(FORTUNE Magazine) – Dear Annie: I work for a large company with businesses throughout the world. In our small plant employees are being told to tighten their belts. The company has frozen pay, taken away the ability to use personal days off at our own discretion, and put a stop to incentives that workers used to get to meet production quotas. In short, the company is asking more of us and rewarding us less. Morale has gotten very bad, and top management has asked me and six other people to head up a morale team to see if we can fix it. But we're at a loss as to how to proceed or even where to start. Any ideas? --Cheerleading Squad

Dear C.S.: You're facing at least one very big problem, which is that higher-ups are asking you to do what they ought to be doing themselves. Says Kerry Bunker, a senior leadership-development coach at the Center for Creative Leadership (www.ccl.org) in Greensboro, N.C.: "In times of change, whether morale suffers depends on how open top management is in sharing information and explaining why pay has to be frozen, incentives have to be cut, and so on. Too often senior managers just assume everyone knows why these changes are necessary. That only increases the distance between them and everybody else."

Once employees cast themselves in the role of victims of a cruel and capricious management, morale is likely to sink into the basement and stay there. So your first task is to persuade your bosses to get out there and communicate the facts of the situation, with emphasis on the idea, Bunker says, "that we're all in this together, and that we're going to hang tough until the economy recovers and the business improves." A sense of common purpose can do wonders when times are lousy. Next, says Mary Lynn Pulley, another senior coach at CCL, "when people's expectations about their jobs are violated, it often helps just to let them say so and to acknowledge that." Hold a couple of big all-staff meetings where employees are encouraged to vent. "Top management can do some venting too," says Bunker. "After all, these tough times aren't what they bargained for either."

Don't stop there. Once everyone's had his say and the air has been cleared, ask people to start concentrating on finding ways to do the work more efficiently, with an eye toward lessening the load on individuals who are now doing more for less. "Get employees connected to the company's goals by urging them to come up with solutions to specific challenges in the work itself," says Bunker. In the absence of material incentives, psychological ones become all the more crucial.

But none of this has much chance of making a difference unless top management gets directly involved. "They can't just hand this off to a morale team," says Pulley. "It's a leadership challenge, not a task-force issue." Good luck.

Dear Annie: My company recently started downsizing, and a co-worker of mine says he heard that some (not all) departing employees are being offered severance packages of three months' pay. If I'm let go, I want a package too. If the company gives it to one person, do they have to give it to everyone? Should I ask a lawyer about this? What are my rights? --Lady in Waiting

Dear L.W.: Unfortunately, you probably don't have any. There is no law in the U.S. that requires companies to offer severance pay to anyone, unless the employee has an employment contract (or is covered by a union contract) that specifically says otherwise. In general, severance pay is at the employer's discretion--which means that plenty of people aren't entitled to a dime.

Dear Annie: I'm getting a little restless, and I'm thinking this might be a good moment to pursue an MBA. Here's my background: Ivy League college, top grades, six years at a major commercial bank, two promotions so far, and another probably coming soon. I really like what I'm doing, and I'm good at it, but B-school seems like a kind of "insurance policy" for the future. What do you think? --Philadelphia

Dear P.: I think you should get a copy of The MBA Jungle B-School Survival Guide (Perseus, or see www.mbajungle.com). It's fun to read and stuffed with great insights. Pay particular attention to Chapter 2, which has a quiz called "To B or Not to B?" Most germane to your current situation is question No. 10: "Are you happy in your job? Do you have some great opportunities right in front of you?" To which, based on what you wrote me, you'd have to answer yes and yes. If so, say the authors (all MBAs themselves), "nobody is arguing against knowledge for knowledge's sake, but...the relative value of spending two years away from your career is exceedingly low." Interesting.

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