National Semiconductor Wants Fired Employees To Return Their iPods

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National Semiconductor received a lot of good press last month for announcing plans to give every employee a video iPod. About 8,500 people currently work at National Semiconductor. The iPods were a nice way to say thank you to their employees for helping give the company their “best fiscal year” of all time. Well, I hope National Semiconductor enjoyed all that positive press while it lasted. It just went sour.

National Semiconductor Hands Out Pink Slips And Asks For iPods Back From Fired Employees

After giving all 8,500 employees iPods, the company then laid off 35 people from their Arlington plant and demanded they give their iPods back. National Semiconductor claims that the iPods were just loaners.

First, you get fired. Then you have to return a gifted iPod. How’s that for a bad day? It reminds me of the movie Office Space when Milton got moved to the basement and Bill wouldn’t let him take his red stapler.

Bill Lumbergh: Milt, we’re gonna need to go ahead and move you downstairs into storage B. We have some new people coming in, and we need all the space we can get. So if you could go ahead and pack up your stuff and move it down there, that would be terrific, OK?

Milton Waddams: Excuse me, I believe you have my stapler…

How Much Money Did National Semiconductor Spend On iPod Gifts?

Anyway, National Semiconductor didn’t give a reason for firing the 35 employees at their Arlington plant. Maybe they needed a way to pay for those 8,500 iPods? The 30 GB video iPod normally retails for about $300.

So 8,500 x $300 = $2,550,000… Oops. I forgot to subtract 35 from 8,500 first. Let’s hope someone (like Milton) doesn’t set the Arlington plant on fire.