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> These fears that in order to achieve high performance, we must reward the high performers with carrots and hit the slackers with sticks are a bastardized reli
by bloblaw 14y ago
> These fears that in order to achieve high performance, we must reward the high performers with carrots and hit the slackers with sticks are a bastardized religious fiction.
The point is to incentivize everyone with the carrot, and forget about the stick. Getting a small bonus or no bonus is not a punishment because a "bonus" is precisely that....a bonus is the reward/carrot.
Not being rewarded with a bonus is not the same thing as being punished.
- calinet6 14y agoYou are correct, but keep in mind that it is a negative reinforcement, and carries with it many of the demoralizing effects of being punished. My main issue with the bonus structure is that by motivating everyone with a bonus you turn the workplace into a social game where the focus is on the bonus or reward itself, and frankly, only 10-15% of people really care about it or think they have a shot at it, and those who do are more into the game than the work itself. Point being, I don't really want my employees chasing carrots, I want them writing software. The negative effects of the game playing and misdirected goals outweigh the positive motivation effects for the tiny percentage of the workforce who cares. I'd rather bring the whole company up.