Zappos Paying Employees To Quit: CEO Ushers In New Business Model And Wants Workers Out Who Don’t Accept Change

The CEO of Zappos is paying employees to quit the company due to a new business model being ushered in. This, however, doesn’t apply to all employees. It’s a matter of the company’s workforce making a serious decision about change.

CEO Tony Hsieh spoke with his workers at the company’s Q2 All-Hands meeting at the Smith Center in Las Vegas on May 19. At that point, 14 percent of Zappos employees opted for the buyout option instead of a new business strategy deemed “Holacracy,” which is related to the Zappos article recently written by the Inquisitr.

Basically, the new way of running business nixes traditional managers and take away internal titles — making everyone equal. Hsieh knew there would be a number of people in his workforce who wouldn’t go for the change, so he gave them the ultimatum of getting out with three-month’s severance pay and leave, or be on board with the new strategy. Essentially, Zappos was paying employees to quit if they so decided to depart because of Hsieh’s new way of doing things, Quartz reports.

Not long after the first offer, Hsieh put out another offer — this time it was exclusively for 9 percent of the company in what’s called the “SuperCloud offer.” This was to help the company “complete its migration to parent company Amazon’s technical infrastructure, giving them until the end of the year to make their decision with the promise of a bigger payout,” according to the report.

In this instance, most Zappos employees paid to quit, work within the tech team, “or are in other ways integral to the SuperCloud migration.”

The number of employees willing to take the second offer is said to be “significant.” Hsieh explains that the official number accepting the severance won’t be finalized until 2016.

Quartz was informed by another Zappos executive that 17 of the 132 employees extended this option decided to walk with the first offer. Some of the company’s more notable employees have left, including CTO Brent Cromley; VP of Customer Service, HR, and Recruiting Pam Tidmore; Zappos Life/Goal Coach Augusta Scott; and Alexis Gonzales-Black, a key player in co-leading the transition to “Holacracy.”

According to CBS News, Amazon was inspired by the idea of Zappos paying its employees to quit if they showed up only to collect a paycheck, and not support a new way of doing things. At the time, 97 percent of Zappos employees rejected the initial offer to get out while they could.

[Photo Credit: Addicted2Success.com]