Some employees feel their contributions exceed their compensation, especially if the
company is doing great and making a profit.
Before considering compensation, I would ask questions like:
- Am I doing more than the job description?
- Did I do what I said I would do when I said I would do it?
- Am I continuously learning and improving?
- Do people want to work with me?
The Five Loaves of Bread
Once upon a time, two men were traveling together. Feeling hungry, they stopped under the shade of a tree to eat together. One had three loaves of bread in his bag, and the other had two.
Just as they were about to eat, a third traveler, a stranger, caught up with them and asked for something to eat, as he was hungry and had no food.
"Come, good man, share our meal with us," the two travelers said to the stranger: "where there is food for two, a third can also eat."
The hungry stranger sat beside the two and began eating the bread together until they had finished all five loaves.
At this point, the stranger offered five coins to the one who had had three loaves, as a token of gratitude.
The two travelers didn't want to accept the money, but after much insistence they did and the stranger took his leave.
The three loaves man gave two coins to the one with two loaves, saying:
"Here, brother, this is your share, you had two loaves, so two coins for you and I will keep three coins for myself, as I had three loaves."
"How so?!" said the other contemptuously. "Why only two coins, and not two and a half, the fair share due to each of us?"
"What do you mean?" said the one with three loaves; "I have three coins and you have two coins, each according to the number of loaves we had. I don't think there could be a fairer division than this."
"No, friend," said the one with two loaves. "I don't think you've divided it fairly. Let's go to court, and we'll have a judge decide.
Soon after, they appeared before a judge and began to recount the circumstances from the beginning; how they were traveling together, how they had shared a meal, how many loaves each had had, how the strange traveler had eaten along with them, how he had given them five coins as a thank you, and how the one with three loaves had decided to divide them.
The judge, after listening attentively, said to the man with two loaves:
"And you are not satisfied with the split?"
"No, judge," said the dissatisfied one; "we had no intention of taking payment from the strange traveler for the food we gave him; but, since it happened this way, we must divide equally what our guest gave us. I believe that would be the right thing to do."
"If it's a matter of justice," said the judge, "then be so kind as to return one coin to your companion, who had three loaves."
"I am stunned by this, judge," said the dissatisfied man. "I came before the court to seek justice, and you are making things worse for me."
"Let's see," said the judge calmly, ". You had two loaves, did you not?"
"Yes, judge, I had two."
"And your companion had three loaves?"
"Yes, he had three."
"You just told me," said the judge, "that you all ate equal portions; is that right?"
"That's right."
"Now, let's see how much bread each person ate. Let's say each loaf was cut into three equal pieces; how many pieces would you have had, you who say you had two loaves?"
"I would have had six pieces, judge."
"And your companion, who had three loaves?"
"He would have had nine pieces, judge."
"Now, how much is six pieces plus nine pieces?"
"Fifteen pieces."
"How many people ate these fifteen pieces of bread?"
"Three people."
"Good! How many pieces does that make for each person?"
"Five pieces, judge."
"Now, remember how many pieces you would have had?"
"Six pieces, judge."
"But how much did you eat?"
"Five pieces, judge."
"And how many were left over?"
"Only one piece."
"Now let's look at your companion. Remember how many pieces of bread your companion would have had?"
"Nine pieces, judge."
"And how much did he eat?"
"Five pieces, like me."
"And how many were left over?"
"Four pieces."
"Good! Now let's understand this as clearly as possible! So, you had only one piece left over, and your companion had four pieces. Now, one piece of bread left over from you and four pieces from your companion make five pieces in total, correct?"
"Exactly five, judge."
"Is it true that these pieces of bread were eaten by your guest, who gave you five coins as a thank you?"
"That's true, judge."
"Therefore, you are only entitled to one coin, because you only had one piece of bread left over, and it's as if you had it for sale since you received money from your guest. And your companion is entitled to four coins because he had four pieces of bread left over. Now, please return one coin to your companion. This is my judgment!"
The End.
I will let you interpret the story and draw your own conclusions.
To bring it back to the initial question, I would ask one last question: should I provide value, to the best of my ability, as the company defines it (not as I define it) and then let them judge if and what sort of extra compensation would be warranted?
(Note: please disregard the male-only cast, this is an old story, from a different time).
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