I used to have the same argument over and over again with an old boss about money as a motivator. His opinion, much like most business books and articles from the past 10+ years, is that money is not a primary motivator for people in business. His favorite saying was “people don’t work for money.” I find that to be one of the most ridiculous and naive statements I’ve ever heard. Yet time and time again, I have to read that kind of rubbish being perpetuated around the business world.
Maybe my perspective is tainted since I am an IT professional. IT is typically a very flat career path, and thus our success and value is primarily measured by the amount of money we make. We don’t have a lot else to go on. Also, most executive management who are in charge of motivating IT people generally don’t do a great job of giving good feedback since there is a great deal of the IT pros job that they don’t even understand.
So we’re going to do our own not-so-scientific survey to get a perspective on ***what is your primary motivation?***
**Rate the following as to their level of importance to you, 1 = Not at all important, 10 = Most important thing in my life.**
>A. Culture
>B. Salary
>C. Interesting work
>D. Respect
>E. Career Advancement
>F. Slacking off
Just post your answers to the comments of this post, and you can do it anonymously if you’re afraid someone will find your answers and use them against you in some sort of sinister corporate sabotage campaign.
B, C, A, E, D, F
But I’d say that salary is not necessarily number one when you are getting paid appropriately
B,C,D,A,E,F
The only people saying people don’t work for money, have it
MONEY THAT IS.
I like what I do, but still feel underpaid
On the other hand I had a job that I hated and felt under paid
It’s not what your worth it’s what you negotiate.
I guess I’m a poor negotiator….. LOL
A. Culture – 2 – Maybe if I ever had a co-worker I disliked I might change my mind, but I’ve gotten along professionally with everyone I’ve ever worked with.
B. Salary – 8 – The more I enjoy my job, the less important this becomes, but there’s still a lower limit. Happiness doesn’t pay the bills.
C. Interesting work – 8 – Yeah, I’d probably be bored to tears if I wasn’t making cool things, though I know sometimes you do have to do things that are boring.
D. Respect – 9 – I believe this is earned, so if I don’t have it, it’s probably not my boss’ or the company’s fault (unless he/she was deliberately lying about me or something else devious) — so it’s important, defintely.
E. Career Advancement – 3 – I’m not really in a field that has a lot of advancement. This isn’t really that important to me as a motivator.
F. Slacking off – 10 – I rate this a 10 because it’s a very large motivator. If you know that if you finish early, you get to slack off for a few, that’s motivation. If you finish early and just have to move onto the next thing, then there’s no motivation to finish ahead of time.
(by the way I am the first to answer your survey correctly)