Laid off...again! (pensions, conversation, state, betrayed)
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In the past many people worked for the same company for many years, even for their entire career. Those possibilities are becoming rare. The world is changing too fast. A great many companies don't even last for decades.
Decades??? How about months? Today's climate is "be your own boss", "work for yourself", "screw big business", and the like. So we are getting a glut of expensive "chefs", ie food truck entrepreneurs (definition: a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk), "Artisians" (arts and crafts makers/sellers, including the same type/style of jewelry), mobile pet grooming trucks, and other "here today, gone tomorrow" pop-up businesses. I see new individual businesses advertising on TV or the internet, until they have been here as long as the "big box stores" have been in business, I won't be using any "fly by night" business.
How much you can make for someone if you happen to work for someone.
And how much you can make for yourself if you are on your own.
I chose to do my own thing 15yrs ago and never look back.
Yeah, it's not for everybody.
This goes along with my last post about everyone wanting to be their own boss. Some are "leaders", others not so much. They will be the ones who fail. Then what?
Whether you work for a major corporation, a small business, or a mom and pop store, you are only a commodity to your employer. You are only there as long as you provide them with more value than you cost in salary and benefits and overhead. To think anything else is delusional. A year after I retired I became a contract employee for two years. I found it very refreshing. No BS or office politics, no employee rights of any kind. You were paid for what you did well, as long as they needed you, period.
Did your employer leave themselves in a lurch by laying you off?
While you are looking for a job which is required by unemployment, approach your employer and see if they will pay you at an hourly rate until you are 66. Factor in your gross salary and whatever you will need to pay into COBRA.
I believe that your F10 company has economists that are predicting a recession. You are in your sixties, Your medical coverage is crucial. Medicare kicks in at 65. Social Security kicks in between 66 and 67.
Did your employer leave themselves in a lurch by laying you off?
While you are looking for a job which is required by unemployment, approach your employer and see if they will pay you at an hourly rate until you are 66. Factor in your gross salary and whatever you will need to pay into COBRA.
I believe that your F10 company has economists that are predicting a recession. You are in your sixties, Your medical coverage is crucial. Medicare kicks in at 65. Social Security kicks in between 66 and 67.
Good luck.
Social security can be collected at 62. FRA (Full Retirement Age) varies by birthdate. Mine is 67 years old.
Whether you work for a major corporation, a small business, or a mom and pop store, you are only a commodity to your employer. You are only there as long as you provide them with more value than you cost in salary and benefits and overhead. To think anything else is delusional. A year after I retired I became a contract employee for two years. I found it very refreshing. No BS or office politics, no employee rights of any kind. You were paid for what you did well, as long as they needed you, period.
Right on, brother.
"No employee rights" also included no right to file a sexual harassment complaint. I found that out when I acquired a grabby officemate. It wasn't a deal breaker. I was still better off working as a contractor. They just moved me to a different building.
As an entrepreneur today, I can't be complacent. I have to be better at what I do than the others who want to eat my lunch.
Just got laid off today, upon returning from a week's vacation, by my Fortune top 10 employer. Been with them since May of 2003, except for a 10 month gap in '16-'17 when I was also laid off by them. Felt fortunate to get rehired in Feb 2017, since I was 61...and they matched my former salary.
Soon to be 64 and my plan was to retire sometime between April 1 and August 31 of next year. I don't get the sweet severance as in '16 but I do get a couple months. Severance, plus six months unemployment, am thinking I can string this out nicely and ride off into the sunset almost as planned.
Frankly, I will be happy to give corporate America the finger. I am set this time (no pension, but me and the spouse have really good ss benefits and solid 401Ks). But that was not the case when laid off by other employers in '82, '97, and '03. The whole layoff thing gets tiresome. I feel for the younger generations who have to deal with the same garbage. It's hard to be loyal to an employer when they will dump you in a heartbeat just to meet some exec's budget, likely due to their own mismanagement.
Any other soon-to-be retirees encounter similar BS?
I used to work at a company that seemed to do reorgs every year when the budget was done. Seems someone in senior management always had to "make their mark". Was laid off by choice once (good severance), and laid off not by choice once. But it did get really tiring looking over your shoulder every year and with shrinking bonuses. For the last 11 years I haven't had to worry about that, and it was refreshing. Ready to retire on my own terms.
I used to work at a company that seemed to do reorgs every year when the budget was done. Seems someone in senior management always had to "make their mark". Was laid off by choice once (good severance), and laid off not by choice once. But it did get really tiring looking over your shoulder every year and with shrinking bonuses. For the last 11 years I haven't had to worry about that, and it was refreshing. Ready to retire on my own terms.
It’s not as much as marking their mark but making a number for their bonus.
I was lucky. As part of a corporate org that had 500+ contractors in the late 90’s, they were the targets of reductions as our ops was automated, placed on-line, etc. We’re down to 50 contractors and I’m the last man standing in town. There are others on the team back east where my job will go once I retire.
I've always taken the mental attitude that I'm not an employee. It is a little mental game I played with myself that went like this:
I'm the President of the "RationalExpectations" company, and that Fortune 50 company for which I technically worked was "My Customer." As long as I had something to sell that "My Customer" wanted to buy, we could continue to do business. And every now and then, for no reason, "My Customer" might decide it doesn't want to buy what I have to sell. Or, I might decide to go find a New Customer.
Regardless, the only thing that has changed is I have even more human capital to sell to My Next Customer.
It was mentally liberating.
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