At the start of every year we had the same big arguments about setting the goals. Are they too hard? Too easy? At the end of each year we argued about whether the goals had been set well at the beginning and whether the bonuses were merited or not. In some years, we blew away the goals and the board was concerned we’d sandbagged them. In other years, we missed the goals, and the team felt that the goals were unfair to begin with. In every case, we ended up paying out the money. That’s when I decided this wasn’t worth the effort.
