"SIB is Schneider's third company. Now 30 years old, he started his first business, a retail mobile phone company, when he was 18... [In] November of 2008... SIB was born."<p>The average period of ownership for his prior two companies was under 4.5 years, given that he took a break in between ("to learn to kiteboard, traveling to the Dominican Republic, Panama, Israel and Mexico"). One was sold, no word on the other.<p>He's asking employees to stick with a job longer than he EVER has.<p>And he's asking them to have faith that, if he sells again, the new owner will respect this bonus policy.<p>I'd have zero faith in this. But then, unemployment being what it is, I probably wouldn't quit, either.
Yikes. What could possibly go wrong?<p>Employees will see this as a deferred bonus. Applying to myself, let's say I make it to 4 years and am fired "with cause", maybe I had one too many sick days, before the fifth year. Maybe at 11 years and 10 months. That is going to be irritating.<p>But the other thing is that employees will factor it into their perception of compensation. At the end of 5 years after the payout, unless there is something new put in place, or a $10k raise, it's going to seem like a wage cut at that point. That issue needs to be considered, anticipated, and addressed.<p>Another problem is it likely knocks you into a new tax bracket that year, and possible kills off some subsidy you were getting with the new health care system so now you have to pay the full premiums, and various other similar issues, so all together it could end up being a bit less than one would get with it spread out over 5 years.<p>Rather than a $250,000 one time bonus at 25 years, which may or may not be possible since it's unlikely this is going to be set up in a trust account, it would be better to see a tax deferred, legally guaranteed pension plan set up and funded. In 25 years $250,000 is going to be a lot less than it is now, in a retirement investment account it has the opportunity to grow.<p>But, on the other hand, perhaps many people don't think in terms of retirement or taxes these days and are impressed by what seem to be large numbers and lottery payouts. If that's the case, then perhaps this is a more effective incentive than retirement benefits.
It's interesting how it talks about how employees aren't loyal to companies, I think a lot of this is because most companies don't show much loyalty to their employees. Although it seems more likely in start ups.<p>When companies show loyalty to their staff and not lay them off at the first sign of trouble, really think about compensation (so that employees don't have to consider changing jobs as the only way to get a pay rise) then they may see more loyalty from their employees.
Slightly unrelated:<p>CNN needs to work on their "in article" link placement (don't really know what it's called). I took a screenshot in case it's different for other users.<p><a href="http://i40.tinypic.com/nxt81.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i40.tinypic.com/nxt81.jpg</a><p>I re-read that section twice trying to make sense of it...
Apple used to have a sabbatical; at five years, you got six paid weeks off.<p>Well, it's not 50K, on the other hand it was surprising how many people hung on until five years, took their six weeks off (often including vacation), then quit.<p>It seemed to get rid of dead wood. I'm still not sure why.
Sounds a lot like stock options, but without the stock, and a much steeper "cliff" than the classic vesting schedule.<p>I wonder how many people will stay 5 years, collect the (one-time) payout, then leave shortly thereafter?
Many of my coworkers have been with the company for 5 years or more. In many cases the reason for this is that they do not have many employment options because they are borderline incompetent.
Get it in writing and make sure it can't be taken away. Google had a leave policy after 5 years of tenure that they yanked during the great shrinking of 2008-9. You could go off for something like 9 months and your options would continue to vest. I think maybe even your health insurance stayed active, too. Then you could come back and keep on going.<p>Apparently they had a problem with people taking leave and then never coming back. Instead of fixing the actual problem (people not wanting to return -- wonder why...), they took away the benefit.<p>This was pretty crappy for those of us who were pretty close to it, or who had earned it and hadn't scheduled it yet.
probably won't work.<p>there is no real trust in employment...to a lot of people they'd just see it as an added incentive for the boss to fire you at the end of 4th year.
I'm not really a fan of these game theory-style targets, they just bring out the worst in people. Being an employee at a business for a long time should be the result of an excellent environment, not from being bribed with a long term financial milestone.
It's just another form of stock options except cash always sounds better if the stock is going nowhere or your company doesn't have any stock to give. It's also an approximate 10% yearly bonus held for 5 years. I would rather have the bonus up front instead of the carrot on the string deal.
I guess it makes sense if you have been there for, say, three years that you then stay an extra two years (you didn't already plan on) before seeking a job elsewhere. Considering that any other job would have to give you 25000 more, staying is properly the best offer.<p>But really outside of that situation it wouldn't seem as an attractive offer. It is not difficult to imagine some other company offering you 10k more especially if you are hitting the first big milestone of 3-5 year professional experience (even if that measure is, at best, bullshit).
Will keep all the useless staff<p>What do you do to keep the good ones that could get a job that pays $11K/year more and so in 5 years they would have $55K ?
I wonder what the value of 50,000 dollars five years from now is in terms of today's dollars considering inflation ,another five rounds of QE and a probable economic crisis.<p>Perhaps my odds are better if I just bought $2000 worth of silver and did absolutely nothing else.