Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#11

Post by tgb » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 1:50 PM UTC

jordn wrote: post #4

The first (and stated) effect of this policy is to weed out the unmotivated employees. However, Dan Ariely has explained that the secondary effect is potentially more powerful. For those that choose to stay, they will forever live with their past action of having turned down lots of money to work there. So, when they're having a crappy day and hating their job, they're probably thinking "why didn't I take the money a…

I recall hearing about that for Zappos, but here the offer is repeated every year. Doesn't that ruin the effect - you know you can get (potentially even more) by quitting in a few months? And if it's only offered at certain times of the year, then there'll be a bunch of people hanging on until the offer comes around again.

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#12

Post by gregd » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 1:54 PM UTC

_wdh wrote: post #7

I would be amazed if anyone accepted this offer, it's not enough money to justify making every other job interview afterwards harder. I bet it's just a PR trick to make them look like better employers after the warehouse conditions were exposed.

Who says you have to have job interviews afterwards? I've known plenty of people who line up interviews before they actually quit, then only quit when they've got another job lined up.

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#13

Post by jordn » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 1:59 PM UTC

tgb wrote: post #11

jordn wrote: post #4

The first (and stated) effect of this policy is to weed out the unmotivated employees. However, Dan Ariely has explained that the secondary effect is potentially more powerful. For those that choose to stay, they will forever live with their past action of having turned down lots of money to work there. So, when they're having a crappy day and hating their job, they're probably thinking "why didn't I take the money a…

I recall hearing about that for Zappos, but here the offer is repeated every year. Doesn't that ruin the effect - you know you can get (potentially even more) by quitting in a few months? And if it's only offered at certain times of the year, then there'll be a bunch of people hanging on until the offer comes around again.

Well, I suspect there will be people postponing quitting for a few months just so they can cash out with the offer. That's undesirable for Amazon.

But I doubt you'd have people staying in a job they dislike for another year just to get an extra $1k when they do quit. Also you'll have compounded another year of turning down cash to work there so the cognitive dissonance might be even stronger.

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#14

Post by afterburner » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:01 PM UTC

Although nobody else seems to have mentioned it, this sounds to me like they are trying to avoid employees being dissatisfied but sticking around in order to get severance pay. Obviously if you quit voluntarily, no severance pay, but Amazon gives you a bit of money anyways (much less than severance pay), so that maybe you won't stick around longer than is good for either of you.

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#15

Post by donretag » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:02 PM UTC

At my company, I am both the most unmotivated and most productive employee. Where would that leave me? :)

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#16

Post by disputin » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:03 PM UTC

jordn wrote: post #4

The first (and stated) effect of this policy is to weed out the unmotivated employees. However, Dan Ariely has explained that the secondary effect is potentially more powerful. For those that choose to stay, they will forever live with their past action of having turned down lots of money to work there. So, when they're having a crappy day and hating their job, they're probably thinking "why didn't I take the money a…

"The only way to reconcile their thoughts and actions is to explain that, in fact, they must really love this job and therefore should work hard at it."

Is my mind supposed to work like that? I'd think "I should've taken the money, oh well, I had my reasons at the time, they've turned out to be wrong, nevermind, time to go."

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#17

Post by smackfu » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:04 PM UTC

One tricky bit is that it seems to be only once a year. So someone just moving on normally wouldn't easily be able to take advantage.

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#18

Post by ninv » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:06 PM UTC

It starts with 2000$ then 1000$ increment per year up to 5000$

This deal is for warehouse employees only and most of the people(90%+) working in warehouse are contractors.

They handpick employee(s) and once a year and offer him/her this deal.

BS!

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#19

Post by chrisgd » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:10 PM UTC

donretag wrote: post #15

At my company, I am both the most unmotivated and most productive employee. Where would that leave me? :)

In my shoes. . .

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#20

Post by JackC » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:11 PM UTC

Purely on a legal level, getting your most disgruntled employees to identify themselves and waive all claims in exchange for $2,000-5,000 is probably a pretty good deal.