[sanderjd]

The idea that the existence of "boring" work at a company is an indication that the company did or is doing something wrong is specious, and as a user of lots of software, I really hope this mindset doesn't become common. I want the people making the software I use to be ready and willing to do tough and unglamorous work that makes my experience better. Github's solution seems to be for everyone to really own and care about the product, such that working on "boring" things is a matter of pride. That's a really good solution, but creating and sustaining that culture is really difficult. The lesson others should learn from them is not "don't ever have boring work to do", but rather "create a culture where employees hold themselves and each other responsible for getting the boring work done".

[chii]

management could incentivize "boring" work by allotting bonus equity/share/money to those who do it instead of the "glamorous" work. Then the individuals gets to decide for themselves what to work on. If not enough people are doing the boring work, it just means that the work isn't being compensated for enough.

[sanderjd]

Except we're talking about structures where there is no management to speak of. If there is strong management, they can just tell people to work on those things as part of their job. I suppose you could extend your idea to a loosely structured company where incentives would be created through consensus.

[Already__Taken]

You could offer straight bounties for the work. Those are great for motivating simple low cognitive tasks and getting good results.