“Combat pay”

That’s what some of us called it on the trading floors where I worked. 

Real combat pay, of course, is reserved for the military:

“a bonus paid to those serving in regions that are designated hazard zones.”

But our work environment felt like a hazard zone too. Part of the reason was the huge sums of money riding on the systems our team managed. But a bigger reason was social: the intense hyper-competitive culture. “Friendly fire” could come from anywhere, sales versus trading, software developers versus infrastructure engineers, HR and top managers hunting for poor performers to sacrifice during annual reviews. Every year, every organizational change, every budget, produced casualties.

So  it made sense to justify our inflated incomes because of the stress we endured. 

Looking back, that’s ridiculous. We weren’t in combat. We worked in a bank! Our internally-manufactured stress didn’t serve us or our customers or our company. It just led to wasteful, defensive behaviors that negatively affected thousands of people. 

What’s your experience? How much of what we count as work today is producing real value, and how much is simply navigating a “designated hazard zone” so you can survive to fight another day?

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