It’s bad enough to have to clean out your desk into a cardboard box, but National Semiconductor employees who were laid off last week were also forced to return iPods that the company had handed out as rewards for their most profitable year ever. Much was made of Nat Semi’s plans to give all of its workers with 30GB iPods, which uses analog chips manufactured by the company.
Only it turns out that while they were allowed to use the iPod for their own purposes, the media players were not “gifts.” Rather, the company used language that suggested it was “equipping” the employees with the iPods. When 35 employees were laid off last week, they were told they had to return the device or pay “fair market value.”
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram apparently asked, when the devices were handed out to employees last month, whether or not the iPods would have to be returned when employees left. The company’s response?
“We haven’t crossed that bridge.”No, but now you’ve burned it while you’re half way across.
