Who wants Tacos?🌮 — A text about how a reward system can kill your performance.
First of all it is important to highlight that this was my experience with the taco reward system and it is totally linked to how each company and team deals with it. I came here to bring a statement of how this experience affected the productivity for me and my team.
How it works?
For those not familiar with this system, it is basically a feature that integrates Microsoft Teams or Slack where using the @HeyTaco! command you can assign a number of tacos 🌮 to your colleagues for core values or something they accomplished.
If you are curious to know more about the feature, click here to learn more.
In theory it is a very simple system to integrate and use that incentivizes employees and colleagues by giving recognition for different tasks, encouraging communication and closeness within teams and team members, and is a great way to stay connected with your colleagues in a remote work environment and global teams, which is an increasingly recurring post-pandemic scenario, and in this case, my reality as well.
You are awesome!
My first contact with this system was in 2022 in an American voip company that I work for remotely. At the time of onboarding I was presented by the HR with this strategy and I found it simply fascinating! In addition to the incentive received at work, the taco points can be exchanged for days off and products that the company sells (such as t-shirts and mugs). We had an exclusive channel for that called “You are Awesome”, and everyday lots and lots of tacos were given by and to each other.
As the first and so far only UX/UI designer of the team/company, I was very excited to start projects, help the development team, talk to users and collect missing information to plan new projects. Unfortunately I ended up discovering that I could not communicate with other teams through the Microsoft Teams channels of each department without first having the consent of the CEO of the company, since he would like to keep control of all communication between employees and not lose any information, so I thought that the taco channel would be the best way to bond and connect with my colleagues in a relaxed and fun environment, and still add value to our work. But this is not exactly what happened.
…Not that awesome.
A few time went by and I kept expecting to get a notification on the taco channel, after all, my boss never said anything about my work, so I figured that this kind of demonstration of satisfaction would come through the taco reward system. And don´t get me wrong, it´s not like I was working expecting something in return or begging for attention, but at a certain point I started to feel embarrassed for being the only person not to have received tacos in the company after months. The problem for me was: I felt that my boss didn’t see me and that my work wasn’t good enough..
Over time it began to consume me, and a while later, frustrate me. It seemed that I was working for recognition, and not focused on the goal of achieving a better result, building a relevant database, building a relationship with users and clients…
At a certain point, my frustration level was so high, that I was discouraged to do any task because I knew I wouldn’t get anything in return, and that’s when I realized my work was based on shallow and futile purposes that contrary to the main goal and what I wanted to achieve inside the company and my role, demotivated me. What kind of professional have I become? I never needed that to feel enough, and suddenly, seeing how much they value these scores within this new environment, I suddenly started to feel undervalued and unqualified.
Perhaps this feeling also came from the fact that every Thursday it was announced at a general meeting which 3 employees had earned the most tacos that week, and every month someone was congratulated for earning the most tacos. They have shown that in form of a podium, you know? From the “best” to the “worst”. Then the weight of it all would fall even heavier on my back.
“Am I not doing a good job?”, “Am I not doing enough?”, “Did they expect more from me?”.
There came a point when I understood that if I continued to wait for recognition and for someone to put their hand on my head every time I did something, I would never feel complete, satisfied and proud of my work. So I turned off the notifications of the taco channel and never looked there again, that way I could focus on the important and relevant channels notifications, and for a while stoped thinking about the tacos. It was great actually, it made me more confident and comfortable about my choices, I didn´t pushed myself and respect the process, as it should be.
Hello? Am I the only one here?
I was embarrassed to talk to HR, since this problem seemed uniquely mine, and would sound silly if I spoke it out loud. “I’m unsatisfied because I don’t get tacos” — Sounds silly, doesn’t it? Ok, tacos represent much more, but still…
One day talking with my team, we started to talk about tasks and demands that were increasing more and more. They worked even on weekends to meet the stakeholders deadlines, and we started talking about the tacos, since they have almost not been given any tacos since they joined the company. And just like me they also felt unmotivated, incompetent, too slow, and not good enough for the job. I was not alone!
I was very happy because it was not a problem isolated to me, but unfortunately it happened to other people, which showed that something was not happening in the right way within this reward system. Also it was a red flag that maybe the environment could be toxic for us.
When I say toxic, I mean that if it does not cover all employees and does not bring value and general recognition to the work of all departments, it is up to the team leader or HR to review this system in order to promote communication and general integration within the company.
Unspoken Awareness
I´m very self-conscious about my work, abilities, seniority, strong points, and what I have to improve. I´m 8 years in this field, and I know when I have to say “I don´t know” or “I was wrong”, look for answers or insist on some idea because I know it´s the right path to take, and to me that separates the different levels of professionals. For me my role has always been very clear, as well as what I have to do and where I have to go, but maybe for other people not, and this is all very new. It’s not as if everyone has an obligation to know what I do, but it would contribute to team collaboration. Imagine how much easier everyone’s job would be if we had awareness? In a general aspect, not only speaking from the design perspective. Not to mention the barriers placed by the company itself for communication between teams.
The thing here is that they implemented a system that prioritizes a few people, and the ones who work were not obvious or announced were in the shadow…with no knowledge from the rest of the company. That is not fair.
I believe that one thing that is part of that role, and is never on the job description, is that you have to bring awareness of our role. What we do, how we do it, the outcome of days of research and how is our process. Many companies still don´t invest in the UX part, so we have a long way in front of us to bring that awareness. When I noticed that, did everything in my power to bring that information to them.
- I started bringing my goals and projects into the weekly review;
- Whenever I had the result from a research I shared with the; stakeholders and the rest of the company, eventualy
- When we had a new UI, I shared with them;
- Whenever I launched a survey, I also shared with them (a separately one, of course, so I could separate the types of results).
Anyway, I was always bringing that into surface, and I really enjoyed it. It´s that part of the job no one is going to tell you to do, but you know you have to do it depending on the company design maturity. (Actually, it´s a good thing to do always, no matter what)
Conclusion
I could have told that to the HR, you know? And let them know how that system could bring a bad outcome to a few people. But I dind´t want them to think that I´m just complaining. I was afraid to be judged and pass the impression I´m being competitive or jelous. When I started thinking about that, I don´t want to be in a Company where they use tacos as a metric. I don´t believe it´s fair
I am very thankful to the opportunity that I had there. The people was competent, nice, I always had fun when we had our little game dynamics, but in the end, it was not enough. The taco stuff really got me…and some other things, but this is content for another article. My intention here is not to badmouth anyone, but to explain how reward systems and communication problems can interfere with excellent teams and professionals when implemented in an immature and badly thought out way and prevent them from achieving amazing results and demonstrating their true potential.
So, this was my experience. And here´s an advice: Don´t let that reward system get to you. Trust in your instincts, trust the process and trust yourself. If the envairoment is too toxic, step out. If there is room for improvement and communication, contribute to the growth of the system.
I will always be very open to other types of reward systems, as will @HeyTaco! in the future in another opportunity and company, and I hope to be able to contribute and be part of this in a healthier and more active way. I do believe that this system helps to encourage and contribute to team collaboration, but I would like to try it in another environment.
