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Comment by kogepathic | Hacker News Reader

> I also found that money is a fickle motivator.

You say this, but money is also part of respect. Many employers do not index raises to inflation, so you're literally working for less each year you stay with that employer. Yes, you absolutely need to treat employees like humans and not numbers, but compensation is part of the respect you show employees. Ignore it at your peril.

> It works well, if you want transient, highly-capable people that will not stick around, and will not be there, when the fecal matter hits the air circulation device.

Anecdotally, the most capable people I have worked with are there to solve problems, and if they run into a problem that can't be solved (mostly because of organisation politics/culture) then they recognise the futility of trying and move on.

Not being there when the excrement hits the fan is just a byproduct of not sticking around in a dysfunctional environment.

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> money is also part of respect.

Agreed. Many companies push non-monetary HR stuff, in an effort to keep salaries low. That's usually pretty transparent, though.

In the end, there's absolutely nothing that can fix broken management; especially the first- and second-line managers.

I found management to be a very difficult and humbling experience. The variable was usually me; not the employee. I had to be constantly reviewing my own motivations and whatnot.

> Anecdotally, the most capable people I have worked with are there to solve problems, and if they run into a problem that can't be solved (mostly because of organisation politics/culture) then they recognise the futility of trying and move on.

One of my jobs, as a first-line manager, was to shield my employees from the corporate culture. I managed highly experienced C++ engineers, working on pretty advanced image processing pipeline stuff. Not exactly your "bootcamp leetcode master" type. When they finally rolled up our department, the engineer with the least tenure, had ten years, and we were never really paid that well.

But I have had many folks, on this very forum, tell me what a terrible manager I must have been.

> tell me what a terrible manager I must have been

Hum... The GP is talking about your superiors. What you just confirmed when you said you had to shield your people from them.

That is, unless you were the one deciding to reduce people's salaries every year.

Nope.

But I had to fight like crazy to get them raises and promotions. I have to admit that I sometimes did less than I would have liked.

I was often instructed to reduce the positive scores of my employees. It was infuriating. They did good, they deserved praise, even with the best score possible, their raise would not have been that great.

I almost never got a good score, myself, but they also kept me for almost 27 years.

Spot on. You remunerate people based how much respect you have for them and what esteem you hold for them. If your company pays you less than you’re worth, then they clearly don’t value you.

Very few people would show up to work without the money. Let’s stop pretending they would.

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