Issue 439 Paid to quit October 14, 2014

Did you know that some companies are actually willing to pay you to leave?  Yes it is true, and it is happening right now. Let's discuss.

Dead beat workers:  The primary reason this is done is because some of these workers are just dead weight.  So they drag down the company or division they are working in.  So you want these people to leave.  But they need incentives to go so that they can go get another job.

What Amazon does:  Amazon pays $5,000 dollars for their worst people to leave voluntarily.  Yes that is right, if you really stink at your job at Amazon.com they will pay you to leave.  Rather than being forced to fire you, they rather you leave voluntarily and thus without incident.

Advantages:  For one, this is very moral.  Rather than leave these people high and dry after being fired, they will have $5,000 to play with while they seek out new employment.  Also, Amazon pays for peoples college, so this way a worker can leave after they get their degree and have money to help pay back debts (if any) and seek out a job that suits their degree.  There is also a pension advantage.  These workers while they work contribute to the overall pension fund.  However, since they leave, they no longer have claim to the money they put in, and thus it acts as a way to sure up the pension fund for workers who plan to work in the business until retirement.  Also, as they leave voluntarily, it removes the chance for potential lawsuits which helps protect the companies from possible financial harm.  However, this is mostly feasible for temp workers in tech companies.  This helps prevent unionization (or even the need to) and is generally beneficial in fulfillment centers like at Amazon.  Following the same policy in the areas that require raw talent like computer programing, it becomes less of an advantage because it can harm the business for they will lose talent that can bring their company to newer and greater heights.  So the areas where skill/talent are not required will work best.

Conclusion:  The overall advantages are clear.  The less talented can get a college education, or have money to hold them over while they seek out a job.  Almost eliminates the need to worry about lawsuits.  And it removes the dead weight in the business which opens up the area for more talented and harder working individuals. So I say that this is way better than outright firing someone. Less guilt for getting rid of bad workers is a really good thing.