Amazon and Others Are Paying Disgruntled Workers to Leave. That’s Nuts.

Amazon and others are willing to pay less-than-happy employees to quit the company. Employees who accept what’s called “The Offer” by Amazon agree to not work for the organization again. The reported buyout is $5,000 to go away and not come back. In California, I’m told that everyone gets two weeks paid severance. So employees, or former employees, take any job, work for a month, if they can last that long, get fired, and then take two weeks off with full pay. Then repeat the process somewhere else. This is insane to me.

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Employers would likely rather have employees stay when possible, because it’s cheaper and builds positive morale. No one wants a turn-style employee. But we also have a responsibility to our other employees to weed out workers that are spreading negativity or otherwise dragging the rest of the workforce down with their poor attitudes, theft of not only company time on their smart phones but actual company product walking out the front door. We can read all the Harvard Business Review articles on motivating employees, but none of that training, worker happiness, and taking ownership will help with these types of people playing the system. It’s time to put our foot down with our state legislatures and correct this liberal taking advantage of the “Man,” as those less inclined to put in a full day’s work for a full day’s pay tend to call us.