Bah, humbug.
Star-Telegram | 07/03/2006 | Losing their jobs and even their iPods — Geez, talk about a PR screw-up.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company gained loads of publicity last month for announcing plans to give every employee a 30-gigabyte video iPod.
Last week, the company laid off 35 employees at its Arlington plant. To the surprise of some at the plant, the laid-off workers were asked to give back their high-tech toys.
A person who called the Star-Telegram claiming to have been one of the 35 laid-off workers said many employees at the Arlington plant were under the impression that the iPods were theirs to keep. Some had sold them or given them as gifts, according to the caller.
From what I understand, the employees were “issued” the iPods. Maybe this was so they didn’t have to pay taxes on them, which they would have had to do if they were gifts (and not sales tax, but a much higher percentage as a gift/income tax). I agree that what they’ve done is a PR nightmare, but maybe there was a reason for not giving them as gifts.
Good reason for not giving as gifts: the guys are cheap and mean.
If you give it as a gift, then it belongs to the person you gave it to.
If they don’t have the iPod, I’m sure NS will not have any problems deducting the cost from the severance package.
If they gave them as gifts then they belong to the recipient. If they are on loan then that should have been made crystal clear including a notice that they belonged to the company and the employee would be held responsible for any damage or loss.