A way to be happy? Give your money away?

[Former Member]

Here is some interesting food for thought.

In the latest issue of the Harvard Business Review there is an article "Help employees give away part of their bonus". The thrust of the article is that to help employees be happy, to help them spend a portion of their bonus on prosocial areas. (Prosocial is defined as gifts to others or contributions to non-profit organizations).

In a study the author did, they found three things:

1) The more money people spent on prosocial, the more happy, in general, they were with their lives.

2) Size of the bonus didn't have as much impact as how it was spent. The more of the bonus spent on others the more increased the happiness.

3) Prosocial giving causes happiness. They gave two groups $5 to $20 dollars with one group instructed to spend it on themselves, the other group to spend it on others. Those that spent it on others were measured as being more happy than those who spent on themselves.

The authors think that most people believe that spending money on ourselves bring happiness, but "...people get no meaningful happiness by spending money on things like new clothes, TVs, or iPods. They do tend to feel better, however, if they spend even a small portion of a windfall on others.

I know that most of the cynical discussion will focus on "define happiness", which they do not do in this article. But what do you think?

Bob

[Former Member]

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[Former Member]

I think the people that spend more on prosocial tend to have more money and in general, happier lives

Probably an Ego boost, that would explain why some multimillionaries are so much into the philantropy (besides taxes).

At that level material things stop giving enough satisfaction.

[stephenjohannes]

Bob,

Personally I don't like the thought of so called "income" having attachments to it. It almost defeats the point the incentive in the first place. You did a great job, and we will reward you, but you don't get the full reward.

That doesn't mean I'm opposed to matching contribution programs. However I don't believe incentive compensation should be tied to those programs.

Also the employees view of "worthwhile causes" probably will differ from the employer. You run into way too many issues of alienation by introducing such a program. Easy example is that some people might not consider "pet" causes to be something they want to donate to.

At the end of the day monetary donations definitely can provide a temporary euphoria, but it takes donations of time and lifestyle changes to provide a more permanent way to happiness.

Take care,

Stephen

[Bob_McGlynn]

Stephen,

I agree with you that if employees should not be required by the company to contribute part of their bonus. Even though the article suggests that companies consider giving part of the bonus in the form of a gift card that can be used to contribute to 100's of different non-profits, I don't know if I agree with that approach.

I agree with you that people should be able to choose what they want to support. And it should be they that choose.

I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree with you that people need to spend more than just money, but their time and effort too.

Again, the article does not define happiness, nor do I, though I would agree that giving -even a small amount of money- will make you happier than those who give nothing. The article does say that there is a direct relation between the more you give and happiness. Which agrees with your point that time and lifestyle changes can lead to even more happiness.

Thanks for the input!

Bob

[Former Member]

I can see where Stephen is coming from, and having grown up in and lived in several countries where sound investments (for lack of a better expression) are required, and I can well imagine that throwing 5$ off the back of a few trucks a few times often eases conscience more than what it does poverty and social problems. Sometimes, it even aggravates them. So one should donate wisely, not happily...

The important question for me is: how do we each give away 5$ (or our time here at SDN) and make it scalable?

There is a little known school of economic thought called "trust economics"; not without controversy, but it breaks many other micro- and macro-economic models (and constraints). The most common form of untrustworthiness is power (apparently), and in those in need of sound investment areas this is often a masculine power.

Empowering women (particularly ones with children) is in my opinion the most scalable way of increasing happiness in a scalable way.

As a part of the forum clean-up and content quality initiative, we can perhaps focus particular attention to good advice (and correcting bad advise) to questions asked by women?

On the other hand, women are perhaps more inclined to use the search?

[mathew_muthalaly]

I believe in sharing time, information and money with people around me, to the extent that I am not unhappy doing it.

Appreciation and bonuses have their places. More often than not, employees need appreciation more than they need bonuses.

However, many present day Managers tend to give verbal appreciation to employees who appear content with the organization, and higher bonuses to employees they perceive are entertaining other options. Would anybody like to comment on this?

[Bob_McGlynn]

Mathew,

There are two factors to consider: the team, and the manager.

With your ultimate success depending on the efforts that the whole team delivers, wouldn't you want to keep valuable team members? Not knowing your situation, but assuming that you have a strong team member that was considering leaving, it would make sense to make it worth their while to stay.

There is another aspect of your question that makes me want to talk about managers. Patrick Lencioni has a book titled The 3 Signs of a Miserable Job and he writes that a miserable job is different than a bad job. A miserable job makes a person cynical, frustrated, and demoralized. The person that has most direct effect whether your job is miserable or not is your manager.

