Cowboy Caleb the liberal arts, grown-up stuff & random mischief

Pikachu, I Choose You!

As part of my company’s manager incentive scheme, every time I hit certain performance milestones, my company showers me with some money. It’s not that much, but it’s pretty okay. What happened was is that this is part of their retention plan to ensure folk like me don’t jump ship.

So it’s an irony that they rejected my own incentive scheme for my team in China which of course lead to 30% turnover in the first quarter of this year. The folk I’ve got left are what I like to believe - my followers. And I like to think they follow me sorely because of my superior leadership skills, charisma and the fact I always buy stuff for them - but the reality is that actions speaks louder than words.

Appreciation, recognition and rewarding employees is something that must be done. So since my company refuses to do it, I had to get creative.

What I’ve done is to convert my incentive bonus into the Renminbi and distributed it to members of my team whom I’ve felt have earned it. After all, my success is due to them, so they deserve a share of the pie.

The top performers in my team got a lot of money. The consistent folk got good money. And the non-performers got nothing. I feel it’s important to equate performance to rewards. The large denomination note in China is RMB100, which mean I had to stuff very very fat Hong Bao’s that looked like little red suckling pigs.

I distributed the Hong Bao’s discreetly to each person at different times of the day with a stern warning not to share how much they go with anybody. In fact they should not even let anybody know that I’m distributing money or I might get into trouble.

Everybody was very happy. I don’t know which made them happier - the money or the fact that I acknowledged their contributions. There are many ways to say thank you. Dozens of ways to praise and energize people. But nothing feels better than your boss saying you’ve been doing a great job and handing a big fat bundle of money.

In other words, Pikachu - I choose you!

pikachu?? wth have you been watching??

Too late. The secret is out from day 1.

The only reason why nothing bad has happened is because the smart ones know not to report to upstairs. But in every circle, there will always be one sabo king.

Been there. done that.

You are a very very nice manager.

Humans love to share news… it wont be a secret.. Got a friend told me that she has a friend, who does not have it easy when she went to china to work as an expat cos the HR are locals and pissed off at the benefits and salary she got.. Worked the rest of the company ppl against her..

Sighz.. this is life..

liked wat JW said

“The only reason why nothing bad has happened is because the smart ones know not to report to upstairs. But in every circle, there will always be one sabo king.”

And you’re the sabo king….

hahahahahaha

all the commenters here starts with ‘J’. :)

there are no secrets (in terms of salary and rewards) amongst the locals….

Wow! They are damn lucky to work under you!
Are you still hiring?? hehe

everyone! don’t pull his leg lah, you don’t know his subordinate is very 辛苦 as after all, his success is due to them!!

cowboy, a winner are you. you’re a good man. you have affirmed their contribution with something they will def appreciate.