Do you periodically wake up on the wrong side of the bed, dreading the inevitable reality of having to go to work? If your company were to offer you a lot of money to quit your job, would you do it?
Every year, workers at Amazon each receive a memo with the headline “Please Don’t Take This Offer.” And the offer is plain and simple: If you want to quit, they’ll pay you in cash to walk out the door and never come back. Employees in their first year are offered $2,000, and that number increases by $1,000 every year until it reaches a maximum $5,000 payout to those who decide to leave.
Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos claims it makes employees stop and ponder what is it they really desire. If an employee isn’t truly hungry for success, then Bezos doesn’t want them to be there. He says, “In the long run, an employee staying somewhere they don’t want to be isn’t healthy for the employee or the company.” Out of the many thousands of people employed at Amazon, only 2~3% choose to take the money and run. The thinking goes that people who are most likely to take this offer are the ones who are most likely slacking off. This weeds out the folks who are not a good fit and further motivates those that refuse the offer.
Author Daniel Pink also has a counterintuitive theory about money and motivation. He cites a study where two groups of people were asked to solve a problem that required a creative solution. The first group was offered no reward and was used to establish an average time for solving the problem. The second group was told they would get paid for finding a solution to the exact same problem. The top 25% to finish the task would get $5, and the fastest person would get $20.
You would think those who were incentivized would work faster, but that wasn’t actually the case. It took them three-and-a-half minutes longer than the first group of people, who weren’t offered any money. Why is this? Pink asserts that incentives work well for narrow tasks because they limit our focus, but not for those tasks that require creativity. People who focus on time, money, or competition are less creative problem solvers. Money may make people work harder, but not necessarily smarter, more intuitively, or more creatively.
Pink says the carrot or the stick approach to external motivation doesn’t suffice. Better overall work performance requires intrinsic motivation, for people need to feel that what they are doing is meaningful to be successful and motivated.
What do you think about all this? Is purpose the key to motivation? And is Amazon on to something by paying employees who don’t want to be there to leave?
Do you sometimes wake up on the wrong side of the bed, wishing you didn’t have to go to work? If your company were to give you a lot of money to quit your job, would you do it?
Each year, workers at Amazon receive a message saying “Please Don’t Take This Offer.” The offer is simple. If you want to quit, they’ll pay you to go. Workers in their first year get $2,000 to quit. That number increases by $1,000 every year until it reaches $5,000.
Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos says it makes workers stop and think about what they really want. If a worker isn’t hungry for success, he doesn’t want them to be there. He says, In the long run, a worker staying somewhere they don’t want to be isn’t healthy for the worker or the company. Out of the many thousands of people working at Amazon, only 2~3% choose to take the money. The people who are most likely to take the money are the ones who are most likely slacking off. This weeds out the people who are not a good fit and further motivates those that refuse the offer.
Author Daniel Pink also has an interesting theory about money and motivation. In one study, two groups of people were asked to solve a problem that needed a creative solution. The first group was offered no money. The second group was told they would get paid for solving the same problem. The top 25% to finish the problem would get $5, and the fastest person would get $20.
You would think those who were paid money would work faster, but that wasn’t the case. It took them three and a half minutes longer than the first group of people, who didn’t get any money. Why is this?
Pink says that money works well for some things, but not for work that needs creativity. People who focus on time, money, or competition are less creative problem solvers. Money may make people work harder, but not smarter. Pink says the carrot or the stick approach to outside motivation doesn’t work. People need to feel that what they are doing is meaningful to be successful and motivated.
What do you think? Is purpose the key to motivation? And is Amazon on to something by paying employees who don’t want to be there to leave?
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