Organizational Inequity.
I attended the end of the year ceremony for a small, rural Texas school district. I’d heard from long-time employees that morale at this district had been floundering organization-wide for years, if not decades. Saddened, but still hopeful, I looked around wondering which of the staff and faculty members around me would be recognized for the incredible work, ingenuity and creativity that I’d witnessed them pour into the district over the past year.
After a short introduction by the Superintendent, the awards began. As expected, there were awards for longevity (starting at 5 years with the district up to 30+) and perfect attendance and—that was it.
There were no awards for organizational citizenship, innovation, altruism, creativity or efficiency. Viewed through the lens of organizational motivation, this was devastating to watch unfold in real-time.
It was simply “Thanks for working here longer than 5 years!” and “Thanks for never missing a day!”.
The shocking part was that they were giving out $50 restaurant gift cards for a year of perfect attendance in the middle of a pandemic. Many faculty and staff members had family members or were themselves hospitalized during the height of the Covid pandemic and intentionally or not, this award made it seem that those without perfect attendance just weren’t making the effort. Looking around the room at the demoralized faces during the perfect attendance portion of the ceremony made it very clear that this did nothing to boost group morale.
Three Years of Effort
Only one employee was awarded for three years of perfect attendance— a school resource officer who had put in hundreds of hours of overtime away from his family because it was intimated by the district that he would be recognized for his hard work and sacrifices.
At that ceremony he was given $500 for three years worth of memories that he will never get back with his children. After the ceremony, people came up and congratulated him for perfect attendance. Although he tried to hide it, he was angry and later confirmed this.
Although he’d been rewarded and “recognized”, he felt insulted because it was not the outcome he so badly wanted given his work input. This officer pulled a gun off of a student, chased an intruder from the campus on foot, and saved countless children from suicide and self-harm attempts at school, all while missing several milestone events for his own children. All of the things that make his job difficult but worth it were not mentioned. Those three years were cheapened into “Perfect Attendance! Great Job! Here’s $500.”
Why It’s Offensive.
When viewed through the lens of Adams’ theory of equity, it’s easy to see why the officer was offended. While it is technically recognition, it fails to be a true recognition of the officer’s individual merit, which is what he wanted in return for what he’d sacrificed for years.
Perceptions that outcomes and inputs are not in balance trigger feelings of inequity. The perception of insufficient outcomes tends to evoke anger; the perception of overly generous outcomes, guilt. Either anger or guilt motivates an employee to strive for equity. Gates & Reisch, 2022
In this instance, my officer friend’s perception of insufficient outcomes evoked anger. He was not the only employee to feel this way. No less than 45 employees resigned after that ceremony. In a school district of less than 500 employees, that number is substantial. It was shrugged off and I was told that “this happens in every school district”. It is not normal to have a turnover rate that high—that alone is indicative of a serious situation.
Getting Away With Less Than The Bare Minimum.
Something that I noticed was that the majority of employees receiving the advanced longevity awards (10 years and up) had never worked in another district. The school district exploited this knowledge to reinforce a status quo that doesn’t exist in education. Even worse, having no experience with outside districts, these employees will never be able to fully grasp the lack of equity from the district for their effort or how offensive it truly is.
All employees deserve to be recognized for their individual talents and contributions outside of the bare minimum of longevity and attendance, they deserve true equity from employers.
-The Penguins
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