First, I'm not looking for a job. I'm well compensated for the 31+ years in IT. I'm just going to retire to something less stressful that doesn't require being on-call at all hours of the day or night. I may not ever work again if I don't feel like it. I turned 57 a month ago and have 2.44 years to go before I can tap my traditional 401k. It's a good thing I've got a fair bit of ROTH stashed as well. My wife still works in a job she loves so I'm not relocating any time soon. My pay checks won't end until the end of 2021, along with my subsidized COBRA. When that happens, I'll jump on her insurance for as long as she feels like staying. Then, we travel! Hopefully, our health holds up. Mine is better than I deserve for my age, hobbies and smart mouth. Hers is pretty good with a touch of high cholesterol. Half my coworkers were let go Wednesday. The rest of my other coworkers will be done Sept 30, 2019. I offered to trade my spot for one of the younger guys but they declined my generous offer. So, I get a front row seat to watch the corpse of my company decay. I feel worse for my boss who has two small children and will be left to manage the contractor relationship that replaces all of us. I'm not looking for sympathy or anything but I felt the need to vent somewhere that isn't FArCEBOOK or sLINKED.IN and nobody from my company frequents this place. Anyone else had this happen? How'd you deal with it? Frankly, if they didn't wave a substantial retention bonus, I'd have left Wednesday. I'm just hoping to retain my sanity for the remaining 311 days.
I was one of the last 15-20 people at a company that had been at over 1,000 people just a few years earlier, but the government totally changed the tobacco policies right after we had been awarded one of the largest projects in industry history. Well, THAT got cancelled, along with almost all of the jobs related, and the remaining business was not enough to sustain the company, so it folded after selling its products, patterns, and its name... Watching people that had worked there for their entire life in a seasonal demand market loose their livelihood isn't easy, especially in a poor area that about the only other jobs were in the textile mills, which were also failing at the same time. I hope you can make it and the company doesn't look for a way to fire you (as has happened), or just 'Your position is no longer needed, so you are out of a job' as can happen in a Work-At-Will state.
There’s more of that going on than we think. Underneath the headlines there’s cracks in this economy. There are some layoffs and store closings, along with robotics and AI displacing workers. I’m glad I only have a couple of work years left but am concerned about where the grandkids will work. Sounds like you’ll be fine, happy to hear that!
I think a lot of businesses are stockpiling all the cash they can and getting as lean as possible while the getting’s good. There are a lot of things brewing both in and out of the USA that could damage the healthiest of economies. (Impeachment, the 2020 election, Brexit, Europe’s stagnant ‘new normal’ economy, Venezuela and Russia’s involvement there, trade war threats just to name a few). I guess it’s better to get laid off or RIFd in this economy than 10 years ago, so there’s that. Patrick
This is more true than many realize. My company designs/builds/integrates custom robotics and automation solutions for various industries. (Thankfully for me) Our business is booming. We have regular meetings with perspective customers who are having a horrible time finding reliable labor and are turning to robotics/automation to fill the roles. When they layout the cost savings of these projects costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, it's a no brainer. It's a bad scenario for many, but a plus for me and my company. It's amazing, we've had multiple executives say they are doing all sorts of things up to and including openly advertising no drug tests and still can't find people to reliably fill these positions.
I learned a valuable lesson when I was just a kid. I worked evenings at a local country club setting pins at their bowling alleys. The club eventually decided to install automatic pin-setters. The installation took place over the summer (this was in the late '50s). I asked the powers that were if I could watch the installation. I was given permission to do so and did. I would run for coffee and sandwiches for the installers, and they showed me how the pinsetters worked. In the fall I was offered (and accepted) the job of bowling alley attendant because I was the only person at the club who knew how to clear a pin jamb (this was candlepins - real bowling) or fix any issues with the machines. My pay doubled, my hours also increased substantially, and most nights all I had to do was open and close; I would sit in the office and do my homework. There will always be jobs if people will take advantage of opportunity.
Agreed. Growing up, whenever I've worked for anyone but family, I never made min wage. I always made more because I gave more than minimum effort. Even though my job is going away, I'm going to be working Sunday night (a holiday weekend no less) to get a Vietnam location squared away. If I'm going to do a job, I'm going to DO THE JOB. It's the only way I know.
Apparently, there is an 'Age 55 rule' that will permit you to take distributions from your company 401k, without the 10% penalty, if you are 55 or over when you leave your place of employment. Sorry to hear about your company, and especially your coworkers which were unexpectedly affected. I was laid off twice in my working career, but each time it eventually led to something better...
