[notyourday]

> Amazon measures everything. Their incentive compensation plans should be rewarding employees that exceed quota with daily bonuses.

I'm guessing you have never worked under the quota system. Guess what happens when one meets a quota? He or she gets a quota increased. Guess what happens when he or she no longer meets a new quota? He or she gets fired. In a quota based system the goal of every employee is to hit the quota on a nose

[ryandrake]

Reminds me of Manna [1].

1: http://www.marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm

[matchagaucho]

I've developed quota systems. It's not that dire. Under performers receive coaching.

"Regression to the mean" occurs when there are no incentives for over-performers.

Lazy management will simply raise quota without assessing downside risk (higher turnover, more injury, more sick days).

Good management will constantly adjust a balanced quota using a gaussian distribution.

[Spooky23]

What is the downside risk?

The job is mechanical, most of the grunts are temps and they don’t get sick days. You put you A team in a safer place, crank the volume and purge the rest.