Participation Awards

As a veteran, I receive special treatment, such as a near parking spot at Loews. I always feel like someone with "stolen glory" because veterans are special, those who were injured or fought in combat.

 

My brother worked years ago in a factory.

Instead of an hourly wage, the bosses decided to do piece-mill work… that is… a certain amount of output was considered 100% and you were paid the hourly wage. Produce more, your wage went up.. produce less your wage went down.

Only two of the workers made the 100%, my brother routinely made 115%, the highest.

After a couple of weeks, the guys that couldn’t make the 100% complained, so the bosses decided to consider the work as a team and two workers output were averaged.

My brothers output (the highest) was averaged with the lowest output, which put them both at about 95%. As you can imagine, my brother was not going to agree to give 15% of his pay to a guy who couldn’t keep up and started looking for a new job.

Very quickly, the bosses found out and quit the whole thing and went back to an hourly wage.

peace to you

 

Interesting. This reminds me of Matthew 20:1-16.
". . . For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen. . . ."

 

My wife talks about the last job she had where the younger workers rarely did anything other than talk on their phones. Even though she wasnt a supervisor, she would tell them they needed to do their jobs, primarily because she had to cover for them for the “breaks”. She would tell them to quit being lazy and work.

Apparently being called lazy triggered them and prompted complaints.

peace to you

 

Intriguing. Their solution to the seeming inequity was to cut everyone’s original pay 5%.

 

Just because a shiftless sponger is constantly lollygagging doesn’t mean he is lazy, does it?

 

Well, I think the original plan was to put a merit based wage plan in place. The more work you accomplished the better your pay.

The plan revealed only two workers could work at the pace management wanted. The rest complained because their wages actually went down. Management then attempted to “equalize” the pay by averaging the results, which penalized the best workers in favor of the less efficient workers.

It is the equivalent of letting the last place finisher share the first place spot. In this case, in the adult workplace, the last place worker shared part of the pay of the first place worker.

peace to you

 

Yes, I think I get that part.

But if they had all been at 100% before, then were all reduced to 95% with the averaging, the company was benefiting at the expense of the employees after having tried, perhaps successfully, to get them to work harder/faster.

 

"W" used the phrase, the soft bigotry of low expectations." Why reward those whose contribution was not useful? If your biased view is that is the best they can do. Did you see where showing up for work on time is racist? No, the racist view is that meeting the standards of performance is racist, as if people who do not meet expectations cannot do so because of their race. Utter nonsense.

 

There are surely pros and cons, and context will affect the perception.

How about this example: Doesn’t every member of the winning NFL team get a Super Bowl ring? And the runners-up, don’t they get rings as well?

The Super Bowl ring is an award in the National Football League given to the team members of the winning team of the league's annual championship game, the Super Bowl. Since only one Vince Lombardi Trophy is awarded to the team (ownership) itself, the Super Bowl ring offers a collectible memento for the actual players and team members to keep for themselves to symbolize their victory.[1] There are also rings provided to the runners-up team of the Super Bowl.[2]

Super Bowl ring - Wikipedia​

 

Especially when it is clear they were dilly dallying.

 

That’s what they really mean by equality and equity.

 

Perhaps. I think most just kept the pace they always worked.

That was probably the intention

peace to you