Hey, kids, shake it loose together/ the spotlight’s hitting something/ that’s been known to change the weather.
–Elton John, Benny and the Jets
Kick off your electric boots; shed you mohair suit; throw down your magazine. I’m not talking about fighting our parents out in the street to find who’s right and who’s wrong, but it’s time [...]

I’m working at home today, which has its benefits. It’s quiet. Then I flipped on CNBC. Things aren’t good. And that made me think about Total Compensation in the Age of Cholera.
Having a lot of leverage in your pay plans is great in an up market. Everybody wins. Heck, when the market is up, [...]

After last week’s 10 Things You Need to Tell Your Employees About This Year’s Bonus, I got a suggestion from the author of BMIML to write another from the employee perspective.
Since companies often confuse handing out business books with investing in good management, I thought I’d do a little play on some of the most [...]

Bonus season will be upon us soon, and for many there is going to be a lump of coal in their stocking. With that in mind, what do you say to your employees who expected economic exhilaration and burgeoning bonuses to go on forever in some kind of perpetual motion machine? How do you let [...]

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.
–Henry David Thoreau
You know those HR rules that were created when we were all fat, dumb, and happy? They don’t count anymore. It’s time to challenge everything. To genuinely understand what motivates people, not just follow some stupid rubric about “people don’t work for [...]