Rant of the Week

Rewards for Doing Your Job

As a matter of principle, I find it repugnant when governments or corporations "solve" a problem by offering employees and contractors an "incentive" or reward for doing the work they were hired to do-- properly.

So we hire teachers, we expect certain credentials when they apply, we pay people to make good judgments about the quality of these applicants, we provide them with extra training and benefits, and we put them into the classroom. And then we say, "tell you what-- if you do what we hired you to do, there's a big fat bonus in it for you." That's what it looks like to me when we offer bonuses and incentives to teachers or anyone else to meet certain standards. We are proclaiming, loudly and clearly, that we don't expect the other people we employ to do their jobs properly.

The U.S. is doing this with teachers, and a columnist with the New York Times recently proposed that they do the same thing with States and Cities that run pension plans: offer them money to do the job they are already paid to do. But this time, succeed.

People rightly question the idea of rewarding young students for getting good marks. Are we training them to expect a gift every time they do something right? What happens when-- as is inevitable-- the rewards stop coming?

Let your yes be yes and your no be no. I think anyone hired as a teacher or administrator or executive should be told what he is expected to do and how much he will be paid to do it. If he doesn't do the job, let him or her know that he or she needs to find another job.