Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman took a hard line on employees who were miffed about their declining compensation.

On Bloomberg Television, he said his message would be: “You’re naive, read the newspaper, No. 1. No. 2, if you put your compensation in a one-year context to define your overall level of happiness, you have a problem which is much bigger than the job. And No. 3, if you’re really unhappy, just leave. I mean, life’s too short.”

You have to appreciate that candor. On the surface it appears as though he’s heard a lot of complaining internally. Why else would someone react that way?

Obviously, the question hit a nerve. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan took a more diplomatic tack when he took his turn on Bloomberg Television. Asked if he would tell complainers to go, Moynihan said, "I wouldn’t. Our employees know what they're contributed and how they're paid. I just stay away from that. The difficulty for us is we're trying to balance the interest of employees that work very hard to continue our company's progression and in the interest of shareholders who haven't had a good stock price performance.”

Despite the merits of these responses, it’s clear that both banks--indeed all the bulge bracket banks--will have to grapple with low morale in the aftermath of severely reduced compensation for 2011. Morale will only get worse if 2012 starts of poorly, which it just might.

For more:
- here’s an AdvisorOne article

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