If you do food/bar/tea gathering type things, bend over backwards to make it clear that everyone (really, everyone!) is welcome. I worked in an office with low morale where these types of gatherings developed but there was an underlying vibe that only the "cool" people were really welcome. It made morale even worse for those of us that were neither in management or this cool group.

No amount of fatty food or drinks can fix the morale problem in my department. My director has told HQ repeatedly exactly what we need to do our jobs well and they have said No every time. Mostly because of money but that's not true. If they spent money on food and drinks I would want to throw it at them.

We tried to do team building exercises, but that still didn't work.

What worked was the "elephant" in the room retiring.

There was a bar across the street from one office I worked at and on particularly heinous days, we would schedule a meeting in the "large conference room" for near the end of the day. It was was happy hour.

I start by going out of my way to thank people and acknowledge their contributions. I also mention to our managers when someone has been helpful.

OP, WHY is morale so low? Sucky pay or asshole management is not going to be something you can change

I don't want a fake birthday at work. It brings my morale down when HR insists on publishing a birthday list.

I am the boss with no discretionary funds, so I being in team cake, do monthly birthday lunches, host lunch and learns, have speakers and coaches, am flexible with time off and emergencies, sick leave, write letters of support for them to earn degrees and certifications etc etc etc...not sure how much it does to boost morale, it's better than not caring or trying. But honestly it brings my morale down and is a big bummer. I give so much, people snatch their cake, food, diplomas, etc and never say thanks.

I like the lunch-bunch, tea or birthday cake ideas (depending on whether people actually take breaks).

I would absolutely not utter the words "low moral" to anyone - the last thing you need is to have that get back to supervisors. Just say that you heard someone else doing it and it sounded fun.

We have a food thing going. This is completely voluntary. People bring in bagels, coffee cakes, cookies, cupcakes. There are a couple of candy dishes that various people stock. It helps that the boss participates, but it started before the boss arrived and the previous one didn't.
We also have a birthday list to make sure the day is recognized.

You could bring up your observation to someone in HR

Uggg, no. I can't imagine a situation in which HR could or would be able to make it better.

Talk to your fellow underlings to find out what's going on. If there are Debbie Downers who are gossipy or negative, make a pact with a couple people to counteract them. Remind each other to be cheerful, walk away from negative talk, focus on what's going right.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Happy hour on Thursdays or fridays.

Exactly. Organize a happy hour - you don't have to pay, no one has to bring anything (except money), and you can talk about work - or not - while your drink.

I think this all depends on the people you work with. In my 20s, I'd be game for happy hour. But not really anymore -- not with coworkers. I spend 40+ hours a week with them. My off time is precious. When I'm done for the day at work, I just want to go home -- especially during times of low morale.

I posted earlier in this thread, and honestly, when morale is really low, it's usually for a reason. You want to fix morale, you have to figure out the reason and fix that.

If you aren't in a position to fix it, then just be as nice to people as you can in normal interaction. But forced "morale-building" stuff, in my view, tends to make things worse.

Anonymous wrote:Happy hour on Thursdays or fridays.

Exactly. Organize a happy hour - you don't have to pay, no one has to bring anything (except money), and you can talk about work - or not - while your drink.

Don't have forced parties. Ya hear me boss lady?

At my workplace, I started a "stretch assignment" program. Everyone posted online some items that they had on their list and wanted to do, but didn't have time. People who were wanting to be outside their norm or whatever then grabbed the assignments. They got to work with different people, do something new, and some cool things were created as a result. Morale went up because people could use the assignments to gauge where they might like to go in their career.

This was *all voluntary* (I know some will snark but this did really well to raise morale to people who felt they had no career growth or networking opps)