“For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.”

End of Q1 just happened. Annual bonuses for the prior year have been paid, or are readying to be paid. Bonus time can be an awkward time because we distill down a year’s worth of work and results into one single payout formula or reason. Bonus payments can cause all kinds of consternation and mixed messages. Not to mention that we need to be sure that bonuses are not just turning into deferred compensation for doing only what was expected in the job. Bonus means something above and beyond. Are we using our bonus program for such, or are we just allowing our people to become obsessed on an amount of money that doesn’t really drive greater than expected results and performance?

When everyone around us is obsessed on bonus time, it’s hard for us to not also become that way. But, we have to keep ourselves in check because we know that at its root, the love of money is not good. We have to be careful to not allow ourselves to fall into this money trap. There is nothing wrong with expecting and working towards earning what we think is commensurate with our efforts and performance, but there is a line and we need to be sure that we stay on this side of that line.

Reference: 1 Timothy 6:10 (New Living Translation)