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Dan Ariely says you shouldn’t be too specific in your compensation practices because it motivates people to game the system instead of working hard. For example:

A consulting company once told me they made a rule that if you stayed until 8 in the office, you could order food and use the car service to get home. So what happens? A ton of people are there at 8. Nobody’s there at 8:05.

Really? A “ton of people” who probably billed out at $300 per hour were there at 8? At a cost of maybe 30 bucks in food and another 50 for the car service? Sounds like this strategy worked great — as long as you understand that it’s primarily aimed at increasing billable hours. What’s the problem?

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And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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