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Money

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Money is certainly what motivates me at work. Sure, it's nice when your employer lets you know that you're doing a good job, but it isn't what motivates employees to go that extra mile. I'm a commissioned sales person and my paycheck is a direct reflection of how much work I produce. I love the fact that my checks are bigger than most of my co-workers because I try harder.

I've worked at hourly paid jobs where I gave my best every day while many of my co-workers would sit back and play games on the Internet when they should be helping customers. At the end of each week, I made the exact same amount of money as the people who did half the work. Right or wrong, I eventually stopped killing myself at work to get everything done. I figured if everyone else is getting paid to be lazy, then why should I get everything done for them? In my current job, there are still people who sit around and play on the Internet instead of waiting on customers, but guess what? Their paychecks are less than half what mine are. To me, that's fair. In fact, I hope that they continue to sit on their behinds and do nothing because they are allowing me to make more money. They also aren't costing the company any money because they are on 100% commission.

I just don't understand why my co-workers aren't trying to give me a run for my money. The computer system we have gives out all the data about who makes the most sales and there is even a report we can view that shows what each person makes each week. At first, I wasn't too thrilled with everyone getting to see all the paycheck amounts, but has been a great motivator for new employees coming in. They see who does all the work and how it affects their pay.

My manager could sing praises to me all day long, but it isn't going to make me work any harder than I did before. Now, on the flip side of things, if a manager gives me a hard time for no reason, then it does make me consider doing a poor job so he won't make his monthly bonus. However, in order to cost him his bonus, I also would have to lose part of my paycheck as well and it just isn't worth it. See? Their system works beautifully! I only wish that there was some way for ALL jobs to be commission based. That way everyone would get paid exactly what their efforts are worth.

Learn more about this author, Kaitlyn Hamilton.
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