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210 Zappos employees – 14% of the staff – take buyouts after CEO ultimatum

businessinsider.com

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Re: 210 Zappos employees – 14% of the staff – take buyouts after CEO ultimatum

#51

Post by grecy »

jackmaney wrote: post #46
logicalmind wrote: post #22

I work at a company that was in bad shape during the financial crisis. A temporary CEO was put in charge. Ultimately, a number of companies were merged to create one company that could survive. In the end, one of the CEO's of the merged companies became the CEO of the final company. His first act as CEO was to offer everyone in the company a tenure-based package to leave the company. I don't know the full numbers, bu…

> It was unclear what his intentions were. To determine loyalty to the company, possibly. Corporate loyalty has been dead for many, many years.

> Corporate loyalty has been dead for many, many years.

The higher-ups in be corporations have yet to get that memo.

Re: 210 Zappos employees – 14% of the staff – take buyouts after CEO ultimatum

#52

Post by slg »

velodrome wrote: post #34
basseq wrote: post #13

Thought experiment: ignore the holacracy angle and offer everyone in any company 3-months severance if they quit by a certain date. What percentage would quit? I wouldn't be surprised if the average was 10-20% and a vast majority of these people are taking advantage of what they see as a good deal irregardless of their feelings on holacracy as a management style.

What percentage would quit? The ones that could land another job by the quit date. They would essentially get a 3-month "bonus" for doing nothing. I would say this is only possible if the these people were looking to jump ship anyway.

That is assuming that everyone is a hired mercenary. I could rather easily find a job that pays me a 10%-30% raise over what I currently make. I don't do that because I already make "enough" and I like my current job, company, and coworkers. It isn't even a matter of loyalty, it is a matter of different priorities that puts money further down the list than job satisfaction. Finding a good paying job is much easier than finding a good job.

Re: 210 Zappos employees – 14% of the staff – take buyouts after CEO ultimatum

#53

Post by ghaff »

Retric wrote: post #44
Phlarp wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What percentage of any competent IT team can't have a competitive offer in writing by the end of the day? Even if your anticipated time between jobs is 1-2 months, you can still confidently quit by the deadline and end up with six weeks paid vacation and a six weeks bonus.

In the US I would guess around 95%. Extend things to 1-2 months and that probably drops to 20% or so which is very good odds. However, the difference between a 'competitive' offer and a 'good' one at a company you want to work for is huge. If your spending between 1/3 and 2/3 of your waking hours at work you need to make them count.

Furthermore, Zappos is in Las Vegas. It wouldn't be my idea of a place to live but some people like it and it's certainly hugely cheaper than most of California. So someone leaving Zappos in IT/software development probably has the option of going to work for one of the casino groups or moving.

Re: 210 Zappos employees – 14% of the staff – take buyouts after CEO ultimatum

#54

Post by gergles »

Every time this comes up, I have one simple question that I have yet to have answered to any degree of satisfaction.

(Someone who endorses this structure) explain to me in one sentence with fewer than 20 words how a 'lead link' is not the same role as a 'manager'.

Re: 210 Zappos employees – 14% of the staff – take buyouts after CEO ultimatum

#55

Post by CPLX »

basseq wrote: post #13

Thought experiment: ignore the holacracy angle and offer everyone in any company 3-months severance if they quit by a certain date. What percentage would quit? I wouldn't be surprised if the average was 10-20% and a vast majority of these people are taking advantage of what they see as a good deal irregardless of their feelings on holacracy as a management style.

One important subtlety here is that it would depend greatly on where you were geographically. In a small town with one employer it would be one way, in LA or NY it would be another.

Zappos is located in Vegas, which is a bit of an oddball market and somewhere between these poles I would think.

Re: 210 Zappos employees – 14% of the staff – take buyouts after CEO ultimatum

#56

Post by coldtea »

jackmaney wrote: post #46
logicalmind wrote: post #22

I work at a company that was in bad shape during the financial crisis. A temporary CEO was put in charge. Ultimately, a number of companies were merged to create one company that could survive. In the end, one of the CEO's of the merged companies became the CEO of the final company. His first act as CEO was to offer everyone in the company a tenure-based package to leave the company. I don't know the full numbers, bu…

> It was unclear what his intentions were. To determine loyalty to the company, possibly. Corporate loyalty has been dead for many, many years.

Not for lots of people. And startup loyalty is even worse.

Re: 210 Zappos employees – 14% of the staff – take buyouts after CEO ultimatum

#57

Post by SlalomStallone »

grecy wrote: post #51
jackmaney wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It was unclear what his intentions were. To determine loyalty to the company, possibly. Corporate loyalty has been dead for many, many years.

> Corporate loyalty has been dead for many, many years. The higher-ups in be corporations have yet to get that memo.

Corporate loyalty is gone, but nepotism never dies.

Re: 210 Zappos employees – 14% of the staff – take buyouts after CEO ultimatum

#58

Post by bunderbunder »

exelius wrote: post #37
logicalmind wrote: post #22

I work at a company that was in bad shape during the financial crisis. A temporary CEO was put in charge. Ultimately, a number of companies were merged to create one company that could survive. In the end, one of the CEO's of the merged companies became the CEO of the final company. His first act as CEO was to offer everyone in the company a tenure-based package to leave the company. I don't know the full numbers, bu…

I think the idea with Zappos is that they're supposed to be such a great place to work that you wouldn't want to leave. And in Zappos' case, I get why they offered severance deals. They were embarking on a radical experiment in organizational structure, and not everyone is going to be on board with it. Rather than having a bunch of people at the water cooler talking shit about the changes, you offer them money to lea…

I imagine that people in management positions have reason to take the package even if their skill set is perfectly aligned to the new job. If you're on a career path where one of the major measures of your success is how many people are under you, then you better be pretty committed to the Zappos vision if you're staying on. A long stint of not having anyone reporting through you might be a bit of a black spot on your resume if you ever end up for a position elsewhere.

Re: 210 Zappos employees – 14% of the staff – take buyouts after CEO ultimatum

#59

Post by AceJohnny2 »

slg wrote: post #52
velodrome wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What percentage would quit? The ones that could land another job by the quit date. They would essentially get a 3-month "bonus" for doing nothing. I would say this is only possible if the these people were looking to jump ship anyway.

That is assuming that everyone is a hired mercenary. I could rather easily find a job that pays me a 10%-30% raise over what I currently make. I don't do that because I already make "enough" and I like my current job, company, and coworkers. It isn't even a matter of loyalty, it is a matter of different priorities that puts money further down the list than job satisfaction. Finding a good paying job is much easier th…

When it comes down to it, it's a matter of comfort and risk.

Re: 210 Zappos employees – 14% of the staff – take buyouts after CEO ultimatum

#60

Post by leothekim »

grecy wrote: post #51
jackmaney wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It was unclear what his intentions were. To determine loyalty to the company, possibly. Corporate loyalty has been dead for many, many years.

> Corporate loyalty has been dead for many, many years. The higher-ups in be corporations have yet to get that memo.

Maybe you need to write a 5000-word memo to get the message across.

http://www.webwordcount.com/count.php?u=FoW3dBdV

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