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"And, strangely enough, people react to that by behaving like adults." Unless they don't! When access to information is warranted only to people responsible of

"And, strangely enough, people react to that by behaving like adults." Unless they don't! When access to information is warranted only to people responsible of having access, things stay secure from a wide range of angles (the golden rule of security - "deny everything by default, the access is explicit exception"). People aren't all milk and honey, they also have inner bad parts, and the usual systems we employ have (among other things) the task of keeping those parts in check (at least as much as possible). Like any other free commodity, the (useful) information can be not only used, but also abused. Knowing intimately a system one becomes able to game it. Or you think that doesn't happen or it's unlikely? Just to leave an example - what do you expect will think someone sweating in stress and efforts all day long, working close to coworker better paid with apparently less work/effort involved? That that coworker is better at what he/she does? You'd be lucky! That one will more likely think that the system is unfair. And if these kind of people won't leave right away to find "rightness" somewhere else, they (although not admittedly) will self-attune to give you the minimum for what they get (it's easy to do that given enough info) and maybe focus on emulating good visible marks (also easier when you have sufficient information to learn the system well enough). This is just one scenario from many possible other ones (driven from the human inner bad parts). I'm sorry, but I can not ignore the consequences of this kind of thinking. I lived in such environment, I felt it, and I also saw it going down. Maybe it doesn't ring to you, but this "total transparency" is just a juicy piece of communism.

swombat 13y ago
Just to leave an example - what do you expect will think someone sweating in stress and efforts all day long, working close to coworker better paid with apparently less work/effort involved? That that coworker is better at what he/she does? You'd be lucky! That one will more likely think that the system is unfair. As I mentioned in another comment (and should have mentioned in the article), this is a natural consequence of transparency: it demands fairness. There is nowhere for unfair compensation schemes to hide with full transparency. So in your example, the underpaid worker would naturally demand to be paid fairly. And the response to that better be something like "yes, this is how we'll do it" - otherwise, you're right, they will leave (a good call, if they're working in a company that treats them unfairly). This is definitely a plus for the employees. From your username you sound Romanian (I was born there, my parents left just after I was born and I grew up in Switzerland). I know from my parents that Romania under communism was a pretty horrible place. But I also know from talking to them that it was a place that was full of fear and mistrust. We're using transparency to increase trust, and it works. Sure, from one angle, if you squint the right way, it looks like some sort of "communist" nonsense to open up all this information, but I can assure you that at least at the scale we're at, the effect is to increase trust and empower people, not to reduce them to fearful subjects of the state.

swombat 13y ago

Just to leave an example - what do you expect will think someone sweating in stress and efforts all day long, working close to coworker better paid with apparently less work/effort involved? That that coworker is better at what he/she does? You'd be lucky! That one will more likely think that the system is unfair. As I mentioned in another comment (and should have mentioned in the article), this is a natural consequence of transparency: it demands fairness. There is nowhere for unfair compensation schemes to hide with full transparency. So in your example, the underpaid worker would naturally demand to be paid fairly. And the response to that better be something like "yes, this is how we'll do it" - otherwise, you're right, they will leave (a good call, if they're working in a company that treats them unfairly). This is definitely a plus for the employees. From your username you sound Romanian (I was born there, my parents left just after I was born and I grew up in Switzerland). I know from my parents that Romania under communism was a pretty horrible place. But I also know from talking to them that it was a place that was full of fear and mistrust. We're using transparency to increase trust, and it works. Sure, from one angle, if you squint the right way, it looks like some sort of "communist" nonsense to open up all this information, but I can assure you that at least at the scale we're at, the effect is to increase trust and empower people, not to reduce them to fearful subjects of the state.