A Raise, but No Money

Here,Here

A person who tells you that "money is not the thing they desire most from their work" is ...
Usually someone at the top who sets their own salary.
And if it's not the big motivator, how come those *^%$£* bankers get away with those obscene bonuses while the rest of us squirm?

On the otherhand, I personally don't rate money at the top of my list, but then I'm semi retired and don't have a young family and a mortgage.
I could certainly do with a raise tho'.
Del

I'll give that response a GA vote.

And just what does "A Raise, but No Money" really mean?

Thanks!

I've been thinking, for several years now, of starting my own side business. Methods of earning fast, easy money are all illegal. I'm forced to pursue the more legal endeavours since I can't support my family while I'm in the Big House.

Welcome to YukTumBubbaloo Industries, a division of GigaMax Corporation, which is a division of IR Handyman Enterprises. I've yet to figure what I'll be scamming selling to people, but it's gotta be good to compete with the likes of LynDoor Ind and KrisDel Ent.

Stay tuned for the launch of my first new product...The Cranial Refractory Encapsulator.

We'll get into the Utopian Society of "Brave New World".

They can just give us our daily ration of soma and we'll be happy.

Anyone up for a soma shake?

Or perhaps "Soylent Green"?

"It's people!!..."

Having been on the management side for many years, I would argue that it is important to at least pay the median salary of the industry sector, appreciate the work done, treat the employees as people or as you would like to be treated.

I have seen too high salaries be negative incentive to productivity, lock employees into their job, prevent them from being mobile, and tolerate abuse when they should not.

Too low salary and you motivate the good employee to move on. It is the final straw that breaks the camel's back. The grass is greener on the other side.

Median salary and due to inertia they won't move on, treat them well, publicly praise work well done, nurture a family culture, and you have life long employees.

...working conditions were of little importance.

I agree with you there. People will put up with a lot if the money is good. Your bit about loyalty is bang on, too. Be loyal to yourself instead.

It is very important issue in every industry.In absence of 'real'appriciation industrial relations,between employees and management,subordinate and boss,among peers gets spoiled and can cause damage to working environment of the company.Motivation by money may not work every time.Now 'workers' are changing their attitude towards job satisfaction,which money alone can not provide.

I'm not sure I understand who these "workers" are, that you're referring to. For me... the amount of money that a company decides to pay me for my work provides at least 90% of my satisfaction.

Any satisfaction that is provided by non-monetary means is supplemental satisfaction. A company picnic, in lieu of a raise, is not going to pay my mortgage.

From the responses here, it appears none of us were asked to participate in the survey.

In my opinion, good old fashioned time off is a close second to good old fashioned money.

Yes, these results were from the 100 Republican CEO's of big Corporations surveyed.

To some ,even to large extent ,money is good tool to provide job satisfaction,but for that too,the employer should have guts to appreciate the right one.There are various pressures management need to consider before arriving at the 'right' person,some of them are pressure from workers union,pre decided quote system,level of appreciation in similar industries,personal opinion by manager deciding award and many such things.This I have learnt from my 40 years of experience in industries ,including small,medium and large scale ,and on unionised ,supervisory and managerial levels.

I think job satisfaction is different for each person... just as happiness is.. but it is basically a risk vs. reward matrix... one thing to note (in green) is that learning occurs no matter what.. and is always a gain. When my kids were thinking about going to college, and couldn't decide what to take... (and many kids don't go because they can't decide) I pointed out that it didn't matter what they took... learning is continuous no matter what, and schooling is an accelerator.. and that basically the more education you have, the more choices you have.. there is no down side to any education... if you decide later that your courses don't really represent what will provide you with satisfaction... then simply take another course.. there is no loss; only gain. learning is never a risk; it is unavoidable. you can lose your money, your family, your mind... but it is pretty hard to lose your learning. because this is the purpose of life. you do take this with you when you go.

I don't know if I need ot explain any of my matrix... as I do consider learning a spiritual gain.. but if I kill someone, I can definitely lose it spiritually (breaking the golden rule).. but not lose the learning.. etc.

The job I have now is poorly paid, but huge in learning... so I am more satisfied to do this for a year or two.

