WAY too much notice! Drat...

[urn2bfree]

Don't count on it. It will be like a "hole in water".

Life will go on without you (yeah, been there, done that )...

Oh I have no doubt that life would go on fine without me--eventually- but in the short run it would create a painfully overworked situation for my partners whom I still like and respect. Even when a couple of us go out of town it creates an unpleasant burden of cross-coverage. So when I go...it will be painful if they don't have time to hire some help.

 

[pb4uski]

<snip>
As for others who suggest why not quit/severance. While it would be more money, I've had a great career and I'm not interested in trashing my reputation for more $ or 'showing them' after all these years - even though none of that will matter when I'm gone. I'm taking the high road no matter what...a few months is only a moment in a lifetime.

Is it feasible for you to "retire" with a few weeks notice and then stay on part-time in a consulting capacity for a couple months to assist in the transition? That would allow you to dial it down sooner rather than later, part on good terms and still be around now and again to dispel skuttlebutt that you are jumping ship, assist your successor, limit lame duck, etc.

 

[Midpack]

Update: from bad to worse. My VP boss calls me today and says he's announcing (against my recommendation) to the top Corp suits (CEO, COO, CFO) on Friday, about 2 months earlier than I'd like. Says I'd better tell my local site folks on Friday too, because he's also announcing to all Corp Managers on Mon and putting out the general email announcement company wide.

Then he tells me, please send me what you'd like to see mentioned in the announcement "I write" (I being him/boss of course). The site I lead has been the top performing site (of 6) in North Amer every single year...I might have thought he could come up with something.

Again, the reason he wants to announce to everyone 3 months before I leave is so I have plenty of time to explain to company gossips that I am leaving for no reason, and to let people know we're the greatest company on earth. I pointed out to him last week that the bad actors will spin it regardless of what I say, so what's the point?

It was a great career 98.6% of the time...guess I'm a whiner.

 

[Ally]

Well you won't have to put up with it too much longer.

 

[Meadbh]

Don't worry about it. Just be happy you will be out of there in a few months. It's your boss' prerogative to do the communication as he/she wishes.

 

[East Texas]

Why do you talk to this moron?

+1. Sounds like your boss is a control freak.

 

[freebird5825]

Update: from bad to worse.
...I pointed out to him last week that the bad actors will spin it regardless of what I say, so what's the point?

It was a great career 98.6% of the time...guess I'm a whiner.

Nah, not a whiner.

How could a retirement be interpreted as a blemish on the company? A resignation, yes. But a retirement?
This is too weird. These mgmt people are waaaay out there.

Just keep smiling and waving. Perhaps a little chuckle might even slip out occasionally.

 

[Rambler]

I agree with Freebird...you're not a whiner.

I can see how your CEO feels though. You are a highly valued leader in your company, and at your relative youth, "retirement" with a short notice (to the team) could mean you threw up your arms in disgust, left a sinking ship, or worse, that you are teminally ill.

My boss knew of my intentions over 2 years ago...then the boss changed, new boss was told about those intentions by HR, new boss has similar fears. In my case its not necessarily the rumour mill issue, but that the business I run will struggle without me (FWIW, I think the business will do fine as I've been grooming my replacement for a while). About the time that he got that idea, I began getting the butterflies about "whaddya do all day". I've mentioned it before, but new boss wants me to stay even if it means a reduction in time and attention. For me, I view it as a great opportunity to transition, both the business and myself.

In your case, due to the lame duck issue that is of concern to you, would it make sense to pass the baton on the same day as the announcement (Friday) but stay on for 3 months as an advisor? Or, how about this: You stay on for the next three months as already agreed (same title and responsibilities) but you simply let the new guy take the steering wheel (with you at his back, just to show the rest of the team that he can do it, and you are supporting him)? This will be similar to what I am doing: I will pass one of my hats (the smaller of my two roles) next year to the replacement I am grooming, but I will remain based in my current location, and will support him in his new role, like a pair of training wheels on a kid's bike. The following year, I keep the same more senior of my two roles, but I go home...essentially taking the training wheels off...and work more remotely and less hands on.

Just some thoughts. Hope they help.

R

 

[kumquat]

It doesn't matter how much notice you give, you are a "lame duck" for that period. WTFC. I gave my boss 30 days notice. He talked me into another 60 so I could "train my replacement". I agreed.

During that 60 days:
- I got another batch of stock options (never thought they'd be worth squat so it wasn't part of the plan)
- I helped pick my replacement. He was hired 2 weeks before I left and immediately took 2 weeks vacation.
- A lot of old colleagues came to ask "how can you afford it?". Wanted to claim a terminal illness but didn't
- Everybody ignored me

During the next year:
- My replacement (also my recommendation) called for a bit of advice. I was generous.
- Stock options became worth more than 1 years salary.
- learned to walk like a man, not wobble like a lame duck (actually, I never learned to wobble).

