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I was working for a big corporation that shrunk from 60,000 employees in 1980 to 24,000 in 1989.
When the rumor was flying around that they were going to eliminate severance packages, my hand went up for a volunteer to be laid off.
And? They kept me around for 2 more years!
I would say, when someone else was laid off: Why did you lay that person off, he was a much better worker than myself?
I began to come to work an hour late in the morning, leave an hour earlier at the end of the day, hoping they'd take notice and lay me off! And, finally, I got my wish! A severance package along with unemployment benefits!
I wouldn't mind getting laid off now since I'm eligible for over 8 months severance pay plus unemployment. I can surely find another, better job within that time.
Fascinating responses here. Exactly the types of experiences I was hoping for when I asked the question. I am not getting laid off, but I am at a point where I would almost welcome it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lovely40
Yes, I had worked for a company for 8 years, felt stagnant and really just hated going in everyday. I wished for a layoff that never came. So I quit w/o another job lined up. Took a little break and jumped back into the job market when I got ready. However, if I had of waited the layoff I was hoping for came 2 to 3 years after I quit. I heard the packages were decent, albeit pretty standard. Lesson learned: I won't dedicate 8 years of my life to another company unless there's a career progression I can look forward to.Will I quit another job w/o having another lined up? Probably not. I blew threw my savings too fast while searching for a new job and it's going to take me awhile to build it back to what I had.
This is pretty close to where I'm at now. I have plans, but cannot bring myself to resign just yet. It gets harder to wait it out by the day.
Every single day. I've been here 38 years and have survived more layoffs than most people will ever see in their lifetime. I told them I'd be happy to be on the list for the next round but no one else wants to do my job. I'm planning on retiring in 7 months anyway.
Plenty of people have hoped for that. Some people spend years unemployment hopping.
I took two excellent voluntary RIF packages because both times I knew exactly what I was planning to do and accomplished it. And I was a corporate Product Manager so I understood how to create a business. Even if I didn't, the first one included 5 years pay. So ok fine.
But most small businesses fail the first year because people really don't understand what they're doing. Like a guy will "open a golf store" because he "loves golf". DEAD business in a year - money gone - broke. LOL
I suggest you honestly evaluate why you're in that position.
It's funny to me you call your division a zombie division but it's actually you who's performing a bunch of apparently niche functions by rote that don't transfer to other companies.
What have you done to make yourself more marketable and why do you think anyone is going to hire a "consultant" who has no record of marketable skills? It's not like there isn't a FLOOD of people with strong resumes in this market.
Now if you got a job offer from one of your company's customers that's another story and also risky but at least it's a tangible "plan".
You may wanna research the level of commitment required to be a consultant. If you're an Independent Contractor, you'll be spending WAY MORE TIME on just meeting government paperwork and building a BUSINESS than the 8 hours or whatever it is you spend now doing zombie tasks.
If you have that energy why aren't you using it on your own right now?
Are you aware that to even deduct mileage that you are required to actually record every single bit of your odometer readings every single day of your life and justify if it was for business or pleasure and exactly where you went?
THAT, my friend can take up to an hour per day and that's if you're lucky. (unless you want to screw it up and try to reconstruct it years later when you get audited). And don't think you're gonna use a mileage app because even if you're willing to use the cell data, they don't really work on their own and every entry has to be massaged and corrected. And it's really fun when it just doesn't work or messes up your whole day. So you're better off handcuffing a manual mileage log to your steering column.
OH and paying yourself as an employer and employee twice is fun, too. Say goodbye to about 40% of your gross right off the bat, then scrape around every day to come up with paperwork for deductions.
Better find out what an accountant/CPA will cost you because you will never master the IRS regs for a long time if ever.
People used to getting paychecks need a reality check.
So my suggestion, even though you didn't ask, is to at least get a job consulting for an agency who may do most of this for you if there is such a thing. Which I think you may have already done by now if there was a demand, good pay and it were possible, no?
Yes, I was on FMLA and it was ending. My babies were in the NICU. Getting laid off so I could collect unemployment was one of the best things that could have happened for me and my new little family. I also hated my job and needed to move somewhere I could afford to raise my children so it was a win all around.
I was working for a big corporation that shrunk from 60,000 employees in 1980 to 24,000 in 1989.
When the rumor was flying around that they were going to eliminate severance packages, my hand went up for a volunteer to be laid off.
And? They kept me around for 2 more years!
I would say, when someone else was laid off: Why did you lay that person off, he was a much better worker than myself?
I began to come to work an hour late in the morning, leave an hour earlier at the end of the day, hoping they'd take notice and lay me off! And, finally, I got my wish! A severance package along with unemployment benefits!
We are facing the same issue at my company where there is the threat that the severance package is reducing drastically in the coming years. People are trying to time their exits so they are guaranteed a healthy amount. It would be an ideal time to be laid off, especially if you have some control in when you actually go.
Have you ever wished you would be laid off for any reason?
Yup, when I was about to move overseas in my early 20s. I even volunteered to be laid off in three consecutive rounds and avoided the ax each time. It was kind of annoying actually.
My wife did. Couple years ago when she was getting ready to move to FL once we got married, she pleaded with her boss to lay her off lol. But he said no. Would have been nice since we were starting our own business and could have used the severance to help out, and she thought they might be inclined since they had pretty much laid off half her department. But seeing as she was the manager, they said laying her off would have to be justified by the removal of that position, which they obviously had no intention of doing.
Have you ever wished you would be laid off for any reason? Resigning without another job is very risky. And you definitely don't want to be fired since that is a negative. Continuing to feed the zombie gets you nowhere.
Absolutely, and I got lucky that I got laid off IMO.
I was working for a financial company and was their most knowledgeable person in the department as well. I could literally do everything singlehandedly from start to finish, no one else on the team could say that.
However, I didn't have the most seniority, or the highest job title, or pay level. So, my teammates that outranked me just skated on by, never doing much work, while I got all the work dumped on me, and I had to handle it, day in, day out. So finally when layoffs were coming, I got laid off in the 3rd and last round, and I was happy to be let go, got a decent severance package, and skipped out the door.
The kicker was that my former teammates who had been skating on by, now had to pick up the slack from me being gone... and they couldn't! The company actually had to fly in a couple guys from another site to take over for me and teach the rest of the team how to do what I did. I also heard that my former boss got yelled at pretty good too by the Exec VP, for letting me go instead of the dead weight she kept on her team because they were friends.
At any rate, I got another job without too much trouble, and got 5 months salary as severance. Now I work a lot less, and make a lot more.
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