When Gratitude Turns to Envy

I want to share this thought provoking story:

'A farmer owned several acres of a fruit plantation and when harvest season arrived, he was in need of workers. So, at 7am he went out to the local city square where unemployed workers waited around in the hope of work. The going daily wage was $10/hour but the farmer, being generous (and socialist!) by nature, offered them $15/hour which was more than gratefully accepted.

By mid-day, he realised that more workers were needed. So, off he went again to the square to employ more hands at the same $15/hour rate. The workers praised his generosity and were grateful. The same thing happened at 2pm: he employed yet more workers at the same rate. By 6pm, when the day's work ended, the workers lined up to receive their wages beginning with the workers who started the day. They each received $150 for their day's work and were grateful to the generous farmer. Then came the rest of the workers who started later in the day. The farmer, seeing how abundant the harvest had been, decided to pay all the workers a full day's wage of $150 regardless of their starting time.

Then the rumblings of discontent began starting with the workers who had worked the longer hours. "We should be getting more...." they protested "....this is so unfair!" To which the farmer asked the protesters: "Would it please you then if I take back part of the money that I gave to the workers who came later?"

"No, we think it's only fair that you pay us more!" was their reply

"But I did.", said the farmer, "The wage you expected was $10/hour and you were happy to accept $15/hour at the start of the day. What has changed?"

A company I know of, recently announced a bonus scheme to all their employees. This was totally unexpected because people felt insecure about their jobs due to a drop in business. The unexpected bonus was distributed evenly between all departments. Then came the complaints:

"We are front-liners...it is not fair that the 'support functions' are getting the same as us"

"My staff are now feeling 'demotivated' because clearly, they worked harder than the rest"

An action that was meant to motivate causes discontent due to greed and envy. Cross-functional dysfunction at its finest??

Pete Pereira and Helen Langhammer designed the Thinking Styles' Cross-Functional Feedback Inventory to facilitate and resolve conflict between functions. To learn more about this and other assessment tools, drop an enquiry to [email protected] or [email protected]