i am an online ESL teacher. I am about to do the following worksheet with a student. Help think of some possible answers for the discussion questions in the lesson worksheet:

""How bosses demoralize their employees
Copyrights by ESL Brains
1. Rank the things that demotivate you at work from the most (1) to the least
(10) significant and compare and discuss them.
• boredom
• lack of recognition
• lack of fairness
• cancelling projects
• lack of empowerment
• too much work
• lack of progress
• no confidence in company leadership
• poor communication
• unfriendly coworkers
2. Look at the sentences and match the idioms in bold with their meanings (1-
8) on the next page.
a) He wanted the restaurant to be a success and really put his heart and soul
into it.
b) President Reagan pledged at a news conference today to go the extra mile
to compromise with the Democrats.
c) After two of the team leaders left, the project ran out of steam and slowly
died off.
d) The last failure really crushed the team spirits and now nobody is eager to
think about any future products.
e) They all worked together on the project, but while submitting it, one of them
stole their thunder.
f) You did well today so please keep up the good work and together we can
deliver it on time.
g) The EU deliberately promotes an approach where the steps between
sanctions and incentives are closely tied in the effort to combine carrot and
stick methods.
h) Four months after the death of its founder and guiding spirit, Jerry Garcia,
The Grateful Dead announces it is breaking up after 30 years of performing
together.
How bosses demoralize their employees
Copyrights by ESL Brains
1) someone who is influential or an
inspiration to others h
2) do more than what is expected b
3) lose impetus, energy or
enthusiasm to do something c
4) do something with all of your
energy and interest a
5) take the credit for something
someone else did e
6) make somebody feel defeated
and devastated d
7) encourage somebody to
continue doing things as they
are f
8) motivate by both a possible
reward and a threat of
punishment g
3. Complete the gaps in the questions below with the idioms from ex. 2.
a) How often does your manager tell you to keep up the good work? Do you
suppose that it encourages you or is it a meaningless phrase?
b) Why does a manager sometimes steal their employees thunder when they
present team ideas to superiors? Has it ever happened to you? What can be
done to prevent this behaviour?
c) What kind of person can be a guiding spirit in a modern tech company? What
character traits are needed to be such a person? Do you know anybody like
that?
d) What kind of carrot and stick approaches does your company use to motivate
staff? Do you think they are useful? Which ones might be more effective?
e) What happens to a company when it runs out of steam and does not innovate
anymore?
f) How do you make people put their heart and soul into their work or an idea?
g) What was the one experience that really crushed your spirit? How did you
overcome it?
h) Would you go the extra mile to help your teammates? For example, would you
do overtime to help them finish their work or cover for them on your free day?
4. Discuss the questions from ex. 3.
How bosses demoralize their employees
Copyrights by ESL Brains
5. Read this introduction to a video you will watch in a moment. Then, answer
the questions below.
We shouldn’t have to be told that people’s hearts and
souls are not piñatas, and yet here we are. Duke
psychology professor and behavioural economist,
Dan Ariely, says when it comes to increasing
motivation, there’s a precursor lesson many
managers, teachers and parents miss: stop crushing
spirits.
It sounds so obvious but perhaps that’s why it’s such an overlooked facet of
motivation. Bosses and people in authority positions often unknowingly
demoralize those around them. “We do lots of those things,” says Ariely. “We get
people to start projects and we cut it in the middle. We get people to prepare
presentations and they never get delivered. We do all kinds of things that
eliminate motivation … lots of people are working in an environment like that.”
• Have you ever been demotivated by how a manager has acted?
• How would you feel if your work was cut in the middle because management
said so?
6. Watch the video [https://youtu.be/9OuG2b7V2sU] and answer the questions.
a) What kind of solutions did the software engineers from Seattle propose to
make them feel better after their project was cancelled?
The project they’d built could be useful internally in the company. They could
have built just a few prototypes as an experiment. They could have broken
down the software into parts that could be used in other existing projects or
present what they have done to other staff members.
b) What kind of things are done that crush people’s spirits?
We get people to start projects and we cut it in the middle. We get people to
prepare presentations and they never get delivered.
How bosses demoralize their employees
Copyrights by ESL Brains
c) How does an open-source community give credit to people involved in the
project?
They basically agreed that everybody who writes a piece of code, their name
would always be connected to it.
d) Why do you think that the kid who came up with an idea and didn’t do any
drawing was more upset?
Because the idea and credit for it seems to be more important than the
execution.
e) What are the things that Dan Ariely says that managers can do to motivate
their staff?
Don’t crush people’s spirits, build purpose, respect contributions, give credit.
7. Discuss the questions.
• Is the way that credit in your company is given fair? How could you improve it?
• Do you think that trying to utilize failed/cancelled projects can be practical?
Would it just lead to even more resources being wasted?
• What are some other methods management can use to encourage staff?
• Which of the things Ariely mentions would motivate staff in your company
most: building purpose, respecting contributions or giving credit?
• How would you practically implement Ariely’s ideas in your organization? ""