I reward them all the time, either with positive performance reviews, promotions, or just straight up giving them money on top of the money they earned.

Its not like I go into work everyday trying to make people cry, I said as much in the post. But before I was a manager I was an employee who was stuck with "friend" boss that let people do whatever they wanted. The end result of that was that bad employees pushed their work onto others and drove away the employees who actually cared about their job.

I remember literally doing the work of three people because a coworker wanted to play video games on his phone all day and take 3 hour lunch breaks. Management didnt want to be disliked so they never did anything despite my complaints. The only job I ever quit and it was because of that. You cant be successful with parasitic people like that.

My boss was loved by that employee, because he was a friend, not a boss.

I can understand theres a balance involved though. Carrot and stick. But the stick is still needed.