Profit sharing and expectations

You know where I stand when it comes to dealing with expectations. The lower, the better. When you can convince yourself not to have any expectations, something magical happens. You get up in the morning, you take your shower, you go to work and you just do whatever lands on your desk and … you’re happy. Not happy per se but you have no real strong negative emotion. When a dark cloud follows you to work and make you feel all gloomy, it’s because you expect something and that something is out of reach. Expectation is the mother of disappointment.

This happy state of consciousness can be achieved using medications but health care is already out of control – especially here in Quebec where socialism has torpedoed the government finances – so we need to work on an drug-free approach to induce happiness while controlling costs.

Problem is, you just can’t say to people “expect nothing” to do the job. Even Stalin had to promise something to coerce Russians into his regime.

So we at CGI invented this profit-sharing scheme to motivate our troops to do their job. For one thing, it allows us to gloat about how good we are when we interview candidates. Each CGI member has a very small share of our profits, not a lot of money obviously, but this small token makes many people happy. It’s the intention that counts, not the numbers.

Of course there’s a bunch of strings attached. Your business unit has to reach its numbers, and CGI corporate as well. If CGI as a whole performed very well and your business unit tanked for reasons outside your control, you won’t get a dime even if you had a stellar performance. I think it is a fair approach.

When I’m doing the annual tour, many CGI members I met shake my hand and tell me all the wonderful things that they did with their profit-sharing bonus. I was able to buy new brakes for my ’98 Corolla said a mom of 4 in Montreal. I bought an iPod so I don’t have to listen to all the annoying chitchat going on next to my cubicle said one large analyst in Houston. I will be able to buy a turkey and invite my folks for Christmas said one junior guy in Ottawa. I was almost in tears.

It is during those precious moments that I realize how important my role is and why profit-sharing brings joy and happiness to all CGI members.