The ‘Pay to Quit’ offer was made to ensure that they maintained a workforce that was dedicated and enthusiastic.
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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, known for his unorthodox leadership strategies, offered employees up to USD 5,000 (about Rs. 4.1 lakh) to quit the company. The ‘Pay to Quit’ offer was made to ensure that they maintained a workforce that was dedicated and enthusiastic. “Once a year, we offer to pay our associates to quit,” Bezos wrote in his letter to shareholders. “The first year the offer is made, it’s for $2,000. Then it goes up one thousand dollars a year until it reaches $5,000. The headline on the offer is ‘Please Don’t Take This Offer.’ We hope they don’t take the offer; we want them to stay.”
Explaining why he chose to offer the temptation, the Amazon founder said, “The goal is to encourage folks to take a moment and think about what they really want. In the long run, an employee staying somewhere they don’t want to be isn’t healthy for the employee or the company.”
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Under the Pay to Quit program, Amazon associates are offered $2000 in the first year to quit the company. The offer is raised each year by a thousand dollars until it reaches $5000 (about Rs 4 lakh). The Pay to Quit offletter begins with a bold headline stating, ‘Please Don’t Take This Offer.’ This clever strategy by Jeff Bezos is to ensure loyal employees stick to the company while others can jump the wagon. Bezos remarks that, in the long run, an employee benchwarming somewhere their heart doesn’t belong won’t be healthy for the company or the employee. Here’s a snippet from the 2014 letter to shareholders.
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In 2022, the Pay to Quit program was suspended and is now only available to graduates of the Career Choice upskilling program.
