Negative Motivation Always Wins

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Clarissa

March 9, 2014

It is extremely useful to get out of one’s own sphere and experience reality from a completely different vantage point.

Here is an example. Whenever I hear of companies that institute a dress code for their employees and offer casual Fridays as a reprieve from formal wear, monitor every movement the workers make, only allow 1 or 2 15-minute coffee breaks, inflict public humiliations on employees who underperform, practice at-will firing, and terrorize employees in many other ways, I immediately think that these employers engage in wanton and gratuitous cruelty because they enjoy making people suffer.

Today, however, I started to suspect that all of these corporate traditions might have a sad practical justification. Employers who detest this way of treating workers and try to do the opposite discover that people simply stop working. And then the business owners face the choice between stooping to dress codes, productivity logs and punch cards or going out of business.

A strong positive motivation that comes from within is rare. Creating it is very hard. For some mysterious reason, it is much easier to seek out a negative motivation and spur oneself to action with pain and suffering. I should know since I used to be a pro at coming up with elaborate ways of terrorizing and guilting myself into productivity.

I don’t have an answer for why negative motivation works so much better than the positive one. I’m looking for the reason but I haven’t found it yet.

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8 responses to “Negative Motivation Always Wins”

Z

March 9, 2014

“A strong positive motivation that comes from within is rare.”

I suppose this is possible, although I find it hard to believe. I also find it hard to believe that not wishing others ill is rare, yet it may be.

Odd you should post this as what I decided today had to do with deciding to ground myself entirely in the positive, i.e. I accomplished X, as opposed to the negative (I did not accomplish Y).

I wonder whether it is really about positive and negative, or whether it is authoritarian or not. Authoritarian: in both Brazil (in a conservative period) and Cuba (tierra comunista) I noticed a similar attitude toward government and employers: “they” should “give.” Very pyramid-like. I wonder whether in a hierarchy like that, negative motivation becomes necesssary for the majority, because of the authoritarianism and the infantilization.

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1. Clarissa
  
  March 9, 2014
  
  Wow, my father was just saying pretty much exactly what you say on your comment but in Russian. 🙂
  
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musteryou

March 9, 2014

Authoritarianism and negative emotions in the identity politics scene:

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NancyP

March 10, 2014

Of course most people would rather not work for other people at repetitive or otherwise dull paper-pushing jobs. Care-giving profession workers have pride in their skilled care and in the relationship with the people receiving care. Skilled tradespeople can look at their job output and take pride. Self employed people have the satisfaction that they are their own bosses. Paper-pushers engaged in routine tasks that make money for the bosses – not a whole lot of satisfaction there.

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1. Clarissa
  
  March 10, 2014
  
  My sister’s company is in the noblest of businesses: they find jobs for people. This is the kind of work that is supposed to be extremely rewarding. But the problems are the same as elsewhere.
  
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Tim

March 10, 2014

People thrive for a certain self-picked goal when they go to work. And they try to make a minimum effort to reach it. The trick to get employees to do a harder job is to get them to pick a higher goal.

If you go to work and your goal is to not violate your contract and make a monthly salary and you can reach that goal by completing 5 cases a day, why should you process a 6th or 7th one? It makes no difference for you whatsoever.

Of course not being fired is pretty much as low as you can go 🙂 But what apart from your salary is there to thrive for? Well there can be monetary boni, interest and ipride.

A bonus is pretty obvious isn’t it? Getting paid to do more than necessary is always a nice thing to improve productivity. It works for pretty much everyone, independent of wether this is a simple factory worker or a product designer. Problem is that it costs money and thats not what companies want to do.

Interest is also easy. If your job is interesting to you, you will also do better. Interest is pretty strong, I have seen it cause people clock in dozens of unpaid overtime hours. Problem is that a ton of jobs simply are not interesting at all.

Pride is an interesting one. I have once met a CEO who had such great people skills that he could make his minimal wage workers work incredibly hard by instilling an incredible strong sense of pride in them. Of course this level of communication skills is rare. The average manager thinks it is already extraordinary effort to do a half-assed speech at he christmas party.

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Jones

March 12, 2014

Fear will keep the local systems in line … fear of this battle station!

[watches Lord Vader escape to the safety of the Imperial HR department]

Seriously though, I am reminded of a bit from Dostoevsky, paraphrased from “The Brothers Karamazov”, I believe: without something to believe in, man would rather face oblivion than face the future.

Some forms of oblivion take place one day at a time.

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1. Clarissa
  
  March 12, 2014
  
  Wow, Jones, this is very profound.
  
  I totally have the best readers.
  
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