I have never understood why the CEO of a large international company needs a bonus on top of his (or her) very large salary. Is the job not rewarding enough for them to do their best to help the organisation to flourish?
I can understand the need to offer an incentive to people working, say, in a call centre, expected to stick to exactly the same script on every call they make. And where they even need permission for a toilet break. No wonder the average yearly turnover of staff is 30% and in some cases, 100%.
We all need to feel acknowledged and valued. Money may give us recognition. Recognition for the time and effort and skill we have put into the job. But it does not appreciate us as a person. It does not remind us that we are of infinite value and worth just as we are.
Tolulope Ilesanmi left banking in Nigeria and went to Montreal, where he did his Masters in Business Administration (MBA). Than he started a company, Zenith Cleaning. Tolu considered everything about that company a mystery, something sacred – its people, its practices, its purpose.
Tolu cleaned kitchens, bathrooms and offices and this is how he saw cleaning: “Cleaning is the process of removing dirt from any space, surface, object or subject, thereby exposing beauty, potential, truth and sacredness”. Benedictine monk Laurence Freeman says something similar: “Ordinary things done with other-centred attention become not less than divine.”
Chris Dawson