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Off Target

3 January, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

If you were given a target and then had your bonus (or job security) tied to it what would you do?

Sort out your processes so that it was possible to meet the target?

What if it wasn’t within your control to meet the target?  Would you cheat?

How much effort would you expend fudging the figures?

A bin man arrived at my house last week to pick up an old television.  Unfortunately they had got the address wrong; it was my neighbour’s television they wanted.  He didn’t pop next door to pick it up, he jumped back in his very large lorry and drove off. His instructions were that if the address was wrong he was to return to the depot, apparently not doing so would have impacted his target.

Leaving the rubbish, but doing it quickly is fine.

Oddly I saw him again the next day, next door.

I am all for having measures that say how long it takes to have the bin picked up, or deal with a patient in A&E, or handle a phone call.  By tracking performance so it is clear how you are doing, but sacking people if they under perform, will only lead to cheating.

Photo by Donald Giannatti on Unsplash

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: cheating, local government, poor service, tampering, targets, trust

About the Author

James Lawther
James Lawther

James Lawther is a middle-aged, middle manager.

To reach this highly elevated position he has worked in numerous industries, from supermarket retailing to tax collecting.  He has had several operational roles, including running the night shift in a frozen pea packing factory and carrying out operational research for a credit card company.

As you can see from his C.V. he has either a wealth of experience or is incapable of holding down a job.  If the latter is true this post isn’t worth a minute of your attention.

Unfortunately, the only way to find out is to read it and decide for yourself.

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