Why Amazon Pays Some of Its Workers to Quit

The article reads to me like Amazon is cynically trying to escape criticism for the poor working conditions they impose on their workers, even using this offer to get the public to flip the criticism Amazon receives to get the public to see this offer as a reasonable choice for the poorer Amazon employees. Amazon is really saying that the cost of these offers (even including the cost of employee turnover) is less than the cost of improving working conditions so employees aren't in such dire straits by working there in the first place.

60-year-old Jim Perota, who worked in Amazon's distribution center in Chattanooga for 3 years, said he took his $3,000 offer and figures "he more or less broke even". But working conditions were so bad even this was considered reasonable because, "What mattered was that he got out.". How bad were working conditions?

> He says he hated the job. He says he lost 30 pounds working at Amazon > because he was on his feet so much, picking items off shelves and > putting them in bins, and also packing goods into boxes. His breaks were > only 15 minutes, but it would take 10 minutes to get to the break room, > so he’d sit on stairs, waiting for the work to begin again, he told me. > Perota had worked for the postal service, as a disc jockey, and for the > U.S. Census, but working for Amazon “was the most brutal, and it took > the biggest toll on my body,” he said. But he couldn’t quit, because he > needed the health insurance, he said.

"The Offer" strikes me as a distraction away from focusing on Amazon's exploitation of their workforce. I can only imagine that this exit payment plan costs Amazon less than improving the working conditions and earning a set of employees that are proud to work there.

This concept came from Zappos, which Amazon acquired.

(2008) https://hbr.org/2008/05/why-zappos-pays-new-employees

I wonder what would happen if another company such as AliBaba or WalMart paid Amazon workers to quit working at Amazon.

Not as generous as it sounds, but still, more companies should do this.