Passengers are calling it “The Ebola Lottery.”
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For dystopian you have to venture outside the United States. No, we are yet some notches above that, why our President has the authority to express our superiority, and there has never been revolt. Of course things are getting better, so such an outcome is unlikely. By ‘things’ I mean the efficiency of surveillance and security forces, and employee benef… lotteries.
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Who administers the lottery? Do they hire an outside consulting firm?
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I think the last thing United wants to be doing is giving its employees sharp pointy implements.
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Translated from corpspeak:
Start searching for a new job. Fuck United.
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Interesting. I understand that this comes with a lottery for United as well, where by they have a 1 in 100,000,000 chance of their employees doing a good job for them every day.
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In our case, the bonuses were sales bonuses tied to our overall sales numbers. Each sales person’s individual targets were set separately based on the previous year’s sales in their territory, and the threshold for the bonus was supposed to be easily within reach. I put a lot of effort into blowing past my targets as quickly as possible.
There are lots of ways to think about what made us more or less successful. I loved earning bonuses, for sure. I have been trying to think about what else might have motivated me, and it’s not a totally comfortable thing for me to consider.
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So United has replaced bonuses with…a loot box?
Wow, just watch for employee morale to soar. Wait, not soar, that other word…plummet?
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I rather thought that at most companies, the reward for saving money, improving operational efficiency and going an extra mile for the company was continued employment, if you were also fortunate.
Sure, if you fit into that passive submissive profile, yeah - be happy you have a job. If you want a bonus you’ll have to rat out your fellow employees if you think they are slacking.
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I never understood the idea of a winner-take-all (or most) lottery or contest. When I voted in favor of a state lottery a long time ago, I was under the impression that there might be more, but smaller, prizes awarded so that people could share the booty. Instead, there are a very few winners but those winners get obscene amounts of money.
It would be really cool, IMO, to see loads more $50 or $100 or $500 prizes, rather than just a few $10 million prizes, or whatever levels they are reaching today (I don’t pay attention because I refuse to pay the stupid tax). It seems that capitalism works the same way, most people get peanuts, while those lucky few (and most of them are lucky, rather than relying on skill) take home the huge money in the hundreds of millions, or billions. I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem right, or maybe fair.
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One more data point in my hypothesis that many if not most major corporations do not actually have a sentient being in upper management levels in any form.
The entities that are there are so far detached from the day to day reality of being a worker (or a customer given United’s past record) they might as well be living in an orbital habitat at L-5.
I will wager someone got a serious bonus for adding the “perfect attendance” requirement as that will sharply limit just who wins anything at all and cause a lot of people, as others mention, to come in while sick or postpone that kidney replacement operation as one still works.
There is a Dilbert cartoon in which the pointy haired boss makes the staff dance to get their paycheck if I recall correctly. I imagine United is considering this as we speak.
Picture the “Renewal” scene in Logan’s Run maybe
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Yes, naturally, as it’s well-established and long-standing fact that those who make the rules don’t have to abide by those same rules.
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Winning a $20,000 vacation prize.
Wow, “winning” a visit to a place I didn’t select, almost certainly at an inconvenient time, and padding my tax liability by $7k.
But it would be great if they extended this lottery concept to the compensation of C-level executives and corporate board members.
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And (for anyone who hasn’t seen the news yet), United has seen the error of their ways, and is “pressing the pause button”
It will be interesting to see if they completely reverse, or try to salvage anything of this, or come up with something entirely different next.
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I worked for a company that required that you justify it in writing if you did not select the cheapest fare. Whenever the cheapest fare was United, I could just write, “I don’t fly United.” It was always approved.
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Yeah, this is why a good number of states have enacted “or cash equivalent” laws.
As if United wasn’t nearly the worst possible choice for a customer, a lottery for bonuses guarantees worse service, flight crews with even shittier attitudes, and more lost luggage. I suggest a new motto for United: “Because Delta doesn’t suck enough.”
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“[There’s a Non-Zero Chance You Could] Fly the Friendly Skies!”
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Yep, what’s it going to be like flying United now that their employees’ sunny dispostions will be a thing of the past?
Basically, if you get very ill or injured and must miss even one day, then there really is no point in lifting a finger to help anyone upon your return for the rest of the quarter.
