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Comment by fullshark | Hacker News Reader

Why do companies try to inspire employees with things beyond purely mercenary motivations?

Because mercenary motivation is in and of itself a choice. If everyone was motivated by money alone there wouldn’t be non-profits. There is clearly a market for occupations with different incentives.

Sounds like both sides are generally looking for more from the labor arrangement than simply keeping the lights on.

Absolutely! You spend the majority of your awake time at work. Some people optimize for money, others optimize for status, happiness or any other objective humans can have.

I think the thing that really upsets people is that the company changed course. People who go to work at a HFT firm are probably all motivated by compensation - and would expect that, because it’s baked into the company culture and business model.

People choose to work somewhere based the reward it offers. If that changes, without their consent, it breaks an unwritten contract.

I went to work for an HFT largely for non-compensation reasons. I had friends I liked working there and the technical challenges were extremely interesting. I learned a ton that has been really helpful sense in my career outside of HFT. Most of the engineers I worked with had similar motivations. I actually think my time in Silicon Valley startups has had me interacting with people more interested in compensation than any of my time in trading.

(None of this matters to the larger discussion but wanted to offer you a perspective of someone who has actually made the choice you are using as an example)

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