When Jay Hargis's colleague called in a favor, the former director
of client-services had a hard time remembering the favor done for
him that he was now tapped to return.
 
"I was shocked that he remembered I asked him to "run the list"
four months earlier," Mr. Hargis says of the favor done for him,
which involved printing out a list of customers.
 
His colleague needed one of Mr. Hatgis's customers to furnish him
with some glowing testimonial, that he could spin into a marketing
brochure. Feeling like he had little choice, Mr. Hargis spent half
a day on the phone securing cooperation and approvals.
 
..He felt the favor he'd performed was disproportionately larger
than the one he'd received; but his colleague seemed to think that
he had bent over backward by "clicking 'Print'".. Mr. Hargis recalls.
 
In any office's underground economy, favors are the currency by
which productivity is purchased, and goodwill is gained. But the
'favor exchange-rate' isn't fixed. Some favors are done with the
expectation of nothing returned. Others are performed in the spirit
of getting.
..Making favors even trickier to grasp, and thus easier to game, is
research suggesting that the deed itself isn't as valued as much as
the atmospherics around it. Someone's gender, their apparent will-
ingness and even time elapsed since the favor was performed, can
all change a selfless act into something brazenly transactional, or
vice-versa.
The slippery definition of a "favor" explains why some colleagues view
the performance of their simplest job duties as an act of heroism.
..Karen Markin, a college administrator, has run into colleagues whose
jobs includes easy access to information. But it doesn't seem easy
when she requests some. "They can act like it's moving a mountain,"
says Ms. Markin. Some people act as if they're doing this enormous
favor."
..In his study of of customer-service agents, Frank Flynn, an associate
professor at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, who studies 'favor-
exchange', found that soon after the completion of a favor, its recipient
thought it was more valuable than the person who granted it. Over time,
however, they reversed roles: "The person who received it didn't think
it was that big a deal, but the person who granted the favor.. almost in-
varibly, thought it was a bigger deal."
 
Understanding the shelf-life of a favor granted, some colleagues require
immediate favor redemption. Richard Vandagriff occasionally worked with
a contractor who was one of those favor score-keepers. "He doesn't keep
a book, but might as well," he says. Once, the man even counterfeited a
favor, resetting furnace-controls that didn't need resetting.
 
.."Now, I need a favor from you," he told Mr. Vandagriff; "it was a set-
up to get one of my staff to help him," it worked. -- The mere mention
of the word "favor" can stun us into compliance; which answers a ques-
tion people are known to ask themselves: 'How did I get roped into this?'
 
Stanford's professor Flynn, found that simply asking people to fill out
a questionnaire in New York's Penn Station resulted in 57% compliance.
But, prefacing that question with the phrase, "Can you do me a favor?,"
followed by a pause, pushed the level of compliance to 84%.
 
.."People have a modal, rote response to a favor request," says Prof.
Flynn, which is: 'Yeah, sure.. what is it?' {It should be noted that re-
search also shows people appreciate favors more from men, than they
do from women, because they don't expect as many from men}.
 
Another study shows how easy it can be to get collared into favors
that seem too big to grant. In his famous psychology study, Robert
Cialdini, professor of psychology at Arizona State University, asked
passerbys, if they would commit to doing one of the most nerve-racking
activities he could dream up: Would you volunteer to chaperone juve-
nile detention-center inmates on a day-trip to the zoo? {Fun!}..Only
17% agreed.
 
..But bartering would change that. When researchers asked another set
of people for much more; if they'd serve as an unpaid counselor for two
hours per week for two years.. they all said no. But when they went
back to the original question of chaperoning the inmates to the zoo, com-
pliance tripled to 50%.
 
The most common favor-gaming is the repeatedly requested one. At some
point.. obvious to everyone but the serial requester, that will cease to be a
favor and become a dependency. - Mary Powell, who fills the favor-rich
posts of both "human-relations" and receptionist, has noticed that the
people who ask her repeatedly to help fill out their insurance-forms, "get
disappointed if I say I can't do it."
 
But sometimes it's just easier to do the serial-favor than to resist it.
- Scott McIntyre, a director at a hospital association, often requests
favors of a colleague who understands the company's database much
more than he does. She can't be bothered trying to teach him anymore.
.."In a lot of cases," Mr. McIntyre says, "it's quicker to catch the fish
and give it to a person, than show him how to fish."