Being Nice to Others Pays Off...Literally
So, my friend works for this company that pays based on how well you perform.

Of course, the major portion of the scoring is based on perception; i.e. not how well he's doing, but how well he's perceived to be doing.

70% of the score is based on what the people he works with/for say about him; and 30% is based on his core job responsibilities. The higher the total score, the more money he makes.

Something strange happened to him at the last performance evaluation. He was told that he was exceptional at his core job responsibilities - one of the best at what he does - but he was not meeting expectations.

My friend was shocked.

How could he be performing at a very high level at his core job responsibilities, but still be seeing as not meeting expectations? I mean, wasn't he expected to be good at what he does?

Well, the answer was simple.

You see, he wasn't being a good teammate. And he seemed to be affecting the positive energy of the team in a negative way.

So, my friend said, did that mean that if he had been nicer to people but worse at his job, that would have improved his overall score?

Apparently if you did the math, that was the case. And that was driven home where it hurt the most - his paycheck.

And this is how my friend learned that it was better to be nice than good.