Lencioni gives the three signs as:

Anonymity - You don't feel that your manager knows you as a person, or understands your aspirations

Irrelevance - You don't see how your job makes a difference in the lives of others

Immeasurement - You don't have any gauge of measuring how YOU are doing on any day or week.

There are a lot of people that have miserable jobs, because the kind of things (above) that a manager has to do to change it are all the "touchy - feely" things that ultimately drive success, though very difficult to measure.

Many managers make the mistake of continuing to be individual contributors when their real job is to motivate their team and help them be productive, as well as feel fulfilled. Many managers mistakenly believe that because everyone is professional, they don't need any help or input or feedback from that manager.

Instead of waiting for your manager to change, why don't you start dealing with him or her, as you wish to be dealt with?

You can also start looking at how what you do makes a difference with the team. Start looking at how to measure your own accomplishments.

And if your manager is really disinterested in helping you find fulfillment, maybe you should be like that other employee and start considering other options.

[mathew_muthalaly]

Bob,

That was a very erudite treatment of the subject.

My concern is for performing employees whom the Manager knows well enough in terms of their contributions and also as to what motivates them.

BR/

Mathew.

[Bob_McGlynn]

Mathew,

It is not easy being a manager. Part of it is changing your frame of reference from "me" to "us". I have another book for you, What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith. He has 21 destructive habits that limit a manager/executive from succeeding, here are a couple that might resonate with your situation:

10. Failing to Give Proper Recognition

14. Playing Favorites: Failing to see that we are treating someone unfairly.

16. Not Listening: The most passive-agressive form of disrespect for colleagues.

Unfortunately, most companies structure their reward systems to only acknowledge doing something good, rarely is there any credit given for stopping something bad.

What are your options? In the military and other government jobs, people just sweat out a bad commander until they are rotated out or someone else is elected. Many people will leave a job because of a poor manager.

The larger challenge is how do YOU stay positive and keep moving ahead, even if you aren't recognized or properly respected. It's not easy, though you don't do yourself by being negative. Your performance starts to suffer.

It's not easy being a manager and often they don't get a lot of advice, guidance or direction. What most of us could use is positive, constructive criticism. Your manager's boss is probably in the best position to provide that. Let's hope they do.

[mathew_muthalaly]

Bob,

Yes, being true to your customer (internal or external) is key. Do not let anything affect the quality of your deliverables.

How do you motivate yourself despite being not treated fairly at work? Let work not be the only thing you do. I took a peek at your business card - You do a lot of rewarding things outside of work.

We should all have some good things going on outside of work to sustain us through challenging times at work.

BR/

Mathew.

[Bob_McGlynn]

Mathew,

Maybe to bring this full circle back to the original topic, you have to be connected with the larger community. Knowing that you are helping through your contributions and efforts goes beyond just work. Maybe the reason that people are happier when they contribute is that they feel that they are making the world a better place, (something that is not as obvious in most of our everyday jobs).

Having supportive colleagues, whether in your work group or beyond it, can help power your inner strength and motivation.

And constantly challenge your own attitude. You choose whether to be positive or negative --- and I know that it is very easy and comfortable to be negative.

Look for inspiration. Just remember that Nelson Mandela spent years confined in prison (the ultimate bad job/bad manager) and yet when he was freed, he didn't bring more hatred, jealousy, or anger into the world. His attitude and strength made it possible for titantic, positive changes to happen in his country.

Bob

[marilyn_pratt]

Interesting because this dovetails on some reading I was doing lately about employees being happier with acknowledgments than bonus money. So perhaps those .2 things: acknowledgment and a sense of well-being are the related and common factors in the happiness metric.

Wonder if people feel "as happy" when the giving is totally anonymous and unacknowledged. I suppose its a very personal thing but I know that deep down its nice to "feel the appreciation" although giving anonymously from the standpoints of certain schools of thought, is a "higher" measure of giving.

Glad to see a coffee corner topic like this. Thanks Bob.

[Former Member]

I can see that, although I give a set amount each year and often to the same orgs it's become somewhat of a ritual for me (started when I was 16 as part of the Interact group at my High School) the amount has increased but I try to have a balance between giving a helping hand and giving money. When I was 16 it was more a helping hand and now it's more money.

Partially because I have more money now to give and also because as I earn more money I seem to have less time.

For me at least I'm not sure I would say "happiness" because I think I might start to think about how much more I could be doing and am unable to do...for me what I do is the right thing in the right proportion.