Day 73 - Money or Recognition

'Work is worship'; 'My hobby and my passion has become my job. How lucky can I get?' or 'I love what I do' - statements like these are not true for all of us. For almost 95% of us our work is a means to an end - a way to make sure that the home fires are burning and that we are making a decent living for ourselves and our families.

So what motivates us to keep working? To keep doing the same job in the same company or same job in a different company or maybe a different job in the same company or......you know what I mean? I think there are only two things for which we work - money and recognition. When these two are combined - when you get good money and it comes with a recognition of what you do, you tend to stay back in the organisation or a longer time or you have a jump in your step when you get to work each morning.

The fun starts when one of these (or in tough times like these both) do not come through. When you start feeling that the money is not enough for the work that you are doing you start looking for a change. I have a different view to this in that money is NEVER enough for what you do. There will always be someone else who you think does less work but earns more than you - always - and our problem is that we tend to compare ourselves with those people. We never compare ourselves with someone who does more work but earns less. Maybe we do but we don't feel happy about it - rather we feel sorry for that guy and then we go back to bitching how we earn less. When tough times come across when money does not increase over a long period of time, we get frustrated and try to change our jobs in hope of more money but falling the same trap of less motivation.

I believe that a lack of money can be 'compensated' by due recognition. Giving an award to an employee always motivates the person, maybe for a short period of time. A recognition in front of ones peers and management is good for the ego. When people clap and congratulate you, you tend to forget about the other motivator - money. You feel happy for the few brief moments of some weeks or months and you revel in the adulation. Organisations need to look at rewards and recognitions more seriously during tough times. When you cannot give money to motivate a person, make sure that the person is recognised for what they do in front of everyone.

But can one replace the other completely? Can someone be happy with just recognition in place of small increments in money? Or can someone be motivated by just money but complete lack of recognition of the work they do? Is a balance necessary or can we identify these types and keep them happy with just one motivator?

In the short term one of them can be enough of a motivator - give more money or give more awards. But in the long term a balance is absolutely critical. At some point the person getting only the awards will start to look at money and vice-versa as well. The one getting only the money will start thinking about the pats-on-the-back and the congratulations and the adulation that the award winner is getting. He will want a piece of that too.

What do you think? Money or Recognition? What motivates you?