This time last year I had pretty much settled with myself when I was going to retire — and I wasn’t keeping it a secret!
There was some question about waiting to see what would happen with the so-called alignment that no one seemed to know much of anything about –other than that those who wanted a job would have a job. There was talk that some people would get some sort of severance package.
“Don’t you want to wait around for the package? ” I was asked more than once.
The answer to that was easy. “No.”
If I had thought that there was a chance I would get one, it might have been different. However, in almost every other situation where packages had been offered in the past — whether it was called it reduction-in-workforce, down-sizing, right-sizing, or some other kind of sizing — the group I was in had only gotten offered packages once or twice. Even then, it had been a very limited offering to only a couple of people out of a hundred or so.
Back then that was great for me, because I wasn’t close enough to retirement that it was feasible for me to take a package. With so few offered, it represented job security for the rest of us.
So was retiring the right choice — rather than waiting to see if there would be a package offered?
Yes!
The alignment process was very secretive and took much, much longer than advertised.
If I had stayed thinking that I would know something in the next month or two, I would have been disappointed. I essentially left work on January 15 when I went on vacation. I wouldn’t have found out about my job until October, nine months later.
And then, it looks like I was right about the severance packages. None were offered to the group I was in.
Perhaps if those of us who retired earlier this year had stayed, then there might have been packages. If there were, chances are that they would have been offered to someone else and I’d still have a job.
I didn’t want a job.
Since the odds weren’t very good in my favor, I retired.
Comments on this entry are closed.
You definitely made the right choice. You can't put your life plans on hold while they try to strategize what is going to be in their best interest and to whom they are going to offer these little dangling carrots. I've seen this kind of thing happen so much. The peace of mind that comes with NOT allowing them to tease you with these little things is so much more freeing. You didn't need any of that hanging over your head while you were on vacation. Feeling that your decision and plans were already made must have felt good.
I agree with you that they don't always work out the way people think. When left the corporate world I was offered a severance package if I stayed until the end. That was a done deal. I had to sign a contract.
My company lost the bid on a contract the only reason I stayed was because I wanted to take a year off and hang out with my daughter. The severance package they offered me was very good!
Of course I ended up working for myself once my job ended in the corporate world however I did wait about four months. I'm so happy I did that. My daughter was a little over a year old and she was able to get her mommy back full-time.
I did that for about a year and took a position in the non-profit organization. We worked with children. The experience that I had there, from my boss, made me go back to working for myself full-time. I still work with children I just do it on my terms as a volunteer.
I agree that you get peace of mind by not allowing someone to dangle that carrot in front of you only to have it yanked away