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Old 03-13-2013, 04:46 PM   #21
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Greetings everyone,

I received some great feedback from my original post so I thought I would reach out again. Have managed to increase retirement nest egg to $450k since my first post with a combination of consistent saving and the bull market. However, I am now faced with a potential career ending situation with megacorp. After having spent 15 years with this company with excellent performance ratings & numerous accolades from Sr Management I find myself with a new manager. He has difficulty communicating and a short fuse to boot. Says one thing, does another and when you can't read his mind it is turned against you....others have the same issue but have not had the nerve to discuss it with him yet. Primarily because megacorp frowns upon speaking up (they say they encourage it) and promptly will stamp out any suggestions. Issue came to a head recently and let's just say it didn't end good. I tried to sit down and discuss what took place the day prior and in the end he assured me he was right and I was wrong. So I left it at that. Couple this with another reorg (4th time in 5 yrs) and the situation is mentally unbearable. Megacorp has had a 7+ year track record of promoting incompetent mid level mgmt primarily because they were willing to relocate so this won't end anytime soon. Enough of my rant....

If I leave megacorp I will go from earning 90k to 60k in a less stressful and less demanding job...not looking to escape corporate nonsense, it is everywhere but if I move from management to an individual contributor stress will decrease significantly. Myself and DW are planning to escape the nonsense sometime before 55, then work PT if necessary.

If I run my numbers through firecalc with leaving megacorp today scenario and retire 2024 it says 100% success using 60k yr spend, 19k/yr savings, reduced 7k non inflation adjusted pension at 55 and the SS numbers I gave on first post. If I stay with megacorp we can save 30k/yr and pension is 18k at 55....when I run this scenario it provides 100% success using 2023 as retirement.......so I ask the following questions:

1. Can someone check my numbers in firecalc? It doesn't make sense to me that I could scale back to a less stressful job and only give up 1 year of early retirement.
2. If my numbers are correct, I am leaning towards 'pursuing other opportunities' - I am an extremely hard working and loyal employee and as a consequence I feel married to megacorp and I am having difficulty with this. Thoughts?
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Old 03-15-2013, 06:20 PM   #22
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Sorry to hear about your employment situation. It's very difficult to work for an angry person who expects you to read their mind!

I can empathize, having once worked for a partner with similar issues. He was a controlling person and insisted everything be done his way. That was okay because he was a very gifted lawyer, but he was so busy that when anyone asked for direction he would blow up and accuse the employee concerned of lacking initiative. The end result was paralysis, as no one wanted to risk his temper (either for doing the 'wrong' thing or for seeking instructions). There was very substantial turnover, with the better employees going on to 'greener pastures' and the worse ones being fired.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tgancarz View Post
If my numbers are correct, I am leaning towards 'pursuing other opportunities' - I am an extremely hard working and loyal employee and as a consequence I feel married to megacorp and I am having difficulty with this. Thoughts?
You are unlikely to win this personality conflict, and it seems clear to me that you are going to be out of a job pretty soon. I'd suggest reading the writing on the wall and seeking alternative employment now, while you still have time; it's generally much easier to find work while you are currently employed.

As far as loyalty to megacorp goes, here are my thoughts:

(1) Corporate loyalty to employees has not existed over the past two or three decades. All those favourable past performances ratings are yesterday's news: what have you done for them lately? As soon as the new manager-from-hell has given you one or two bad reviews, you'll be thrown under the bus, pronto;

(2) By your own admission, the company discourages open discussion; promotes incompetent managers; conducts endless re-orgs; and generally fosters a "mentally unbearable" work environment. Why would you want to remain in an 'abusive marriage'?
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Old 03-15-2013, 07:56 PM   #23
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Sadly, I have lived through similar scenarios more than once. If there is a way to fly under his radar and outlast him, that can preserve megacorp benefits and salary at the expense of job enjoyment and some quality of life. If you have a senior senior ally you may get some protection, but don't count of it. Dysfunctional usually doesn't adjust to meet your needs, even with support. This can also backfire with a scathingly undeserved review and a forced exit without notice.

Your best bet is to be prepared for the possibility of "house cleaning" and start a quiet (very very quiet) job search now. You might be pleasantly surprised by finding a comparable position. Or at least you will have started the process if you are suddenly without work.

Pile up cash and start cutting expenses. These situations rarely end well, so you'd best be prepared to take care of yourself.
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Old 03-15-2013, 09:38 PM   #24
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Have you read Your Money or Your Life? It might help in your decision. If you can't keep the higher salary job because of the stress, the other option is to figure out how to have a high quality life without spending a lot of money and you can still retire early.

This a great article on the subject -

Financial Wealth - It's Time Not Money

The two ways to build wealth are to earn more or spend less, or doing both of course.

Earning more is always good, yet actually has a far lower impact than spending less. And it does because earning more means giving some away in taxes, combined with the fact that you hopefully won't work forever. On the other hand, spending less has a much greater impact as the government doesn't tax savings and we can still spend less in retirement."

Financial Wealth - It's Time not Money - CBS News
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Old 03-16-2013, 11:21 AM   #25
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Quote:
Originally Posted by growing_older View Post
Sadly, I have lived through similar scenarios more than once. If there is a way to fly under his radar and outlast him, that can preserve megacorp benefits and salary at the expense of job enjoyment and some quality of life. If you have a senior senior ally you may get some protection, but don't count of it. Dysfunctional usually doesn't adjust to meet your needs, even with support. This can also backfire with a scathingly undeserved review and a forced exit without notice.

Your best bet is to be prepared for the possibility of "house cleaning" and start a quiet (very very quiet) job search now. You might be pleasantly surprised by finding a comparable position. Or at least you will have started the process if you are suddenly without work.

Pile up cash and start cutting expenses. These situations rarely end well, so you'd best be prepared to take care of yourself.
Good advice. If you have built up some positive capital with other members of management over the years, this is the time to cash it in - ask for advice, ask how your manager is perceived by his peers, ask for a job! Definitely time to start the low-key external job search as well - if you haven't done a resume lately, the preferred style has changed significantly so get some advice on that.

Good luck and hang in there!
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Old 03-16-2013, 03:13 PM   #26
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Silly question here...do you have a job lined up already? From what you wrote it appears you do but not certain so wasn't sure if there would be a "gap". I saw the reference in going from 90K to 60K...

Thx.
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Old 03-16-2013, 03:38 PM   #27
Dryer sheet wannabe
 
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Thanks for the feedback everyone. 60k is industry avg for non manager in my field....nothing lined up yet but I have a good network so hopefully I could line something up pretty quick. Severance is very generous at megacorp, so I'm going to take the 'fly under the radar' approach and see how it works out. Current liquid savings could sustain me for 2+ yrs. Doing the right thing sometimes requires ruffling some feathers....I've learned a valuable lesson about doing the right thing for megacorp!
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Old 03-18-2013, 04:53 PM   #28
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To the OP : It looks like you are doing ok.
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