Bonuses didn’t work, ‘despite’ they did: Bengaluru-based CEO on night workers, Sunday | Today’s news
What if the strongest motivator at work isn’t a bonus, a promotion, or fairness—it’s a grudge? The Bengaluru-based CEO sparked an online conversation after he said his company’s employees volunteered to work late nights and weekends to take over a rival business. Vikram Pai, CEO and co-founder of ReferRush, shared an unusual workplace story on X, saying the motivation came from a former customer who allegedly mistreated his team before launching a competing product.
Pai’s post included a picture of an employee who said he would not be taking any Sundays off for the next three weeks, except for emergencies.
“However, they can be the biggest incentive for employees”
Explaining what triggered the situation, Pai wrote, “Our customer, who was treating my team terribly, decided to create a competing product.”
The CEO said he had previously tried conventional ways to get the company to move faster, including bonuses, incentives, deadlines and equity.
“I’ve tried everything to get us moving faster: bonuses, incentives, deadlines, fairness. Nothing quite worked,” Vikram Pai wrote on X. “My team is so pissed they’re volunteering to work nights and Sundays.”
Pai said he was pleased to see his employees make extra efforts voluntarily, before summarizing the unusual source of motivation behind it.
“It turns out that defiance can be the greatest employee motivator ever, and as a founder I’m only too happy about that,” he concluded.
The post has since attracted more than 23,500 views, prompting users to debate the logic of the situation and the nature of motivation in the workplace.
The Internet is questioning the rivalry
Several users questioned why a former customer who allegedly mistreated the team would continue to develop a competing product.
“This really makes no sense. How can you mistreat a referral organization and continue to make a competing product? What logic is that? Call it by name if it’s real,” wrote one user.
Another noted, “People are wired differently.”
A third user questioned the link between the former customer’s behavior and the employees’ response, writing: “If the customer treated your team terribly, why would they build a competing product? It was your team.”
The same question was raised by another user who wrote: “This really makes no sense. How can you mistreat a referral organization and continue to make a competing product? What logic is that? Call it by name if it’s real.”
