SiliconBeat

On Tuesday, Omnicell’s vice president of sales “informed” the company that she would be resigning, effective Feb. 15, according to a filing the company made Tuesday with the SEC. The company hastened to add that her resignation “is due to personal reason and not the result of any disagreement with Omnicell.

The same day, Alcoa said it would be laying off 15 percent of its work force, or about 14,500 employees, helping make Luhr’s resignation seem like a pretty gutsy move, given the current business environment, no?

Well, no.

Imagine our surprise when in the next paragraph the company explains that it will pay Luhr her base salary for 14 months after she leaves (cost: $277,667) as well as the premiums for her health insurance over that period.

“In return Ms. Luhr has agreed to provide Omnicell with a general release of claims.”

What claims? She has no disagreements with the company, right? Perhaps we lack a certain business sophistication to understand this, but as more people are let go from their jobs against their will, this kind of arrangement will seem even harder to understand.