An end to ‘Rest and Vest’ via cultural shift
“Rest and Vest” is a term that describes some senior engineers at big tech companies. The joke even showed up in HBO’s series Silicon Valley. But with the recent decimation of stock prices, rising competition and rapidly shrinking revenues, those days may be over.
But how does one tackle the issue without alienating the workforce and driving good talent to competitors? Carefully, it turns out – because the best way involves a cultural shift of the company. Implementing draconian and invasive tracking on knowledge workers is not helpful. It alienates workers as well can actually stifle creativity.
Instead, managers can use 2 different social pressures for those in a ‘rest and vest’ mode:
- Reminding a person that their subpar contribution is inequitable may motivate them to pull their weight. We have a deep-wired aversion to being perceived by others as a cheat or defector.
- Second, it’s about belonging. We’re humans at the end of the day. No person wants to be a social pariah, even one who’s talented. Contributing, belonging, building alongside your fellow creators — this can be a strong motivator to get people involved more evenly.
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