Since then:
- Drop in at the 4:30 meeting (beer time) with my old colleagues every 6 months or so.
- Gloat a bit about retirement.
- Watch the reaction of those who spend it all

 

[donheff]

It was a great career 98.6% of the time...guess I'm a whiner.

Midpack, I think you are seeing the glass half empty instead of half full. You had a great career. Your bosses don't want to see you depart. That is good news. So they take an announcement tack that may be a bit dumb. Why not just humor them and use this extended notice period to insure your team that you like the joint and are leaving for entirely positive reasons - ER. Then sit back and enjoy the retirement party.

 

[scrabbler1]

I gave a month's notice but it was really only 9 workdays because I was working only 2 days a week at the time.

I was working on only one large project at the time so my best guess was that I could complete it before I left. I did, with about 45 minutes left in my last day. If I had not finished it, would I have stuck around for another day or two? Probably, but nobody ever asked the quesiton and I did not want to raise the issue unless it became clear I was not going to finish it.

The only transitional stuff I did with my other ongoing projects was to forward the names of programs in my libraries to another coworker who would take over. I organized the remaining papers on my desk into various categories so others could look through them if they needed to find stuff.

I did spend time at the office (and some time away from the office) getting my ER stuff straightened out such as what to do about my 401(k) and company stock (ESOP). I had to liquidate the whole account because I was taking the special cap gains treatment of the ESOP. I had set up an IRA account to accept the rollover from the 401(k) and had to get a special signature from my bank manager because the electronic payment from the ESOP exceeded $100k. Luckily, a friend of mine at the office was a lawyer so he could notarize my signature. I had my exit interview on my second-to-last day there. Strangely, I had to request the EI.

It took a lot of running around to gets all of these things properly but it was all worth it because everything went according to my instructions.

I did not want to have any last-day luncheon because I almost never went to them in all my years there. To my surprise, they gave me in cash the money they would have spent on me. My best friend/coworker took me out to lunch which was fine. I left quietly at the end of the day. Nobody went with me to take my ID card so I had to turn it in after going through the exit turnstiles in the lobby. I had to mail my desk keys in later because I forgot to turn them in (I did not lock my desk).

Remember, I hated the long trip to the office so I have never been near the place since, and I never plan to visit there again.

 

[RockyMtn]

Don't sweat it....enjoy the next three months and then enjoy your retirement!!

 

[tryan]

I am confused ... tell me again, why you need to do this on THIER terms?

What's the in "package"?

 

[rescueme]

I am confused ... tell me again, why you need to do this on THIER terms?

+1

Heck, you are not applying for a job; you don't have to impress them, nor worry about what "they will think".

Life will go on as normal, well after you have gone (believe me ).

 

[East Texas]

It doesn't matter how much notice you give, you are a "lame duck" for that period. WTFC. I gave my boss 30 days notice. He talked me into another 60 so I could "train my replacement". I agreed.

During that 60 days:
- I got another batch of stock options (never thought they'd be worth squat so it wasn't part of the plan)
- I helped pick my replacement. He was hired 2 weeks before I left and immediately took 2 weeks vacation.
- A lot of old colleagues came to ask "how can you afford it?". Wanted to claim a terminal illness but didn't
- Everybody ignored me

During the next year:
- My replacement (also my recommendation) called for a bit of advice. I was generous.
- Stock options became worth more than 1 years salary.
- learned to walk like a man, not wobble like a lame duck (actually, I never learned to wobble).

Since then:
- Drop in at the 4:30 meeting (beer time) with my old colleagues every 6 months or so.
- Gloat a bit about retirement.
- Watch the reaction of those who spend it all

You were generous and then life was generous with you. Oh, and the money thing was the icing on the proverbial retirement cake.

Don't 'cha just love Karma?

 

[Midpack]

In your case, due to the lame duck issue that is of concern to you, would it make sense to pass the baton on the same day as the announcement (Friday) but stay on for 3 months as an advisor? Or, how about this: You stay on for the next three months as already agreed (same title and responsibilities) but you simply let the new guy take the steering wheel (with you at his back, just to show the rest of the team that he can do it, and you are supporting him)?

R

Thanks for all the kind comments of support everyone. As I said earlier, I've had a fortunate career and I'm taking the high road out no matter what others may do in the next few months.

Interesting, I have suggested to my boss and successor that he take over effective 6/1, a month before I leave. That will shorten my lame duck period and the new guy will have questions and I'd rather just be close at hand to help him as needed instead of fielding calls in July or later.

