Why Do You Get Paid

When you work on an assembly line your output is directly related to the amount of time you are at work, thus people are paid per hour.

Now the economy is changing and many of us are becoming thought workers. As a thought worker your output is not directly related to the amount of time you spend at work.

The problem is that many of us that are thought workers are in an environment that pays us based on the time we spend at work.

What would your boss think about you staying at home all day to read a book that would help you do your job better? Many of your bosses would not look very highly on this, one because they are afraid you will be screwing off (if they could not trust you then why did they hire you), and two you are not at the office producing.

What if you could get your work done in 2 hours that it takes everybody else 8? Could you go home after that? I know I have had those days and I could not go home.

We need to change our thinking as employees and leaders. We need to start looking for ways to be paid on results and not on the time you spend at an office. As an employee this gives you have incentive to find better ways to work. From leader’s point of view we need to start trusting the people that we hired. Think of this: why would I bust my butt to get something done early if I know I have to be at the office all the time anyway?

The lazy person’s perspective: the one downside to being paid on results is that there will be financial consequences to not producing.

This change in thinking is not going to be easy to make and sometimes our managers will force us to be paid on the time we spend at work. But the sooner you change your thinking and start finding ways to be paid on results the sooner you will stop trading hours for dollars. You can get more dollars but you cannot get more hours.