129 Zenefits Staff Quit After Offer from CEO
buzzfeed.com
buzzfeed.com
My experience at previous companies is this: if someone offers a buyout, volunteer. Only the first round gets good packages. By the 3rd round you're lucky to end up with the pay you're owed.
While buyouts are supposed to get rid of the lower performers, it often doesn't work that way.
If the offers go to everyone, many of the best qualified people know they can a) get a job quickly and b) are looking at N months of paid vacation/extra pay, so they jump. Even worse, they know who the good people are so when they land the new job and need to recruit, they know who to target.
A decade+ ago, I was at a company and we were made offers. I was on the fence but decided to watch three specific people I deeply respected. When two of them left, I was next. The third was a few days later.
In under 4 months, almost the entire tech staff turned over and many of us have worked together since.
I received two months severance and had time to really think about what I wanted in my next job. The severance for the next group was two weeks.
If shit is hitting the fan, people want to leave, the goal is to offer them to leave and tell you, than leave and you be unprepared.
If they don't take they money, you know they are committed, if they do you have a better idea of your actual dedicated employee numbers.