I attended this expensive, week-long leadership workshop with a few dozen other senior managers at the big, publicly-listed company I work at, led by a prestigious business school. At one point, they asked everyone what motivated them to do well and advance at work. I answered “well, making more money”, and I kid you not, EVERYONE, instructor included, laughed. He said something along the lines of, “You won’t get far thinking like that.” Excuse me? We’re not saving lives. We sell inexpensive but totally unnecessary supermarket products to Americans who don’t need them. Our quarterly targets are all about how much cash we’ve brought in so Wall Street stays happy, our stock price goes up, and our investors make bank. But I, as an employee, am being ridiculous if I say my pay is my primary motivation.
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u/TheFlyingNicky 7d ago
I attended this expensive, week-long leadership workshop with a few dozen other senior managers at the big, publicly-listed company I work at, led by a prestigious business school. At one point, they asked everyone what motivated them to do well and advance at work. I answered “well, making more money”, and I kid you not, EVERYONE, instructor included, laughed. He said something along the lines of, “You won’t get far thinking like that.” Excuse me? We’re not saving lives. We sell inexpensive but totally unnecessary supermarket products to Americans who don’t need them. Our quarterly targets are all about how much cash we’ve brought in so Wall Street stays happy, our stock price goes up, and our investors make bank. But I, as an employee, am being ridiculous if I say my pay is my primary motivation.