| If the energy in an office is lethargic and employees are struggling, there’s a deeper problem there that an office competition likely won’t resolve. ::Reaches for the "no fucking shit" red button.:: Here’s the dirty little secret of gamification software: most are inherently disrespectful towards their users. They are designed to manipulate employees, not empower them. Executives think of "their" people as children, not adults who want respect, meaningful work, autonomy, fair pay and reasonable job security... and who can be very clever in striking back when they're being denied those things. The ones who disengage and draw a salary while doing no work? Those are the nice ones. It's amazing to me that, every time the people in the organization act in their own interests instead of falling for some grandiose executive plan that offers nothing for the careers of those who have to implement it, upper management is always like "WTF the furniture is MOVING up in this bitch". Here's why gamification doesn't work. If someone went to Vegas with a year's salary and gambled it all away, you wouldn't care what the end result was. Some would come back with 5 years' pay. Some would be bankrupt. But you'd consider it pathological. When that much income is on the line, when someone's career is on the line, it's not a fucking game. Workplace "gamification" takes injury (managerial oversight, anxiety, micromanagement) and adds insult by presenting it as "fun". (What do you mean, you don't like "story points"? Doesn't everyone like a bedtime story?) It's fucking sick. |