Belt Tightening Can Backfire.

Leaner budgets in 2001 mean that many organizations are undoubtedly considering ways to cut costs. Petty penny-pinching plans, however, can backfire and cause employee morale to plummet as well as convince valued staff to jump ship, warn management experts in a recent Wall Street Journal article. Cutting off free coffee or leaving watercoolers empty, for example, can rankle the rank and file without doing much to truly trim costs. Strategies such as requiring employees to stay in budget hotels and fly coach on all but lengthy trips seem to ruffle fewer feathers.