you keep using that word…
This piece has been a long time coming, but it came to mind again as I was writing about my love affair with millennials. In that piece, I shared a hypothetical situation in which a manager unintentionally pushed away a top performer because “people were talking.” In this scenario, I imagine the manager hearing a lot of whiny nonsense that amount to a 7-year old crying, “It’s not fair!” Isn’t it?
In the last several years, I’ve worked with some very smart people in researching in how a company’s values align with the personal values of the people who work there. We ask people what things they value most, and the very first thing that comes out of many mouths is “fairness.” Oh, if only that’s what they really wanted. But in the immortal words of everyone’s favorite Spaniard, Inigo Montoya, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
When you dig deeper, people seem to be saying “fair” when they really mean “equal” or “the same.” Here’s a quick example. Office A decides they want to give their employee of the month a preferred parking place. Does that mean every work location has to give preferred parking for their team’s employee of the month? That would be equal, but would it be fair? Let’s say Wendel, earns employee of the month in Office B. But wait! Wendel rides his bike to the office every day. What to do? Common sense says to just find another form of recognition for Wendel. It may not be the same or equal reward, but as long as it’s equivalent in value, it’s fair.
In my opinion, it’s rare to find fair and equal living in the same space. Here’s another what if:
All other things being equal (experience, education, time in the role, blah blah blah), should women get equal pay as men for the same job? Don’t think too hard—it’s not a trick question. The answer is “yes” and if you think differently, you’re not necessarily a sexist. But you’re probably stupid.
Let’s add a wrinkle. You get bonus in this job. Our female friend—let’s call her Aimee because I always thought that was a cool way to spell the name—is like our millennial. Aimee’s knocking it out of the park this year. On the other hand, her male teammate (let’s go with Wendel again because he missed out on that parking spot thing) has been doing just fine in the job. Wendel is hitting his numbers (especially last month… remember?), but not the way Aimee is. Should Aimee and Wendel get the same bonus? Again, not a trick question. The answer is “no” because while that would be equal, it wouldn’t be fair. Aimee performed better.
Now it gets even more interesting. Should Wendel and Aimee get the same performance rating and raise? 3 for 3 on not being a trick question. The answer again, is “no.” What’s happened here? Aimee and Wendel are no longer getting the same pay for the same job. Aimee’s making more. Why? Because she’s performing better. Is it equal? Nope. Is it fair? Yup. If Wendel wants more, he should perform as well as Aimee. All year.
So, here’s the conundrum. That’s a fun word, isn’t it? It’s almost musical. Go ahead, say it out loud. I’ll wait… You hear the drums in your head, right? It’s not just me? Okay, maybe it is. I’ll move on.
Again, this all seems like common sense, right? But why isn’t the sense just as common when it comes to things like work-at-home? Or flexible hours? Or vacation time? What if Aimee wants a little more flexibility to hang at home with her cats (that may have been mean—I didn’t mean it that way. I just assume cat people are smart. I know lots of cat people and they are all smart. So, I imagine Aimee has cats…). Or maybe she wants an extra 3-day weekend to go to Insert-your-weird-collectible-Con in Bismarck. Why not let her?
Now I’m back to my “pay for performance” argument in that millennial article. Let’s expand our definition of pay the way we’ve tried to expand benefits into total rewards. What if pay started to mean life satisfaction? And while we’re at it, let’s please start making being a decent human the most important performance criterion! I’d much rather have a good human with average skills on my team than a highly-skilled jackass who no one can stand. Wouldn’t you? Seriously, the talented asshole needs to go away because he’s messing with my culture.
See… you thought I was just rambling, but I think I’m onto something.
And let me poke another beehive while I’m at it. When in the name of whoever you find most awesome are we going to start paying the best teachers more money? How fair is it that teachers who got in the game to get summers off are paid the same as the ones who spend their summers planning for the next school year? The ones who work their asses off trying to create an environment in which the kids love to learn? The ones who actually… I don’t know… teach? I understand the whole equal pay for doing basically the same job thing but shouldn’t the ones who do it better get paid more? We covered that, right? I thought it was so clear.
“There will be no money. But on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.”
So, I figure they got that going for them… but it wasn’t so great for Carl Spangler, so it’s probably not terribly gratifying for our teachers. For the love of Bill Murray, if we want great education, we need to start paying our teachers what they’re worth. The good ones, anyway. The bad ones can go find something else to do. Maybe start making quirky items with flowers on them and selling them on Etsy. Maybe sweaters for Aimee’s cats. I don’t care. Just keep them away from our kids. Education is too important.
Let’s see if I can land this plane, because I’ve been circling the airport a bit. Could be that I’m drinking my dinner as I’m writing this. Anyway, all I’m trying to say is that we should always strive to treat people fairly. Fair may not always be equal. And equal may not always be fair. Reward people for their character, their results, and their skills—in that order—and I think you’ll be okay.
Cheers!
