Susan Chalmers

(a case analysis on motivation)Thomas Chung hung up the telephone and sighed. The vice president of softwareengineering at Advanced Photonics Inc. (API) had just spoken to Suzanne Chalmerswho called to arrange a meeting with Chan later that day. She didn’t say what themeeting was about, but Chan almost instinctively knew that Suzanne was going to quitafter working at API for the past four years. Chalmers is a software engineer in InternetProtocol (IP), the software that directs fiber-optic light through API’s routers. It is veryspecialized work, and Suzanne is one of API’s top talents in that area.Thomas Chan had been through this before. A valued employee would arrange aprivate meeting. The meeting would begin with a few pleasantries; then the employeeannounces that he or she wants to quit. Some employees say they are leaving becauseof the long hours and stressful deadlines. They say they need to decompress, get toknow the kids again, or whatever. But that’s not usually the real reason. Almost everyorganization in this industry is scrambling to keep up with technological advances andthe competition. They would just leave one stressful job for another one. Also, many of the people who leave API join a start-up company a few months later.These start-up firms can be pressure cookers where everyone works 16 hours each dayand has to perform a variety of tasks. For example, engineers in these small firms mighthave to meet customers or work on venture capital proposals rather than focus onspecialized tasks related to their knowledge. API has over 1,000 employees, so it iseasier to assign people to work that matches their technical competenciesNo, the problem isn’t the stress or long hours, Chan thought. The problem is money- toomuch money. Most of the people who leave are millionaires. Suzanne Chalmers is oneof them. Thanks to generous stock options that have skyrocketed on the stock markets,may employees at API have more money than they can use. Most are under 40...