United axes its employee bonus program, replaces it with a lottery, saving millions

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23. if i understand the system, no, this is much worse than the typical lottery.

i'm calculating that the average payout if $38.76.

that's assuming the cars are worth $50,000 each and everything else is as stated (in practice "$10,000 vacations" are not usually worth $10,000, but i'll let that one go.)

divide the $3,450,000 prize pool among 89,000 employees, that's an average of $38.76.

terrible return compared to $300. most lotteries return at least $150 on $300.


one wrinkle is that you have to have perfect attendance. so if you took a sick day you're not eligible.

you therefore have an incentive to work when you're sick. studies show that hurts a company's effectiveness (in large part because it makes others sick) and it's particularly problematic when you're in a customer service role as you're likely to make customers sick as well.

never mind the negative impact on performance of, say, a pilot not operating at 100%....