He is expecting regular raises. Not every month, maybe not even every year but he expects a raise and he has his own timetable for when you should give it to him. No matter how hard you try to keep to a fair schedule of raises, uncertainty about his expectations together with other random factors mean that at some point you are going to fall behind.
As time passes and no raise he is going to start slacking off. Maybe just a little bit at first but it’s going to be noticeable. Now from your perspective it just looks like he is not working as hard as when you first hired him. You tell yourself stories about how gardeners start out by working hard to get your business and then slack off over time. You might even consider that maybe he is slacking off because you aren’t giving him a raise but what are you going to do now? You can’t possibly give him a raise and reward him for slacking off. If anything your raise is going to come even later now.
And so he slacks off even more. In fact he has been through this before so the very first slack-off was a big drop because he knew it was the beginning of the end. He’s gonna be fired pretty soon.
Cheap Talk 
5 comments
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June 26, 2011 at 10:53 pm
Anonymous
In the next post please tell us how to avoid this problem.
June 26, 2011 at 11:37 pm
jeff
Do your own gardening? Marry your gardener? Sell your house and move into a high-rise where there is no garden?
June 26, 2011 at 11:53 pm
twicker
As it happens, managers face this problem regularly (replace “gardener” with “direct report,” and you’ll potentially see much the same thing – especially in places without a regular schedule for performance evaluations).
So – right there, off the bat, there are some potential solutions:
1) Set up a regular schedule for re-evaluating the working relationship. Note that this could, in fact, happen at the time that you’re noticing a slacking off: you just say, “Hey, let’s take 15 minutes to just discuss how things are going (or 30 minutes, or 45 minutes, or whatever).” You can discuss the effort you’re expecting, s/he can discuss the potential change in payment. Problem potentially solved.
2) Even without a regular check-in, it’s certainly a good idea to just go ahead and do an irregular check-in, for the reasons mentioned above.
3) If the gardener/small business owner is going to do at all well in her/his chosen profession, s/he will need to grow a pair and bring up the discussion. It’s part of doing business; if a rate increase is actually expected, then the contract needs to be renegotiated. Again, managers (and those who hire contractors/consultants) are well familiar with this problem and its solutions.
Note that the entire problem comes up because people aren’t bothering to communicate. Once either side starts to engage in discussion/negotiation, the parties can break the logjam.
June 27, 2011 at 7:31 am
Trinity River
Having some sort of regular discussion is important. From either the employee or employer side. As an exec assistant I had more access to the informal grapevine at my former job. I would tip off boss when there was unrest or inaccurate rumors among the troops. He would take immediate action. Talk to individuals involved or have a department meeting. It cleared the air and helped with the “slacking off” resulting from people feeling unnoticed or underpaid.
June 27, 2011 at 7:53 am
twicker
@Trinity – you raise a great point, because you’re mentioning some non-monetary reasons people might slack off. While the original post didn’t say that money would be the only reason people might slack off over time, it’s the only reason discussed so far (including by myself) – so thank you for reminding us that there’s more to encouraging effort than just money. In fact, some of the social aspects may be far more likely to engender effort than any amount of “raise” ever could.
Again, as you said, that’s why having some sort of regular discussion is so important, no matter whether it’s with your gardener, your contractor, your direct (and even possibly indirect) reports — or with your supervisor, the people or organizations you contract with, your spouse/significant other, etc.