Should Good Grades be Rewarded with Cash?

Picture this. Your child, who has been known to bring home the dreaded report card, full of C’s and D’s, comes in the front door to announce his or her report card with excitement. You are anxious to know why your child is so eager to exhibit their last nine weeks of academic performance. You study the piece of paper in astonishment. Your child has mastered the title of an honor roll student, which is above and beyond what you ever expected. You are so proud of them and want to reward them for the effort, and hand over ten dollars for every A and five dollars for every B.

Now picture this. Your employee has been working hard on a presentation to promote an important product, which will increase profits in your department. You introduce the idea to another company, who poses interest in buying this product in mass quantity. The success of your profit is because of your employee, who went above and beyond the call of duty and your expectations. You reward the labor with a nice bonus.

Both scenarios go hand in hand. Someone’s excellent performance was rewarded. The question is, should both instances be rewarded with cash? Let me ask you this…if both instances were rewarded with a hug or handshake, do you think the value of the reward would have been enough to continue the behavior? Maybe. How can you be certain that your inspiration of the heart is memorable enough to motivate the efforts of both extremities? You can’t be certain.

You see, the reward expected is no more or less what we would count on if we were under the same condition. If we work hard at something, there are very few instances when it is without motive. Let’s be honest, here. Money talks, in this day and age. In many parts of the world, projected labor is all about what you can get and for how much. It is impossible to go back to the conservative day, when you could trade a calf for a bushel of corn.

If a conscience effort is made to be successful and that success profited you in some way, whether your profits were financial or not, the exertion should not go unrewarded without exactly what was expected. Today’s human nature created that expectation. Regardless of whether or not you view rewards with cash as self-destruction, it’s a part of life. With or without monetary reward, be it in your home or your company, that same child or employee is going to search for satisfaction elsewhere, if they don’t get it from you. And that’s a bottom line that most of us are all too familiar with.