged stress stemming from job dissatisfaction often consume too much alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, and illegal drugs. These employees are costly to the company in terms of time lost from the job and payments for medical expenses including increased medical insurance premiums.
Safety
Poor safety practices are another negative consequence of low morale and satisfaction. Some of the employee lost time just mentioned can be attrib¬uted to job accidents. When people are discouraged about their jobs, com¬pany, and supervisors, they are more liable to experience accidents. An underlying reason behind such accidents is that discouragement may take
5Charles L. Hulin, “Effects of Changes in Job Satisfaction Levels on Employee Turnover,” Journal of Applied Psychology, April 1968, pp. 122-26.
