# Why Refusal Is Penalized?

Source: https://www.yegor256.com/2018/08/27/penalty-for-refusal.html

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We at Zerocracy, as you know, are strong advocates of
[freedom](https://www.yegor256.com/2015/07/21/hourly-pay-modern-slavery.html) and the
"[No Obligations](https://www.yegor256.com/2014/04/13/no-obligations-principle.html)"
principle. You, as a developer, are supposed to work only
when you feel like it. If you don't like the task assigned to you, you
simply refuse it. No strings attached. However, Zerocrat will penalize
you for such a refusal with a few negative reputation points,
according to the [§6](https://www.zerocracy.com/how-it-works) of
the [Policy](https://www.zerocracy.com/how-it-works). Why so?
Here is the logic explained.


First of all, the penalty you are getting for refusing the task is not monetary.
Your wallet doesn't lose any dollars if you refuse a task.
It's only the reputation points that are deducted.

Second, ask yourself, why do you have to refuse tasks sometimes?
In most cases, this happens when you can't find a way to complete them
within their allocated budgets. Why can't you do that? Well, sorry for being
harsh, but you can't do that because you are not
<del>as good as Zerocrat expects you to be</del> passionate enough.

I wrote a blog post about it some time ago, on my personal blog:
[_Either Bugs or Pull Requests ... or You Are Out_](https://www.yegor256.com/2018/07/24/bugs-or-pull-requests.html).
It basically suggests to call programmers "good" if they can find an exit
from any situation. If the code is easy to understand, they make the changes required.
If the code is too messy or the problem is too complex, they create new bugs, wait for their resolution and then
continue. Eventually, they solve the problem anyway.
Read the article, it's short and will definitely help.

Thus, if you refuse a task, you are not skilled enough to solve the problem
that is more complex that your average expectations. Do you deserve a punishment?
I believe you do. Not merely for the sake of punishing, but in order to help
Zerocrat understand who is who.

Zerocrat relies on the reputation of programmers in order to make the election
decision for the next task. The higher your reputation the bigger the chance
you will be assigned to the next job. Your refusals demonstrate your
unreliability.

Thus, even though we don't blame you for refusals, we want to know who is
refusing more frequently, in order to make our management decisions.
Sounds fair?