I actually saw this quote on a sign in a very touristy restaurant. Somehow, I decided that I probably wouldn’t see the situation quite the same way that the employee did.
I Pretend to Work therefore Work Pretends to Pay Me
The fact of the matter is that this situation is probably completely true. Because the employee pretends to work, the employee’s performance and merit reviews will suffer. It’s quite obvious to me that the employee is completely at fault for not working hard enough, not being engaged in his/er job, and probably having poor quality in the work. The organization very rightly sees what’s going on and has measured their increases in pay justifiably.
What the employee does not understand is that there is cause and effect there. The fact that the employer “pretends” to pay is not from some malicious desire to underpay the individual. Rather the fact that the employee is an underachiever is causal to their position in the workplace and pay grade.
Work Pretends to Pay Me therefore I Pretend to Work
I’d hate to think it’s always the employees fault though. Sometimes, the employer has created such a negative total rewards strategy that the employee is justifiably disengaged with his/er work. Seeing few opportunities and not being rewarded for the work s/he is asked to perform, the employee sees no reason to work hard and every reason to reciprocate on the mediocrity of value.
Similar to the above, the employer must understand that their lack of ability to compensate according to market demand will result in the hiring of a substandard workforce. Substandard may mean employees of lesser skills or work ethic. Either way, the lower production here is caused by the insufficiency of the employer’s total rewards strategy.
Well, leave it to me to turn an entertaining and funny little quote in a restaurant into a serious subject requiring more analysis.
