“Grab, Get, and Goose” 0
That is compensation slang for a compensation program that attracts, retains, and motivates persons.
The often unstated truth is that, for most persons, pay in and of itself is not a motivator. If persons believe they are being compensated fairly, they just don’t worry about pay all that much. (Lack of pay, of course, is a motivator of sorts.)
In contrast, perceived unfair pay is a hell of a demotivator.
Wall Street, though, speaks as if pay is the only motivator; that is their defense of their bonus practices.
Dave Weidner considers this on MarketWatch:
If, as you threaten, we lose the so-called “best people” on Wall Street, then so be it.
If these are the same “best people” that former Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive John Thain talked about in defending the 11th-hour bonus payout he made before his deal wit (sic) Bank of America closed, then what happens without the best people? Does Merrill lose double the near $30 billion it lost last year?
The big gray monster in the room that no one mentions is this:
Considering their performance, these were clearly not the “best people.” Indeed, they were clearly not (recalling the classifications in the old Sears Catalog) the better or even the good people.
They are buffons who drove their companies into the damned ground and are pulling the rest of us behind them.
Pay for performance my anatomy.
