EVERY year the world’s richest man Jeff Bezos offers his employees a golden handshake of up to £3,700 (aprroximately Ksh 500,000) to leave Amazon and never come back.
The unusual “pay to quit” offer is extended to all staff at the e-commerce giant’s warehouses and shipping centres in the US and Canada – known as fulfilment centres.
But, if workers do decide to take the money and run, they can never work for Amazon again, reports News.com.au.
The firm has 75 fulfilment centres across North America where more than 125,000 full-time employees receive the offer.
The giveaway starts at $2,000 (£1,500) in the first year of work before rising to by $1,000 each year up to $5,000 (£3,700).
It’s not exactly the largest golden handshake being doled out but for some workers, taking the extra cash could be tempting.
However, Amazon bosses insists they actually do not want people to accept the offer.
When workers receive the annual “pay to quit” ultimatum, the headline of the email reads: “Please Don’t Take This Offer.”
Bezos, who is estimated to have a fotune of $105billion (£78billion) making him the richest person on the planet, outlined the reasoning behind the unusual practice in a letter to shareholders back in 2014.
He wrote: “We hope they don’t take the offer; we want them to stay.
“Why do we make this offer? 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.”
Amazon says only “a small percentage” of its staff take up the offer every year, reports The Atlantic.
The idea actually originated from a shoe company called Zappos, which Amazon bought in 2009, which would offer their staff just $1000 (£750) to quit.
In the record breaking divorce settlement ever, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, will award his ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos about 4 percent of the company, a stake worth roughly $35 billion (Ksh 3.5 trillion), based on Amazon’s market value.
Prior to the settlement, Mr Bezos held a 16.3% stake in Amazon. He will retain 75% of that holding but Ms Bezos has transferred all of her voting rights to her former husband.
The couple, who have four children, had been together since before Mr Bezos set up Amazon in 1994, with Ms Bezos employed as one of the firm’s first members of staff.
Amazon is now vast online retail business which last year generated sales of $232.8bn and has helped Mr Bezos and his family amass a $131bn fortune, according to Forbes magazine.
The settlement would make her the fourth-richest woman in the world. She ranks behind Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, Alice Walton and Jacqueline Mars, according to Bloomberg.