Amazon pays workers to quit, no strings attached

[fjtorres]

From Amazon's letter to shareholders, cited here:

http://www.thepassivevoice.com/04/20...ched/#comments

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da...2518dex991.htm

The second program is called Pay to Quit. It was invented by the clever people at Zappos, and the Amazon fulfillment centers have been iterating on it.
Pay to Quit is pretty simple. Once a year, we offer to pay our associates to quit. The first year the offer is made, it’s for $2,000. Then it goes up one thousand dollars a year until it reaches $5,000.
The headline on the offer is “Please Don’t Take This Offer.”
We hope they don’t take the offer; we want them to stay.
Why do we make this offer? The goal is to encourage folks to take a moment and think about what they really want. In the long-run, an employee staying somewhere they don’t want to be isn’t healthy for the employee or the company.

The first program is a bit more conventional, though hardly common:

We challenge ourselves to not only invent outward facing features, but also to find better ways to do things internally – things that will both make us more effective and benefit our thousands of employees around the world.
Career Choice is a program where we pre-pay 95% of tuition for our employees to take courses for in-demand fields, such as airplane mechanic or nursing, regardless of whether the skills are relevant to a career at Amazon.
The goal is to enable choice. We know that for some of our fulfillment center employees, Amazon will be a career. For others, Amazon might be a stepping stone on the way to a job somewhere else – a job that may require new skills. If the right training can make the difference, we want to help.

Third one is common in tech companies--work from home--but declining.
Good for agoraphobics.

A third inward innovation is our Virtual Contact Center. It’s an idea we started a few years back and have continued to grow with terrific results. Under this program, employees provide customer service support for Amazon and Kindle customers while working from home.
This flexibility is ideal for many employees who, perhaps because they have young children or for another reason, either cannot or prefer not to work outside the home. Our Virtual Contact Center is our fastest growing “site” in the U.S., operating in more than ten states today. This growth will continue as we hope to double our state footprint in 2014.

The rest is typical corporate bragging, but the employee programs should be a nice riposte (and roman salute) to critics of their warehouse employment practices.

[fjtorres]

Some of their MayDay users have...interesting... queries:

Mayday Tech Advisors have received 35 marriage proposals from customers.
475 customers have asked to talk to Amy, our Mayday television personality.
109 Maydays have been customers asking for assistance with ordering a pizza. By a slim margin, Pizza Hut wins customer preference over Domino’s.
There are 44 instances where the Mayday Tech Advisor has sung Happy Birthday to the customer.
Mayday Tech Advisors have been serenaded by customers 648 times.
And 3 customers have asked for a bedtime story.

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Some of their MayDay users have...interesting... queries:

LOL!!

[Jessica Lares]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Some of their MayDay users have...interesting... queries:

That is brilliant, and the sad truth about 24/7 tech support accessible by anyone on a device.

[frahse]

Reminds me of "The Andromina Strain, 1971." -- The elevator voice.

[QuantumIguana]

They aren't really encouraging them to quit, they are encouraging them to stay. If you're somewhat unhappy at Amazon and considering quitting, you might be motivated to stay just a few months longer to get the higher bonus for quitting. An employee might think "I'd like to quit, but if I quit now, I'll get $2,000. If I stay for just a couple months more, I'll get $3,000. I'll wait a few months to get the $3,000." A few months roll by, and maybe the employee isn't as motivated to quit as they were a few months ago. So they stay a little longer, and again, they are faced with the same situation: quit now and get $3,000, but wait a few months and get $4,000. That works up to 5 years, where it tops out at $5,000. At that point, the employee no longer has an incentive to stay longer, but if they have been there for 5 years, they are more likely to have "bought in" to the company, and with five years of experience, the job may be more enjoyable than an entry-level job.

