So, today I was speaking with a coworker from another department. Our conversation turned to matters of money (as all work conversations should). He informed me that he hasn’t had a raise since 2004! I couldn’t believe my ears. He said management had more than doubled his work load in that time as well. He went on to explain that management had put him on an “incentive” plan. I immediately vomited and sharted.
For those of you unfamiliar, an incentive based program rewards you with more pay for more work that’s completed. Sounds like pretty good motivation
to try a bit harder, right? Of course not you sheep.
Incentive based pay is nothing but a scam. Usually you start at a base rate with no incentive. They (slimy managers) will tell you it’s because you’re new and they want to make sure you’ll work out. What’s really going on is they’re calculating what your average production is over a period of time. For this example we’ll say three months. During your first three months, you totaled 65 “KCCO” shirts sold. In the first month, you sold 20, in the second you sold 40 (it was chive recognition month) and in the third you only sold five. Management will now allow you into the incentive bases pay. If you sell more than 45 shirts in a month you get base plus ten percent commission. Problem is, during your best month you only sold 40. They’ll build you up saying “you were new then, you’ll double that in no time”. For the top 3% that happens. Everyone else will stay at base.
Now they have you busting your hump for a goal that’s just out of reach, and people like my coworker, spend 8 years failing to reach that goal.
Give nothing for free! Either pull for a higher base rate, or a lower threshold for the commission to kick in. Don’t let them feed you bread crumbs while they dine on steak. While you sulking around the office in you knickers saying, “more please? May I have some more?” Their puffing cigars.
Play a quick game with me. The next office you drive by, see if you can figure out who’s a manager and who’s an employee just by looking at the cars in the parking lot. I’m betting it will be quite easy to figure out. That alone should tell you something. Why do managers get paid so much more? Are we children that need taken by the hand and guided through our day? What does management know that sets them apart from everyone else? They know how to play the game. They know, not how to do the job better than us, but how to “motivate” and control us. Turn the tables. Don’t let them play you, you play them. If they want that nice car and parking space make them earn it. Make them be the babysitter. Hell, crap in your pants so they have to clean it up.
Fight the power & KCCO
workplaceterrorism 