Monday, October 21, 2013

Team Production vs. Individual Production

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/how-to-get-the-rich-to-share-the-marbles/?ref=opinion&_r=0

I loved this article. I think that the biggest problem facing wealth inequality in our country is the morals behind this inequality. People think too economically some times. I know that this sounds bad for an economics class, but morals need to come into play more often. For example, it may be legally and economically alright for a business owner to pay his workers minimum wage for hard labor while his profits skyrocket into the millions, but is this the moral thing to do? People need to ask themselves sometimes, "Okay, I claim to believe in God and go to church every Sunday, but what does Jesus really think of me as I drive home from church in my new BMW, passing all the homeless people on the side of the street?". Don't get me wrong, I'm all about success and business and providing a comfortable life for your family, but there are ways of doing it that are honest and moral. I also find it interested that the article quotes JFK on his speech against Communism, when the basic idea of Communism is what the article is about, which is providing fairness to all.

I have had personal experiences which go FOR team production and shared rewards, and those that go AGAINST team production and shared rewards.

My first experience was working valet in the Chicagoland area during high school. Our tip system favored team production, as all the tips that were received during work were split evenly at the end of the night between all the valet attendants. This worked and it didn't work. It worked in the sense that everybody felt equal at the end of the night. However, in terms of work load, it didn't always work. Some people were motivated by this, and knew that a collective effort to get cars faster, be nicer to guests, etc., would result in more tips for everybody at the end of the night. Some people were not motivated by this, and would have the mentality that they didn't need to work hard because they would still receive the same tips, and would also create resentment among the workers. I guess it just depended on what type of worker you were.

My second experience is delivery driving for D.P. Dough while in college. We have a different tip system where everybody keeps whatever tips they make throughout the night. This works in that it requires self-motivation. Drivers come to realize that the faster they drive, the less things they forget, etc., will result in better tips, and that each driver is responsible for their own pay. This creates fairness in that each driver makes tips equal to their amount of effort. However, it can also be unfair. For example, as drivers, we are supposed to automatically take whatever orders are ready when we get back to the store and works on a first-come, first-serve basis (in other words, whoever got back first is next in line, second back is second, etc.). If you have good luck, then the orders that will be ready when you come back are prepaid and have big tips already. If you have bad luck, then the orders will be prepaid with small tips. This can create resentment if a driver keeps getting assigned to bad tipped orders and will feel it is unfair.

I think that the biggest reason why the valet shared tips was because everybody worked in the same vicinity and were accountable for their actions. It is also hard to be dishonest about sharing tips when everybody is working together. In contrast, I think that the reason why delivery driving uses individual tips is because it is too hard to monitor each drivers actions, and drivers can be dishonest about the amount of the tip.

1 comment:

  1. This post is late. After this week, credit will not be given for late posts.

    On the merits of the post, in the first example where you shared tips, was it possible to withhold some of the tips, not for cheating the others, but rather for only sharing among those you thought deserving? If so, that would have been directly in accord with the piece.

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