Scrolling through my normal headlines about employment and career development, one caught my eye. Amazon is offering its fulfillment employees up to $5,000 to quit Amazon! My initial reaction, "How cool is that?!"
Amazon's warehouse reputation can go either way, depending on with whom you speak. I have friends who love their jobs at Amazon and ones who absolutely despise going to their shift. The ones who hated their job usually didn’t have great work ethics, though. I have heard horror stories from very short break times to unbearable temperatures in the warehouse — what warehouse in Arizona is comfortable, anyway?
After reading the letter Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos gave shareholders, I think this program rocks. It took me a few days to think it over, should I ever find myself in that position and, at first, I thought it was a trap. "I will give you $5,000 to leave this company, and you just burnt this bridge," Bezos said.
I can say that I have been in many meetings where the management team is showing the door. The room is always deadly silent, and no one walks through it — until they land another job.
From my experience, there are too many seats filled in companies where the ones sitting in them really don't want to be there. They are there because they have to be for many different reasons. I have been there myself. Only negative production happens in that situation. Numbers aren't always met, innovated ideas are not being flourished and the corporation is at a stand still until they are forced to lay people off. No one wants to be in that position. It hurts the company and the other people who work in the warehouse to work with someone who just doesn't care.
This program at Amazon will get that group out the door. They are given enough of a voluntary leave severance to help them stay financially afloat — which gets rid of the silence when told, "You know where the door is".
This program will help Amazon employees to work in better environments. There is nothing more annoying than working with someone who doesn’t want to do the job that they should and help the team and company grow and succeed. Amazon will be able to collect new ideas from a team that really wants to work and is passionate about Amazon. You can't enjoy your job unless you agree and appreciate for whom you work.
I hope this program is so successful that it will be adopted by many other businesses. No one wants to be forced to stay where they are and with which company. With this new rollout, many other companies may take the risk of paying employees to leave and make the company better overall.
Reach the columnist at ceacret@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter at @chelsieeacret
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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