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When this CEO sold his company, he gave his longtime employees an average bonus of $237,000 each.

When CEO Nevzat Aydin sold his food delivery company for a whopping $589 million, he did something very few CEOs do with that kind of windfall.

Sorry, only two pictures of this guy on Getty. Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images.

He paid $27 million of it back to his employees.

According to Ivana Kottasova at CNN Money, Aydin felt his workers "deserved to benefit from the company's sale."

"Yemeksepeti's [the company] success story did not happen overnight and many people participated in this journey with their hard work and talent," he told CNN Money.

The bonuses are worth $237,000 on average. They were paid from the proceeds of the sale of the company.

Though the bonus is limited to employees who have worked for the company for two years or more, many stand to benefit.

They must be elated. Salaries at the company appear on par with the national average in Turkey, where Yemeksepeti is based, meaning that regardless of the company's value, workers weren't being paid a whole lot — between $1,000 and $2,000 per month on average. That's roughly $12,000-$24,000 annually.

Aydin is the latest in a growing line of CEOs to realize that doing right by their employees is not just good manners, but also good for business.

And this is the other one. Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images.

According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, for workers at the low end of the pay scale, small increases in pay can lead to large increases in overall happiness.

And large increases in overall happiness can have a positive effect on employee retention, ultimately saving a company money in the long run.

Still, Aydin's incredible generosity highlights the need to compensate workers fairly for their contributions.

And not just with occasional, unexpected money showers, but in their actual paychecks.

As recently as 1980, CEO pay in the U.S. was roughly 42 times what the average American worker made. In 2015, top CEOs made 373 times the average worker salary.

What Aydin did was incredibly altruistic, but also incredibly rare. Not every CEO is as generous, and most don't grant their employees such gigantic bonuses upon a sale of the company.

That's why workers across the U.S. and around the world are asking for things like a higher minimum wage and an expansion of overtime rules.

'Cause ultimately, it's actually pretty easy to reward an employee for a job well done.

You don't even have to unexpectedly dump $20 million+ on their heads. Though that's a super-nice thing to do.

All you have to do is...

Pay them fairly in the first place.

Preferably with giant, fanned-out money stacks. Photo by Noel Celis/Getty Images.

Community

Facebook group brings people together IRL to make meaningful friendships

True

Making new friends as an adult is challenging. While people crave meaningful IRL connections, it can be hard to know where to find them. But thanks to one Facebook Group, meeting your new best friends is easier than ever.

Founded in 2018, NYC Brunch Squad brings together hundreds of people who come as strangers and leave as friends through its in-person events.

“Witnessing the transformative impact our community has on the lives of our members is truly remarkable. We provide the essential support and connections needed to thrive amid the city's chaos,” shares Liza Rubin, the group’s founder.

Despite its name, the group doesn’t just do brunch. They also have book clubs, seasonal parties, and picnics, among other activities.

NYC Brunch Squad curates up to 10 monthly events tailored to the specific interests of its members. Liza handles all the details, taking into account different budgets and event sizes – all people have to do is show up.

“We have members who met at our events and became friends and went on to embark on international journeys to celebrate birthdays together. We have had members get married with bridesmaids by their sides who were women they first connected with at our events. We’ve had members decide to live together and become roommates,” Liza says.

Members also bond over their passion for giving back to their community. The group has hosted many impact-driven events, including a “Picnic with Purpose” to create self-care packages for homeless shelters and recently participated in the #SquadSpreadsJoy challenge. Each day, the 100 members participating receive random acts of kindness to complete. They can also share their stories on the group page to earn extra points. The member with the most points at the end wins a free seat at the group's Friendsgiving event.

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friendship
Education

3,700-year-old Babylonian stone tablet gets translated, changes history

They were doing trigonometry 1500 years before the Greeks.

via UNSW

Dr. Daniel Mansfield and his team at the University of New South Wales in Australia have just made an incredible discovery. While studying a 3,700-year-old tablet from the ancient civilization of Babylon, they found evidence that the Babylonians were doing something astounding: trigonometry!

Most historians have credited the Greeks with creating the study of triangles' sides and angles, but this tablet presents indisputable evidence that the Babylonians were using the technique 1,500 years before the Greeks ever were.

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education
Family

Mom’s blistering rant on how men are responsible for all unwanted pregnancies is on the nose

“ALL unwanted pregnancies are caused by the irresponsible ejaculations of men. Period. Don't believe me? Let me walk you through it."

Gabrielle Blair/Twitter

Mom has something to say... strongly say.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormons, are a conservative group who aren't known for being vocal about sex.

But best selling author, blogger, and mother of six, Gabrielle Blair, has kicked that stereotype to the curb with a pointed thread on reducing unwanted pregnancies. And her sights are set directly at men.

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women
Joy

Terrified, emaciated dog comes to life as volunteer sits with him for human connection

He tries making himself so small in the kennel until he realizes he's safe.

Rocky Kanaka|YouTube

Terrified dog transforms after human sits with him.

There's something about dogs that makes people just want to cuddle them. They have some of the sweetest faces with big curious eyes that make them almost look cartoonish at times. But not all dogs get humans that want to snuggle up with them on cold nights; some dogs are neglected or abandoned. That's where animal shelters come in, and they work diligently to take care of any medical needs and find these animals loving homes.

Volunteers are essential to animal shelters running effectively to fill in the gaps employees may not have time for. Rocky Kanaka has been volunteering to sit with dogs to provide comfort. Recently he uploaded a video of an extremely emaciated Vizsla mix that was doing his best to make himself as small as possible in the corner of the kennel.

Kanaka immediately wanted to help him adjust so he would feel comfortable enough to eat and eventually get adopted. The dog appeared scared of his new location and had actually rubbed his nose raw from anxiety, but everything changed when Kanaka came along.

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dogs
Science

She tattooed half her face and you'd never know it. Her skills are just that good.

This incredible medical tattoo technology is giving renewed hope to burn victims.

All images via the CBS/YouTube

Basma Hameed runs a tattoo shop, of sorts...


Meet Samira Omar.

The 17-year-old was the victim of a horrific bullying incident.

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Education

8 changes that were made to a classic Richard Scarry book to keep up with the times. Progress!

All the misogyny and racism you may not have noticed are now gone.

Images via Alan Taylor/Flickr, used with permission.

Updating the kitchen.


Remember those beloved Richard Scarry books?

Books from when you were a kid?

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Education

Voice recordings of people who were enslaved offer incredible first-person accounts of U.S. history

"The results of these digitally enhanced recordings are arresting, almost unbelievable. The idea of hearing the voices of actual slaves from the plantations of the Old South is as powerful—as startling, really—as if you could hear Abraham Lincoln or Robert E. Lee speak." - Ted Koppel

Library of Congress

When we think about the era of American slavery, many of us tend to think of it as the far distant past. While slavery doesn't exist as a formal institution today, there are people living who knew formerly enslaved black Americans first-hand. In the wide arc of history, the legal enslavement of people on U.S. soil is a recent occurrence—so recent, in fact, that we have voice recordings of interviews with people who lived it.

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history
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