Care and Feeding of Hirelings, 2nd Period [Session 4]

[cunningkingfish.livejournal.com]

The good captain stood in front of the classroom behind a table. On that table were various items he would discuss. One item was a cake, iced in lovely pale green icing. One item was a sheet of stickers, bright shiny gold stars. Another item was a little trophy, shining in brass. The final item was a small leather coin purse, tied with string.

"Rewards," Hook said once the class was gathered. "Eventually, you may get that eager little beaver who manages to go above and beyond the call of duty. Perhaps they take a bullet for you, or manage to stop a nefarious plot to overthrow you, or maybe they just did a very good job at washing and grooming your pet Mr. Fluffles." That got him to chuckle, even if it was his own little joke.

"Now some in this room may have the capacity to award medals and honors from the government. The rest of you, well, you have to know what to do to get the most out of the situation. Minor success, minor reward. Major success, major reward. But never, ever let them get too comfortable. A comfortable underling is one that makes mistakes. On the other hand, if you lack reward, you can brew a lack of morale or worse. So reward carefully, reward properly."

He gestured with his hook at the various items on the table. "Here are some items that you can earn today, in fact. I want certain things. I want someone to massage my feet. I want people to speak their ideas for how they'd reward their own underlings. I want someone to tell me a theory regarding promising rewards and not actually giving it. The dangling carrot principle, as it were. I could teach it myself, but I want to see what you can come up with."

He sat down, and propped his booted feet up on the corner of the table, away from the cake thankfully.

"Now, who is willing to do what, I wonder? And it indeed is a gamble to see what you do, and what I reward."

[ooc: OCD coming! Class is in session!]