From Slashdot:

[Dan Goncharoff]

I believe one can overdo an effort to build morale..

In that context, the phrase makes sense to me.
DanG



On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 2:33 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: From Slashdot:
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 9:25 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>> Yes you can, and I can too.
>
> No, I can't "drive morale into the ground" in the sense of "lower  or
> destroy morale." The only meaning of this idiom that *I* am aware of,
> despite the OED, whose basis is a different dialect - what the ADS is
> all about, right? - from mine. I have only the meaning, "(a) to carry
> (a thing) to excess, to overdo," as expressed idiomatically by "orig.
> U.S. to _run_ into the ground" and the concept of "carrying to excess,
> overdoing" *morale* makes no sense.
>
> OTOH, it's interesting to find out that the author of that sentence
> wrote as he did on purpose and not by mistake and that, for millions -
> presumably, since it's sanctified by the OED - of native-speakers,
> including Joel, the idiom *does* have the meaning, "(b) to exhaust or
> overcome [morale] through constant pressure, uncompromising or
> demanding treatment, etc.," which meaning makes *perfect* sense, in
> the relevant context of "massive firings and outsourcings."
>
> Youneverknow.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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