That's easy to say as an experienced employee, but when you're a new hire and you have no clue what's going on around you because there are no conversations to accidentally overhear, no one sitting 3 feet away to ask random questions of, and no way to interpret your boss's apathy about your existence...

Plus reading here about certain companies' interest in pruning people ruthlessly...

I could see why morale among new hires would be problematic in this rather chaotic time.