> Want more work done? Pay more. But I won't tell you this, it's up to you to notice.
As someone who has worked as an employee, I can understand why you feel that way.
As someone who has worked as an employer, good god, do you realize how useful that information could be to your boss?
If you can figure out how to convey that information to your boss in a socially appropriate way, it would allow him to more efficiently do his job.
Seriously, most people don't work that way. I'm slowly learning this through trial and error; personally, I'm strongly motivated by money. But I don't think this is true of most people. When its crunch time and I want my guys working nights and weekends, I will occasionally declare that I'll pay double for hours between certain dates. It gets me almost no extra work vs crunch time when I pay regular rates, at least from my regular sysadmin. (time and a half for time over 40 hours a week is normal of course, but even 'crunch time' doesn't usually mean more than 40 hours a week for me... I think working more than that usually has seriously diminishing returns.)
So my SysAdmin- you know what gets him to work harder? not money- as far as I can tell, that doesn't make any difference at all. I gave him a raise and he quit his other job, but he didn't really increase his hours working for me, which is what I wanted. What motivates him is me working alongside him on the project, as far as I can tell.
Sometimes this works out great; I mean, he's at the beginning of his career, so he's working for the experience more than he's working for the money, and like most arrogant people, I enjoy teaching, especially teaching bright people who pick things up quickly. It makes me feel like I'm a good teacher, and really, working with him keeps /me/ on track and helps prevent me from doing things like wasting time on hacker news. But it's requiring me to re-think how to motivate people.
(on the other hand, my brother, who also works for me occasionally, is a total mercenary in this regard. He eats up the double time hours, and isn't particularly interested in my regular rates.)
As someone who has worked as an employee, I can understand why you feel that way.
As someone who has worked as an employer, good god, do you realize how useful that information could be to your boss?
If you can figure out how to convey that information to your boss in a socially appropriate way, it would allow him to more efficiently do his job.
Seriously, most people don't work that way. I'm slowly learning this through trial and error; personally, I'm strongly motivated by money. But I don't think this is true of most people. When its crunch time and I want my guys working nights and weekends, I will occasionally declare that I'll pay double for hours between certain dates. It gets me almost no extra work vs crunch time when I pay regular rates, at least from my regular sysadmin. (time and a half for time over 40 hours a week is normal of course, but even 'crunch time' doesn't usually mean more than 40 hours a week for me... I think working more than that usually has seriously diminishing returns.)
So my SysAdmin- you know what gets him to work harder? not money- as far as I can tell, that doesn't make any difference at all. I gave him a raise and he quit his other job, but he didn't really increase his hours working for me, which is what I wanted. What motivates him is me working alongside him on the project, as far as I can tell.
Sometimes this works out great; I mean, he's at the beginning of his career, so he's working for the experience more than he's working for the money, and like most arrogant people, I enjoy teaching, especially teaching bright people who pick things up quickly. It makes me feel like I'm a good teacher, and really, working with him keeps /me/ on track and helps prevent me from doing things like wasting time on hacker news. But it's requiring me to re-think how to motivate people.
(on the other hand, my brother, who also works for me occasionally, is a total mercenary in this regard. He eats up the double time hours, and isn't particularly interested in my regular rates.)