Stephen Monrad

Yay. The final point on my list from August 6th.

Point 10 raised the issue that people might not want to work in jobs with high stress or responsibility if there was no pay incentive to do so.

This point is similar to the second point that considered unpleasant or dangerous work. The discussion of that potential problem focused on balancing good and bad job characteristics. Stress and responsibility are job characteristics that can make a job more difficult. I don’t, however, think that they even necessarily have to be bad things.

Some stress is a good thing for most people. It motivates people to work and keeps them focused on what needs to be done. Stress becomes a problem only when people get overwhelmed. If people are consistently getting overwhelmed in a job, there is something wrong that needs to be fixed. Probably people are being asked to do too much, are being asked to do things that are beyond their current ability, or are responsible for an impossible task. The solution to bad stress is to change the job, not pay people more to put up with the stress.

The flip side of responsibility is control. If you are responsible for a situation, you get to shape it the way you want. People love control. The only reason I can see that people wouldn’t want responsibility is if they aren’t able to manage the situation well. The right person with the right skills responsible for a doable task has a great job.