haha, that's funny. I had an employee come into my office one time who had JUST come off probation, so been there just at 6 months. He sat down all dejected and said that he "didn't feel motivated to work". I took a second to compose myself and looked him dead in the eyes and said "If the money you are paid to work isn't enough motivation then I can put the the request to halt it right now. What do you think, should I pull up this system and hit the Terminate button?"
He rambled on about some shit going on in his life and we talked about it, but holy hell kid. You haven't even been here 6 months and already were laying the groundwork to ask for more money? I know you can only motivate someone with money for a short amount of time.
Needless to say that guy wasn't working for us much longer. No time for that shit to coddle someone who is barely one foot in the door.
Russians and Chinese don't coddle their kids like many here do.