I'm a very enthusiastic worker most of the time, but I have never been rewarded for improving my own productivity at work. Usually improving my own productivity is because of a certain stubborn and personal distaste for intent that can't be backed by action.
I can see why people should improve their productivity at work in the abstract, but I have to admit there isn't much tangible in it for them. They will work 8 hour days however productive they are. Less productive workers are if anything more likely to clock out on time.
Maybe you've never been extrinsically rewarded, but surely you've derived some kind of intrinsic reward for improving your productivity? A sense of pride or joy? :)
Resentment and contempt for the system that does not reward such self improvement which, by the same virtue, means those who do not self improve are the ones rewarded with not expending the effort to improve. So finding a new job is usually the order of the day.
Doing "just enough" to get paid is the optimal course for the majority of jobs.
Finding jobs that extrinsicly reward continuous improvement is hard, probably because rewarding continuous improvement is hard to do - measuring, expectations, reasonable demands, etc. Are not easy.
I can see why people should improve their productivity at work in the abstract, but I have to admit there isn't much tangible in it for them. They will work 8 hour days however productive they are. Less productive workers are if anything more likely to clock out on time.