Pay for Performance
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I saw this quote over at Lockergnome: "Can you motivate kids by paying them for performance?" That's interesting to me because my wife and I tried this for awhile with our oldest. We paid him 4 times a year at each report card, a decreasing amount for grades from A to C, and a penalty clause that eliminated all payments for Ds. It worked ok, but we moved away a couple years ago as it didn't seem as effective as it was early on. My middle son hasn't started getting grades yet (he will this year) and we've just decided a straight allowance works ok.
I promise this will be a DBA related editorial, just give me a moment. Much of US culture is really built on the pay for performance model. Lots of places have done merit pay for teachers, we pay athletes that perform better more money, and CEO's that (supposedly) do a better job running companies get larger checks and bonuses. Lost of companies have scaled bonuses and even salaries according to ability.
In many cases, this makes some sense and seems fair. Do a better job and be more productive/efficient/however you measure it, then you should perhaps be paid more. And if you see those increases coming your way, or you are very well paid, then you are motivated to continue to work hard and stay at that job.
The problem comes in, however, in that people change. And motivations change. And therefore, the things that matter to you more outweigh the payments. At least to most normal people. If you are in some industry like pro sports or acting, then you can always demand more, easily go somewhere else, etc. and make an extraordinary amount more.
There's more to life than money. And relying strictly on one's most recent performance and money as a motivating factor starts to fail quickly. You have to build in more ways to motivate people and get them excited or at least interested in their job. There are also many different types of performance, especially in many jobs, that are not easily measured. Just look at some of the comments from yesterday's code quality editorial. Measuring something like quality or performance, which is very intangible, is difficult. And often leads to disparate measurements depending on the person making the measurement.
Maybe the best advice is to just cozy up to the boss and ensure he or she is happy with your work.
Steve Jones
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When I was growing up, I was aware of some people that were paid to get good grades. I wasn't. First problem was that we were fairly poor (for a large portion of my childhood, my family was on welfare, which gave my mother the chance to go to school and now she is an executive). Second, my father and mother simply didn't believe in the practice. Getting good grades isn't something that demands money. It is your contribution to your household. Your parents go out and earn money to make the house survive. Sometimes, the parents also take care of the lion's share of the household chores. So as a child, your contribution to the "community" of your household is to earn good grades, make your parents (and yourself) proud, and eventually grow up, leave the house and start another community where the same practices exist. I remember a couple of times that I got C's on my report card, I was more disapointed than my parents could ever be. In addition, there was nothing they could do to change what grade I was going to get. It wouldn't have mattered if they gave me money, or did not give me money for that matter since I did my best, and that was as good as I could do at the time. In any event, I think that paying for performance is insane. I think that everyone should equally contribute to the society they live in (in other words, everyone tries their best) and everyone should be equally paid. Why is it that an actor/actress can make several million dollars a year, but I will not see a million dollars my entire life? Is their job more important than mine? Doesn't both our jobs provide a useful service to society ? ( I am a software developer/DBA at a medium sized corperation).
By the way, its been my experience that kissing up to bosses is the easiest way to a pay rase. Is that fair? It is degrading and disgusting!
Aleksei
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Cozying up to the boss is what Seagulls do best!!! You will never do it better, especially if you are conscientious about doing a good job, using the best of your ability. It happens to be the sorry state of affairs in our current culture. Outside of the military I have failed to find anyone that I consider a leader. Nepotism, brown nosing, apple polishing and sucking up seem to be the most important traits and principles for selecting empleyees, vendors or associates. The Capitalistic model does not work in this environment, no one gets the best product at the best price at the best time!
If you want your children to do their best, set the example! Do your best! Honestly, faithfully, truthfully in everything you do. It works! Try it! It doesn't require money, cajoling or otherwise, just your best.
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I tried the "pay for good grades" and it didn't work very well until I made a modification on the pay period. One of the reasons I felt it didn't work was because of the amount of time between report cards. Kids at that age don't have the patience to wait that long; we don't have to wait that long between pay periods. Imagine what it would be like if you only got paid 4 times a year, yikes. What I did to change it was to have my son get a progress report each week from the teacher and base his allowance on that. It seemed to work pretty well; I did also require him to help out around the house. It was a combination of the two.
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I'm not going to talk about the kid's grades other than to say I agree with Mark Yelton about the pay period notion.
I'm more interested in the next to last paragraph of Steve's editorial. There's more to life...
My interpretation of the point is that there are stages of life at which the money is the main motivating factor, and the more dough, the more motivated one is. There are also stages at which more money is nice, but not at the top of the list.
Now that I have a child, my wife and I are moving to a time in our lives when time off is the most important factor. Every day I get to walk away from my desk within a few ticks of 5:00 is a good day, and every Saturday I have to work is time with my family I'll never get back.
[Sure, I usually get a Wimpy (ref. Popeye) solution where the boss essentially says "I'll gladly pay you Friday for a day's work today..." perhaps sans the 'gladly'...]
