Bonus Idea: Promise the Moon.

I like it:  Amazon.com is wooing seasonal workers with chance to win $100,000.

Seeking to entice reliable seasonal warehouse workers who will stay until the bitter end of the holiday rush, Amazon.com is offering a chance to win $100,000 for perfect attendance.

According to Internet Retailer magazine, "Amazon expects to hire 1,000 seasonal workers at its Coffeyville, KS warehouse for this year’s holiday shopping season.  For each week of perfect attendance from Nov. 26 to Dec. 22, seasonal workers will be included in a drawing to win $100,000.  On Dec. 22, Amazon will pick a name from all of the entries and the winner will receive $2,000 plus the chance to choose one of 100 envelopes.  One of the envelopes will contain the $100,000 prize."

Got that?  There's a 99% chance that Amazon won't give away $100K.  But there's a 100% chance that they will milk the contest vigorously in an effort to extract every ounce of sweat from their seasonal workers.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Comments

[Harry Joiner]

I was being sarcastic. I guess I should have been more obvious about it ...

[Mack Collier]

I don't like it. Because by structuring the contest this way, they all but ensure that the natural word-of-mouth about the contest will be 'Hey did you hear that Amazon is giving away $100,000 to one of the seasonal workers?' Any potential seasonal workers will have their ears perk up, and they will go to get more information about the deal, then find out that the actual deal is that ONE of them will win $2,000, and get a 1% chance at winning another $100,000.

Which means their enthusiasm for working with Amazon will be diminished once they find out what the real deal is, and that disappointment could easily leak over to affect their future purchases with the company.

Again, it sounds too much like bait and switch to me. Why even hint at fooling the people you want to work for you?