Chris

You are absolutely right ! we will never admit it.

Looks like all industrial philosophies in vogue this days try to push a servant attitude into your head, and still make you happy by confering you a "sense of ownership", whatever that means.

In my country it is illegal that employees give away part of their salaries for company porpuses, like the "employee of the month" gifts; I started a process for authorizing, purchasing and delivering of such prizes (on our maintenance budget), but when HR saw the goods, quickly confiscated and locked them.

Everybody went back to collecting from their pockets to do the awards, wich is allowed by HR...

I'm convinced that nothing encourages you the most and makes you give the best from you, than a raise.

It all depends on a persons situation.

If you're making enough money that all the bills are paid and you're able to put a little away in savings then a raise isn't as effective as a motivator.

When you're getting paid enough then it comes down to performance recognition.

However, when a person is living from paycheck to paycheck and can't really do anything recreational and one interrupted check wrecks havoc on their economy at home and they really don't have any extravagances, then money and a raise is and always will be the object in their lives.

Thank you, Apothicus!

While being cash flow positive has to be the overriding factor, once that happens, things I put ahead of cash are (in no particular order):

Respect.

Honesty.

A sense of being needed.

A sense of being wanted.

Interesting work.

Flexible Schedule.

I am "below market" right now, but I'm comfortable. I consider myself lucky to have the above things (although the schedule could be a little *more* flexible) and I hope it lasts...

I believe what I'm about to write will be in contradiction to what I just wrote a couple comments above. And I think these last couple comments have made me realize that there is a litmus test for the answer to the question posed by the OP.

First... if I was paid below what I believe I deserve (which has happened often), unless the disparity was extreme, I would continue working there.

On the other hand.... if I was making a salary I was comfortable with, but... I had none of the other items that RufusVS just listed in the comment above (Respect. Honesty. A sense of being needed. A sense of being wanted. Interesting work. Flexible Schedule) .... I'm almost certain that I would quit that job.

Put in that context, my answer now surprises me. But I guess it's true.

But the caveat is that that list as a whole cannot be done without. But I could probably tolerate it if one or two items were missing.

I read a case study on a company that did everything for the employees. They provided one site daycare, a place for employees to take a nap, paid them premium salaries, liberal with employee recognition.

All that, and they were experiencing some of the highest employee turnover because the employees were leaving for jobs with less to offer the employees including pay cuts. They felt all the incentives were too much.

Then again, maybe it was an attempt to brainwashing me into thinking that less is more for the employees.

Do you recall where you read that? I'll take a job there!

It was in one of my texts for a business class that I took in 2005 I think.

I think you see my point in (9).

Those items are automatic I have found - if one is capable of doing the job.

Been many years since I punched a time clock - maybe 40

Been about that long since I worked in anything except management as well.

One saying I have repeated many times is, 'Call me anything except late for pay'.

Hours - I always ended up stretching the 40 hour week to 60 at a minimum and often 80. No problem as things needed to be done.

Company picnics are a pain in the butt! The 'get togethers' for 'bonding' I always consşdered BS. I bonded with good employees on the job and made sure they did OK or better.

omg - i worked once for a company that was always (it seemed) having employee appreciation dinner, project completion celebration dinner, Christmas dinner .. on and on.

It was always an event OUTSIDE of normal working hours. Want to thank me for a job well done? Give me some time off! Give me a celebration LUNCH. Don't add time to my workday, since all these evening "festivities" are REALLY an extension of my workday.

Pay is NOT the MOST important thing to me, not gross pay, anyway. The $/Hour pay ranks pretty high up there, though.

ga!

This is kind of fortuitous. I had been following this thread and really didn't know which side I fell on. I kind of figured it was money but the idealist in me wanted it to be pride in the job done.

A little while later my supervisor came in and said that they were really happy with my work and what we've accomplished so far. After he said that, which was really nice, he said I was getting a raise. This was totally came from nowhere. As much as telling me made me I was doing a great job felt good. It didn't even come close to being able to call my pregnant wife up and let her know about it.

"There are some things that money can't buy. But have you ever tried to buy them without money?"

--Ogden Nash

I can only guess the context; he also said, "Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker."