What I mean is everyone wants both. And I’m not talking huge differences. I don’t mean go from 30k per year to 120k per year or going home sweating everyday to watching Netflix most days. What brought the question up was I was in hospital and the computer the scanned all the medication and machines into was on my right side of bed and Iv pole where all medications were on my left. Nurses also had to deal with wired scanners which they had to hold up above the bed to walk around. Not a huge problem but cover 30 rooms with 4-16 different medications to swap out per day was probably a major pain(nurses can chime in disagreeing).
Another thing I’ve seen is people in a warehouse with systems logging all locations a product could be in and saying yeah we have some of that in one of these and they have to walk around to check several locations to find which still has some.
So you want a 2k-6k raise… If your job was easier how much would that make you stay instead of just demanding a raise?
Edit: this is not a real situation but say I have 4 employees under me and an extra 25k in budget. Would you prefer a raise or to improve your job?
Honestly, better training would help more with the back pain. The physical exertion is not the problem, it’s the lifting form. A job that saves you time and money at the gym is not a bad thing. I don’t understand why employers think people want a frictionless work environment. Friction builds capacity and competence.
If it’s a matter of time and efficiency, sure do that, but don’t kid yourself that’s for your productivity metrics, not the employee’s. If it’s a matter of safety, then absolutely address that, but you’re doing it as much for the sake of the company in terms of lost man hours and legal liability.
If you’re trying to raise morale, then people need compensation. That’s the whole deal, I give you my time, effort, and experience and you give me something of equivalent value, monetary or otherwise. You can give them pay, you can give them insurance, you can offer professional development or financial planning services I don’t know, but give them something.
Yes, people tend to prefer to work for a well run company that is taking care of its side of the deal, and providing the tools to do the job you’re paying for. It suggests the company has some future and foresight, but business competence is table stakes, it’s the baseline they should be able to expect.