Prize and Punishment

Which of these you believe in?? (you can pick several) 

1. Work is a necessary evil to be avoided.
- Mark Twain

2. Work is not man's punishment. It is his reward and his strength and his pleasure.- George Sand.

3. The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.
Arnol J. Toynbee.

Yup, been thinking about work lately...
- I started to work in a place where work seems like fun, and my role includes making it fun.
- A team I work for (leader-serant, etc. you know...) has worked hard, and I rolled in my mind how the work-place could show appreciation
- In parallel, I am a graduate of this Coursera course (register now! free of charge!!)

So I got this thought that I wanted to write before I forget:

1. When for working hard the prize is vacation - work will be perceived as a chore. (- see quote #1.)

*since external reward makes the thing for which you were awarded seems like something you won't do for free)

 

So the logical conclusion, surprisingly is this:

2. If for working hard you receive work, you will perceive work as a prize. (see quote #2)

Assuming this works, how the heck you achieve it? (hint - note #3)
 

And the possible solutions I came up with:

*note to myself - try it before publishing?? naaa....

 

- Upgrade environment (example - buy a personal kanban board)

- Give a personal badge  (*)

- Buy a silly desk toy

- Have a YourCompany-pointsSystem to buy stuff, and give some to person AND SOME TO THE TEAM (*).

* OK, you got me, I am also taking this Coursera course now...

 

Whadayathink??

 

- Till next time,

 

Yer bear.