This can also make people feel better about their jobs. If they are turning down free money in order to stay at their job, they may be more likely to feel that their job is a good job. After all, if the job is bad, why aren't they taking the free money and quitting? The reality may be that jobs can be hard to find, it's a bother to look for jobs, and the new job may not be sufficiently better to justify the bother.

[fjtorres]

At a starting salary of $11.50 an hour, the money adds up to five weeks severance pay.
So unhappy workers need to decide what their odds are of finding a similar paycheck in a month's time. (Of course, some younger people living with their parents might survive as much as six months on the minimum deal.)

The tuition deal is more interesting because it is so open-ended and better suited to younger employees.
I hear BOEING offers a similar deal to their employees. Both are good employee retention tools.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

At a starting salary of $11.50 an hour, the money adds up to five weeks severance pay.
So unhappy workers need to decide what their odds are of finding a similar paycheck in a month's time.

I don't think you typically get any severance when you quit, only when you're let go. At best, you'd get your accrued vacation, if any.
So, this is 5 weeks more time than they'd get if they quit most similar jobs.

Hopefully if you're unhappy and considering leaving your job, you already have a plan, if not another job lined up.

[WillysJeepMan]

I suspect that layoffs are coming in the future.

Corporations often offer a separation package for employees to voluntarily quit before they enact layoffs. Employees who voluntarily quit and receive a separation package are not eligible for unemployment insurance. Laid-off employees are.

Contrary to what Amazon's letter to stockholders claims, this idea was not "invented" by Zappos. It has been a regular practice in the corporate world decades before Zappos was founded.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by WillysJeepMan

I suspect that layoffs are coming in the future.

Corporations often offer a separation package for employees to voluntarily quit before they enact layoffs. Employees who voluntarily quit and receive a separation package are not eligible for unemployment insurance. Laid-off employees are.

Contrary to what Amazon's letter to stockholders claims, this idea was not "invented" by Zappos. It has been a regular practice in the corporate world decades before Zappos was founded.

IF it's what you suspect. But if there is no threat of layoffs, and it really is, as they say, to help ensure a workforce that wants to be there, then it's pretty novel.

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

They aren't really encouraging them to quit, they are encouraging them to stay.

Well, the point is both retention and morale. As the letter said, "The goal is to encourage folks to take a moment and think about what they really want." They DO NOT want people sticking around from simple inertia and/or fear of the job market. They want their employees to consider their options and actively choose the Amazon job on a continual basis, reaffirming to themselves that they want to work there. It's good psychology, and capitalizing on our better qualities rather than our weaknesses, IMO.

Originally Posted by WillysJeepMan

Corporations often offer a separation package for employees to voluntarily quit before they enact layoffs. Employees who voluntarily quit and receive a separation package are not eligible for unemployment insurance. Laid-off employees are.

Contrary to what Amazon's letter to stockholders claims, this idea was not "invented" by Zappos. It has been a regular practice in the corporate world decades before Zappos was founded.

Yeah, I don't think this is what you think it is. The point is for people NOT to take the package, and feel better about their jobs for having made the decision. Avoiding unemployment pay may come into it, but more in a "let the dead weight leave on their own" kind of way.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ApK

I don't think you typically get any severance when you quit, only when you're let go. At best, you'd get your accrued vacation, if any.
So, this is 5 weeks more time than they'd get if they quit most similar jobs.

Hopefully if you're unhappy and considering leaving your job, you already have a plan, if not another job lined up.

No, you don't get severance pay when you quit.
That's what makes this program notable; you get a reasonably generous payout when you aren't entitled to one by law.

It's more of a psychological prod to get workers to ask themselves if they really want to stay.

[Rizla]

It would make far more financial sense to lay off those staff and off-shore.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Rizla

It would make far more financial sense to lay off those staff and off-shore.

Sometimes. But many companies are finding out that that was only true in a very short-sighted way and are working to undo the damage they did.

[Jyster]

In California, if you quit, its very difficult to get unemployment benefits. So to me, it just wouldnt be worth it.