When my little girl's grown up, that will change again as I'm looking at retirement near at hand.
What about a system with an option on the rewards available? Imagine you've done a great job and your boss says you can choose a $5,000 reward, two extra weeks vacation, or $2,500 and one week?
Ahh, to dream. That's what keeps me going...
Thanks for listening...
Carter
But boss, why must the urgent always take precedence over the important? -
When I finished college (in India) my father gave me 3 choices - study further, get a job or get married - "but your mooching days are over"!!! I got myself a job teaching in a little school on the Airforce Base where we were at that time thinking that I'd successfully gotten my dad off my back. However, he told me that since I was living rent-free and that my food was all paid for I should start paying for everything else - from toothbrush & toothpaste to cosmetics & clothes.
My mother & I were appalled as were all my friends at what seemed to all of us nothing less than inordinate extortion & cruel treatment of his own daughter! For an Indian father, he was a rare & unusual man - I learned to appreciate his lessons only later on and thanks to them I developed a strong streak of independence that has always since, stood me in good stead!
In any case, one of the headiest sensations of your "first job" is having money to spend that you've earned all by yourself and finally feeling like a "grown up"! When I started out in the IT world, my first entry level programmer job fetched me a whopping $28K - untold wealth for me at that time. Though motivations may change over the years, there really is no substitute for a decent salary and time in which to spend it (given good health & happiness that money can't buy of course -
) - 2 weeks of vacation time is just not enough specially if you have a couple of project deadlines a year where you can reach burnout pretty rapidly. Also, it'd definitely help if personal time off is spread in a balanced way throughout the year (within reason) than all at one shot - "being there" for your kids means spending quality time with them every day till the time they're ready to leave home and not a week here and a week there where you're all wound up in knots from worrying about work anyway!As for "everyone doing their best and being paid equally" that might work in Utopia but unfortunately, the human race is only moving further away from idealism. And NO - all jobs are not equally important (re: Aleksei) - there are distinct differences between the "grocery baggers" to those that ask "for here or to go" to journalists reporting from war zones to selfless caregivers like Mother Theresa to DBAs to pornstars....I, for one, would definitely be more than miffed and start looking for another job immediately if I found that I worked myself to the bone and didn't get more than a hearty "well done" from my boss - praise, however glowing and fulsome, is just not enough when you have a family to feed and bills to pay....AND when you've already booked your Greek villa for the next vacation from the bonus that you never see!!!!!
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
I have been on both sides of this issue. I spent 14 years as a letter carrier while working on my degree. There, the attitude was "I am getting paid the same as the other guy regardless of my performance so why work harder?" Being a conscientious worked I tried to do my best but was frustrated that the "there is a minimum standard and I need do no more " worker was rewarded equally. But in that career and my new one, I strive for the best I can.
I try to apply this example to my children also. Monetary reward for grades meaningless. They can cram for tests and do well for the better grade but if they can't remember it a week later what was the purpose? And with cheating rampant in their schools, a monetary reward is more of an incentive to take the shortcut for a few dollars as oppsed to the true reward of education: knowledge. We have spoken with our children that a "hard earned B" is more valuable than a "hand-out A". I learned this lesson in one of my early college physics classes.
As for there is more to life than money...
With two of the children going off to college next year I am in my "there is more to lfe than money" phase. I am looking to move from Texas to somewhere in Colorado with a goal toward retirement soon. While money is a factor (relocation costs, etc) the move itself is the goal. While retirement is still in the future, it is definitely on the horizon and approaching quickly. Colorado has been the destination of choice since high school and being a mere hour from my favorite hiking or bike trails on the weekend and not 12 hours away is what I look forward to in the coming years, having the kids come up for THEIR vacation as they mature and become adults, and as Thoreau said, “That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest”.
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I work in the government sector and in this position I have little I can do to earn any pay for performance. There is nothing like a bonus, but there may be in the near future. Like many who have commented on this, when it does happen I would rather a choice between a longer annual leave or cash. A reward for work well done should be like a gift, something the receiver wants and appreciates. That is not always what the giver wants to give.
But beyond the issues already addressed, I try to work it some those I supervise in the data and data administration areas have tasks that are varied and interesting when that is possible. My unit works in both data/database and data/application security, and it causes me to wear many hats. Recently I was able to assign research into a new approach to application and data security to my DBA staff. These are highly professional and skilled people who know data and the data related software, and they know it well. But the chance to do something new and different, something that was a challenge and added to the skill package of all on the team was given. They responded well to that chance, and it was not given to them with the understanding that it was added work that they had no choice in doing, they were asked if they wanted to do something different, and they chose to. They did a wonderful job and I am very proud ot them.
After 'the change of pace' there is more energy, team spirit, and feelings of accomplishment. The team members did such agreat job that they have already been recognized for their work within this organization and by three or four others. They will be presenting their findings to others over time and this has added to their working lives.
All that to say that some times when you can not give money or time off, but other things can be 'rewards' for recognition of a job well done.
Not all gray hairs are Dinosaurs!
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