Tony Hsieh, chief executive of Zappos, with his autobiography, "Delivering Happiness." Eighteen percent of his employees have taken him up on a buyout offer, according to a recent post on the company's Web site, following the introduction of a radically new approach to management called "holacracy." (Noah Berger/Bloomberg) 
 
 This post has been updated. 
 
 A little less than a year ago, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh made his employees a deal. If they couldn't get behind the online retailer's radical new management system called "holacracy" -- which doesn't have traditional managers or internal job titles -- he would give them at least three months' severance to leave. By May, the company said about 14 percent of the company, or 210 people, had left. 
 
 And now, the company has updated that number, saying in a recent post on the company's web site that 18 percent of the company, or 260 people, have headed for the exits. In the post, chief operating officer Arun Rajan said the total percentage grew after about 50 employees from a tech group decided to take the company up on its offer. "While we have lost a number of folks, it is important to note that we have a significant group of highly talented individuals who will be staying to help move Zappos forward," Rajan wrote in the post. 
 
 But whether these workers left because they couldn't pledge allegiance to holacracy or because they recognized their jobs were out of favor is unclear. The publication Quartz reports that Rajan said in an interview that the majority of the recent group who left are managers who didn't fill critical roles within a company that no longer has traditional supervisors, as well as that it might have had to do some layoffs if there weren't enough people who took the buyout offer. 
 
 [Heard our new podcast? Presidential will brush you up on 44 U.S. presidents, in 44 weekly episodes] 
 
 On Friday morning, the company published an FAQ about its turnover, saying it would not have had layoffs and that people who were traditional managers and "declined to take the offer will have the opportunity to look for other roles in that company. 
 
 The recent post updating employees on the departure includes the sort of obscure lingo that can make the system challenging to learn or even understand. The no-bosses, no-titles concept at Zappos, which has garnered repeat media attention in an attempt to examine how it's all going, replaces the traditional corporate hierarchy with a series of overlapping, self-governing "circles." The post suggests people direct any questions to one of these "circles" rather than an individual, and also discusses the "teal" offer, a reference to Hsieh's goal of reaching a state of "self-management" and "self-organization" advocated in the book Reinventing Organizations. Employees had to read the book to be eligible for the buyout offer. 
 
 The concept of such a voluntary buyout is not a new one for Zappos. He famously offers new employees $2,000 to leave if they realize they're just not that into the company's zany culture. (Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, began doing something similar for some of his employees after Amazon acquired Zappos in 2009.) 
 
 Hsieh appears willing to lose employees who aren't a good fit because he sees "self-management" as a strategy, rather than simply an experiment in radically extreme management. In Lillian Cunningham's recent story for The Post about Hsieh and his effort, he described the restructuring as a way to help Zappos expand beyond online shoe and clothing retailing and into new industries. Taking away bosses, he said, is a way to "really just have everyone at Zappos act like an entrepreneur," busting up the bureaucracy that can frustrate and drive out a company's most innovative employees. 
 
 His intention, he told Cunningham, is to make Zappos's customer service the brand hallmark that helps him grow into other industries, much like Virgin's "hip and cool" brand led it beyond music and into other fields. Among the ideas that have been brainstormed: a Zappos hotel, an airline, and "even crazy stuff, like porta-potties." For now, at least, such brainstorming may be happening with fewer people. 
 
 Read also: 
 
 Zappos to employees: Get behind our ‘no bosses’ approach, or leave with severance 
 
 Tony Hsieh got rid of bosses at Zappos — and that’s not even his biggest idea 
 
 Zappos says goodbye to bosses 
 
 Like On Leadership? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. ||||| In March, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh issued an ultimatum of sorts to his employees. If they didn't feel like they could get behind the company's radical new management system—in which there are no traditional managers or job titles—he would give them until April 30 to decide whether they wanted to leave in exchange for at least three months' severance. The company said it was offering the option to eligible employees in order to expedite the new system's adoption. 
 
 Now that the deadline has passed, it turns out that 210 employees, or about 14 percent of the online retailer's 1,500 workers, have taken Hsieh up on it. Zappos confirmed the number with The Washington Post, though declined to specify how that number breaks down among their sales representatives and executives. 
 
 The high number of departures perhaps shows how hard it is for employees to pass up the chance to receive three months' pay for no work, whether they like the new management system or not—especially when an expanding job market means it's getting a little easier to find a new job. 
 
 [Zappos to employees: Get behind our 'no bosses' approach, or leave with severance] 
 
 It also could be a sign that a sizable chunk of employees just didn't warm to the unconventional approach. 
 
 John Bunch, who is helping to lead the company's transition to the new system, wrote in an email to The Post: "The offer was a big incentive to leave Zappos and people took the offer for various reasons. Some Zapponians took it because they are not in line with the vision of the company, others took it to pursue other passions including starting businesses. Ultimately, however many people took the offer is the right number because they are doing what is best for them and for Zappos." 
 
 In Hsieh's earlier memo, he acknowledged that "we haven't made fast enough progress" toward the new system and recognized that "self-management and self-organization is not for everyone." Other reports have cited employee frustrations with the new system, which includes a complex structure and lingo. 
 
 The radical approach to management that Zappos is aiming for includes a trademarked concept called "Holacracy." In it, traditional corporate hierarchies are replaced with self-governed teams known as "circles" in an effort to make the organization more agile and innovative. 
 
 Hsieh's goal, as he outlined it in his March memo, is "to make Zappos a fully self-organized, self-managed organization by combining a variety of different tools and processes." To that end, he's asked employees as a first step to read a book called Reinventing Organizations and watch a lengthy YouTube video by its author. 
 
 The current offer is not the first one the company has made for employees. Zappos has long had a standing offer in place for new workers: If they decide they're not a good match with the company's culture, they can get $2000 to quit. In 2004, Hsieh also offered to help pay for employees to return to San Francisco if they decided its new headquarters city, Las Vegas, wasn't a fit. 
 
 Back in March, Bunch said in an interview with The Washington Post that "there have been some people who've embraced those changes with open arms, and other people for whom maybe it [hasn't] resonated as strongly." Now, apparently, we have some idea of how many. 
 
 Read also: 
 
 Zappos to employees: Get behind our 'no bosses' approach, or leave with severance 
 
 Like On Leadership? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes.
– Earlier this month brought the news that 14% of the Zappos workforce—210 employees—was exiting the company rather than taking part in the manager-free "Holacracy" system being adopted by Zappos. The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the initial new landscape; the full shift is expected to take as long as five years. Five stand-out details: The new lingo: Workers can join one of 300 "circles" (ie, work teams) run by a "lead link" (sort of a project manager) where they focus on a specific kind of work (ie, customer service) and might air "tensions" (ie, work problems) or discuss how they're "energizing a role" (that being what one's job is now called). The new lingo, part II: Can you translate yet? The Journal has this jargony line (and an interpretation) from John Bunch, who's heading the shift to Holacracy. "The idea is for each person to selfishly process their own tension. The reaction round is a sacred space." One specific experience: In the title-less world, Brironni Alex, 26, is no longer a customer-service manager, but now has "more time for a workplace diversity committee and to perform on the Zappos dance team," per the Journal. How meetings have changed: At their end, employees can air their thoughts. A 24-year-old employee says she hears things like "I can't wait to eat my leftover pizza for lunch." One specific circle: The Journal highlights one called "Reinventing Yourself," which former managers are encouraged to join as part of their quest to figure out what they should do in the company now that they can't manage. Full Journal article has more great details.