Everything has a trade-off.

It’s an unavoidable truth.

So while reading Megan Barnabe’s blog post on the positive effects of motivation, I couldn’t help but wonder how smaller, start-up companies would be able to afford keeping their employees happy.  Not that employees for new companies are treated badly, just that there’s an obvious price tag to the flexible hours and team bonding that motivate workers so well.  It’s all well and fine when big companies like Google and Walmart hold motivational seminars, but smaller companies would be hard pressed to find the extra room in their income statements for little more than a motivational pep talk.

That’s why it’s so much more impressive when companies like Zappos are able to not only build a fun-loving company culture but keep their heads afloat while they do it.

There isn’t much debate against the positive effects of a happy worker, but there shouldn’t be much surprise when most of the corporate world chooses to stick to the old, 8-hour day grindstone.  Sometimes, the benefit just doesn’t exceed costs.