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Part of a discussion at work recently turned to rewarding the team for their recent hard work. Part of that discussion included the various employee recognition programs that we have at my current employer, as well as some that existed at previous employers. For my part, as a rule, I have no use for these programs. I’ll tell you why.

I’ve been around a long time. I’ve worked at all kinds of different jobs, from retail to factory to customer service to software development. Every one of these companies and fields has their own group of recognition programs. They all work pretty much the same way. Employees are “recognized” in some fashion for all of their hard work, usually the result of going above and beyond what’s expected in your normal 9 to 5 role.

In the end, all of that recognition really means nothing. Companies (i.e. their management and HR teams) have convinced themselves that a pizza party, or a plaque, or a certificate, is sufficient recognition for those who work “extra hard”. Many who are new to the career of being adults working in jobs are also convinced, for a little while. The problem is this. Anyone who’s worked a job for more than a few years has come to a realization: The only rewards that they actually care about are those that meaningfully advance their status, like promotions (real ones that mean higher pay and more authority, not promotions in name only), or more money in the form of bonuses or a pay raise. And those are exactly the kind of rewards that an employer never wants to give out, because it cuts into their bottom line, hurting management bonuses and shareholder value.

And so an eternal struggle ensues, with management and HR on one side, and the working masses on the other. Sooner, rather than later, the masses realize just how insulting these programs really are. Take one example for my own career field and experience. At one particular job that I worked at, I was employee of the month for 11 straight months. That’s gotta be some kind of record, right? And it wasn’t because I had earned anything special. Yes, I worked hard. But there were many there who worked just as hard as I did. So why did they “award” me this award? Well, apparently I was becoming somewhat vocal about certain working conditions where I was at which were not good, to say the least. So I was made “employee of the month” in the hopes that a handshake and a $20 gift card would shut me up. (Spoiler: it didn’t)

And why was I employee of the month for 11 months? Because after they had given me that honor, they stopped bothering to hand out the award altogether until a new manager took over. And so my picture sat on the wall day after day… week after week… month after month after month… After the first couple months, it became an ongoing joke at the worksite. Then it went from joke to annoyance and irritation. People would see me passing in the hall, or break room, or wherever it might be, and they would throw in their little jokes and jabs. “Oh, there goes the employee of the month… again. How does he keep winning it?? He must have his nose up some manager’s butt.” And so forth. It even got so bad that I took the picture down and stuffed it in an office cubby. A couple days later, someone had found it and put it back up. So what might be recognition and good feeling slowly turns into irritation and anger.

But what about other people? They start to look at someone who gets that “recognition”, and they don’t see a hard working co-worker. What they see is a lack of recognition of their own hard work because those people get recognized and they never do. They never get the “reward”. They never get honored. They never get that handshake and plaque. It doesn’t matter that the reward is mostly just a placebo, a vaporous nothing. We’re human. We get jealous as a rule of what other people have. As a result, they lose motivation and they stop trying. They stop putting in the extra effort. They stop caring. Their performance drops off. They quit and get a job elsewhere searching for a place where their skills and effort will be recognized. And valuable team knowledge is lost as a result.

These programs look great for marketing. They look great for HR. They look great for management. And all because it makes them look like they’re actually doing something. But in the end, all it really means is that some people are better at promoting themselves than others. Yes, there is the occasional manager who goes above and beyond on their own efforts to learn about their employees, to be involved in understanding what it is that their people do from day to day and from hour to hour. And they find ways to recognize that and to be a part of that without being overbearing or micromanaging. But anybody who has been in any career field for more than a few years come to the sad understanding that those kinds of managers are the rare exception. For most managers, those programs are there to improve their own appearance and cover up their poor management skills.

You might call me cynical. You might call me other things (plenty people do). But to me, it’s just the voice of experience. I’ve been around professionally for 30+ years. In the end, I have no use for recognition programs. I have no use for company swag. Sure, free food once in a while is great. But in the end, you recognize that it’s just another excuse for an employer to not do anything real, or to give their people what they realloy deserve. And what they deserve is this: more promotions, more authority, more responsibility, and the higher pay that such real recognition deserves. That’s what people want. They don’t want their picture on the wall. They don’t want their name on a plaque. They don’t want to have to stand up in front of the team and shake the hand of some executive who didn’t know their name before they showed up, and won’t remember their name 5 seconds after they walk out of that room (or even 5 seconds after they give that handshake).

So, yeah, that’s me. The employee of the month. 11 months running. If you work hard, some day, you might get a handshake as well.

Seriously though. The only “reward” that means a damn to me is to pay me what I’m worth. So long as I have that you can hand out certificates, and handshakes, and donuts to your heart’s content and it won’t change how hard I work for you. The only thing that motivates me beyond that is the occasional thank you from one of my co-workers (i.e. not executives). That’s real recognition. That’s something that really, actually matters.