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I heard this story from my sister. At the time, I was in a customer facing department... so I was part of the rehabilitation, in a way. 
Our company, like most, does yearly surveys to see how awesome we're all feeling about our jobs. Because if we feel awesome, it shows. They are realistic about it - they know we'd all rather be on a beach somewhere eating bon-bons - but they want to know how we're doing.
Anyway, the surveys are anonymous BUT they do record units. So we know which departments are doing the best and which are doing the worst. My department used to be a festering cesspit of animosity.
Senior leadership set out to find out why.
Part of it was bad processes and some really annoying tasks. But a lot of it was, frankly, a culture of whining that had set in. They had it SO HARD! And the managers were complicit in this. So a campaign was undertaken to fix the situation.
They started moving people around. Those identified as problematic were basically forced to take lateral moves, expand their horizons. They brought in people from customer facing departments, like retention. Those moves were voluntary and eagerly sought... many people like the commission of being in customer service but some don't care, or get burnt out. That was when I took a move, I was so tired of dealing with customers. Also, they got the managers to crack the whip more and remind people to DO THEIR DAMN JOBS and stop whining about it. Oddly enough, this caused morale to improve. The oldest people were offered early retirement packages.
The people they brought in from other departments, like myself, thought they had found heaven.
Now our department is one of the happiest in the company. Overall, I would consider this a great management success!
Our company, like most, does yearly surveys to see how awesome we're all feeling about our jobs. Because if we feel awesome, it shows. They are realistic about it - they know we'd all rather be on a beach somewhere eating bon-bons - but they want to know how we're doing.
Anyway, the surveys are anonymous BUT they do record units. So we know which departments are doing the best and which are doing the worst. My department used to be a festering cesspit of animosity.
Senior leadership set out to find out why.Part of it was bad processes and some really annoying tasks. But a lot of it was, frankly, a culture of whining that had set in. They had it SO HARD! And the managers were complicit in this. So a campaign was undertaken to fix the situation.
They started moving people around. Those identified as problematic were basically forced to take lateral moves, expand their horizons. They brought in people from customer facing departments, like retention. Those moves were voluntary and eagerly sought... many people like the commission of being in customer service but some don't care, or get burnt out. That was when I took a move, I was so tired of dealing with customers. Also, they got the managers to crack the whip more and remind people to DO THEIR DAMN JOBS and stop whining about it. Oddly enough, this caused morale to improve. The oldest people were offered early retirement packages.
The people they brought in from other departments, like myself, thought they had found heaven.
Now our department is one of the happiest in the company. Overall, I would consider this a great management success!
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