4 ms·

Joel isn't considering the right incentive: cash. The way to get someone to perform is to give them a stake in the yield of their performance, i.e. a profit sha

• tptacek 18y ago
  This isn't Joel's opinion. He's rehashing Alfie Kohn and Tom DeMarco. I'm guessing they have, in fact, considered "cash", as both have been published on the topic in peer-reviewed venues.
• aston 18y ago
  Joel has also elsewhere that he's a big believer in paying salesmen incentives in cash (via commissions), so I don't think he'd disagree with you there.
• ajross 18y ago
  That sometimes works, if the company is large enough to have real profits but small enough for the individual's contribution to matter. There's nothing wrong with incentives, really, as long as they are (1) meaningful, and (2) fair. But in practice, they never are, so Joel's points are all valid. Really, this is just another special case of "bad management sucks". A good manager in a good system is capable of providing incentives that motivate her employees. A bad one can't, but will do it anyway. So it looks like the bad incentives are the problem, when really it's the process that's flawed.