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Not sure I understand the difference between motivating employees and not demotivating them. What makes employees motivated or demotivated? If I work for a com

by dkrich 14y ago

Not sure I understand the difference between motivating employees and not demotivating them. What makes employees motivated or demotivated? If I work for a company that makes it clear that hard work is rewarded, then I will be a motivated employee. If it seems that I will be in the same role ten years from now or the path forward is unclear, then I will likely be demotivated. In either case, my productivity level is an effect of motivation.

brc 14y ago
The takeaway for me is that work, and good workers are inherently self motivating. There isn't much more you can do to motivate a good worker working on something they want to do. However, there is much you can do to demotivate someone. So it's like this : there is limited upside to motivating someone because they're working at or near 'total motivation'. However, they can fall from there to 'zero motivation'. Any given management decision to that person has a greater chance of demotivating them than motivating them. I have been through something similar recently myself. I have been working for a startup which is nearing launch - on a part-time basis. I was motivated to get it over the line and quite happy to pitch in extra to do so. However, a key manager in the project decided to switch everything around in the interest of 'getting it done faster'. This demotivated me to the point where I actually stopped working on it.
- dkrich 14y ago
  Right, I get that creating incentives like bonuses won't get hard workers to work harder, but my point is that a worker's "total motivation" is something that is within the employer's control, if you count work environment, schedules, type of work, etc. to be within the employer's control. So while it may not be necessary to create direct incentive programs, to me, not demotivating somebody is exactly the same as motivating them, but it is being treated as if it is a special case. Treating workers well is a way of motivating them. Not treating them well is a way of demotivating them. If you don't do one you do the other, so it isn't sufficient to say "you don't have to motivate people, just don't demotivate them."

by dkrich 14y ago

brc 14y ago

The takeaway for me is that work, and good workers are inherently self motivating. There isn't much more you can do to motivate a good worker working on something they want to do. However, there is much you can do to demotivate someone. So it's like this : there is limited upside to motivating someone because they're working at or near 'total motivation'. However, they can fall from there to 'zero motivation'. Any given management decision to that person has a greater chance of demotivating them than motivating them. I have been through something similar recently myself. I have been working for a startup which is nearing launch - on a part-time basis. I was motivated to get it over the line and quite happy to pitch in extra to do so. However, a key manager in the project decided to switch everything around in the interest of 'getting it done faster'. This demotivated me to the point where I actually stopped working on it.

dkrich 14y ago
Right, I get that creating incentives like bonuses won't get hard workers to work harder, but my point is that a worker's "total motivation" is something that is within the employer's control, if you count work environment, schedules, type of work, etc. to be within the employer's control. So while it may not be necessary to create direct incentive programs, to me, not demotivating somebody is exactly the same as motivating them, but it is being treated as if it is a special case. Treating workers well is a way of motivating them. Not treating them well is a way of demotivating them. If you don't do one you do the other, so it isn't sufficient to say "you don't have to motivate people, just don't demotivate them."