Passion becomes real the moment you decide to make a positive impact — not someday, not when conditions are perfect, but today, in whatever small way you can. Meaningful work isn’t defined by size. It’s defined by intention.
People do positive things all the time. The problem is that very few people notice, and even fewer say something about it. That was part of last week’s story about the Golden Nugget’s Housekeeping attendants — but here’s the rest of it.
When we discovered that GRAs loved their jobs but not the way they were treated, we dug deeper. What we found was simple and painful: nobody ever mentioned the good things they did each day. Not once. Not ever. They were invisible in all the ways that mattered.
· So, our Employee Services team created the “Gotcha” program.
· Supervisors were instructed to note everything — the good and the not‑so‑good.
· When performance slipped, employees received coaching and a counseling notice.
· But when they did something right — from showing up on time to delivering extraordinary service — they earned Gotcha points.
· Those points could be collected and redeemed for logo items, prizes, even days off with pay.
Doing both showed fairness. And because employees did far more good things than bad, the points accumulated quickly. That motivated them to do even more good things. Eventually, we implemented this program in every department. And got a reputation for catching employees doing things right. set a policy goal: throughout their department, managers had to give out three Gotcha awards for every coaching notice. We tracked the ratios. We reported them. Departments competed. Managers competed. And positivity became contagious.
The idea wasn’t original. Growing up, retailers handed out S&H Green Stamps[1] as incentives. I remember going with my mother to the redemption center, picking out items we earned through everyday purchases. I loved that idea — and I loved modeling our program after it.
And it worked.
The year before The Mirage opened, GRA turnover at the Golden Nugget averaged 300%. The year after it opened, turnover dropped to 18%. A year later, it was 8%.
Same job. Different approach.
It matters when someone does something positive. It matters even more when someone notices — and makes a big deal out of it — today.
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 1950): English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and, as of 2016, controls five companies.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26H_Green_Stamps : During the 1960s, the company issued more stamps than the U.S. Postal Service and distributed 35 million catalogs a year.[1] Customers received stamps at the checkout counters of supermarkets, department stores, and gasoline stations among other retailers, which could then be redeemed for products from the catalog.[2]
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