 

[Nords]

Update: from bad to worse. My VP boss calls me today and says he's announcing (against my recommendation) to the top Corp suits (CEO, COO, CFO) on Friday, about 2 months earlier than I'd like. Says I'd better tell my local site folks on Friday too, because he's also announcing to all Corp Managers on Mon and putting out the general email announcement company wide.

Then he tells me, please send me what you'd like to see mentioned in the announcement "I write" (I being him/boss of course). The site I lead has been the top performing site (of 6) in North Amer every single year...I might have thought he could come up with something.

Again, the reason he wants to announce to everyone 3 months before I leave is so I have plenty of time to explain to company gossips that I am leaving for no reason, and to let people know we're the greatest company on earth. I pointed out to him last week that the bad actors will spin it regardless of what I say, so what's the point?

It was a great career 98.6% of the time...guess I'm a whiner.

Since they're going so far out of their way to praise you, this might be a great opportunity to [-]coerce[/-] encourage them to apply their outsize largesse to those on your staff who are deserving of bonuses and promotions.

I had "one of those bosses", so I'd declared far in advance that there would be no retirement ceremony or hail & farewell events. He avenged himself by "surprising" me with my retirement award in private instead of with my shipmates. I returned the favor by privately letting him know how I felt about it, and over the next couple months I was able to ram through quite a few awards packages and recommendation letters.

Living well seems to be the best vengeance.

 

[Alan]

Thanks for all the kind comments of support everyone. As I said earlier, I've had a fortunate career and I'm taking the high road out no matter what others may do in the next few months.

Interesting, I have suggested to my boss and successor that he take over effective 6/1, a month before I leave. That will shorten my lame duck period and the new guy will have questions and I'd rather just be close at hand to help him as needed instead of fielding calls in July or later.

Like you I was happy in my career over 98% of the time and was very willingly to give plenty of notice to ease the transition as I'd like the company to continue to do well after I'd left.

Starting from 6 months out I took on no big projects and documented well those projects I'd worked on for my successors. 2 months out I began handing over the week to week stuff so that by the start of the last month I had very lttle to do.

Even if you feel like trashing your boss or company during your last days, don't do it, just sit back and enjoy.

 

[donheff]

Even if you feel like trashing your boss or company during your last days, don't do it, just sit back and enjoy.

+1
I went to a retirement luncheon for one of my former employees today. It is nice to go out on positive terms as someone who will be missed.

 

[martyb]

I have 21 months till I can retire. My boss emailed yesterday (he's nearly 200 miles from me) and told me I need to go online & enroll in a training class that has 93 "lessons" and includes 200 "projects/experiments". This is an electronics type course, and the course materials will be shipped to my home, and will include multi-meters and other test equipment, as well as slodering equipment and who knows what else. The thing is, I will be expected to do a large amount of this training on my own time, at home...uncompensated. The amount of time I am to be alloted for completion is 9 months.

My work day is 10 hrs, and I work Monday thru Thursday. My wife & I currently live in 2 different places, about 125 miles (2 hrs) apart, so on Thursday evening, I hit the road & drive to where she lives. I am not really inclined to spend months of my limited weekend time with my wife & other familiy members doing free work for my employer, not to mention my limited time in the evenings after getting off work at 5:30 - 6:00 pm. Just like everybody else, I have other things to do.

So...I was thinking one pretty sure way I could get out of this deal is to tell my boss that I intend to retire at the end of 2012 (actually, January 2013), and that it would be a big waste of taxpayer money for me to begin this course in June (next class opening) and finish it in Feb 2012, only to retire just a few months later.

Of course, I would have never thought about stating my retirement plans this far out, but now I'm kind of thinking I might have to. It's actually not legal for me to be asked to work for free, since I'm a "non-exempt" govt. employee (meaning non-management so they have to pay me overtime). However, we all know that there's that unofficial "s**t list, that nobody wants to be on. I'd hate to have my boss pizzed at me for 21 months if I ram it down his throat. That's a long time. Anyhow, reading this thread made me start thinking about it again, so I guess if anybody has any ideas, I'd be happy to entertain them. I may have to just flat out tell him I'm NOT going to do this crap on my own time, and let the chips fall where they may...

 

[martyb]

I forgot to say that I've been doing this job for 18 months and there hasn't been anything I couldn't do without the benefit of that course. There hasn't been an opening to start the class until now, and I'd pretty much forgotten about it. I figured I'd just never have to do it, since it had been this long. The really asinine thing is that there's a community college right here in town that has a decent electronics course, but they don't want to pay for that, they want me to do this stupid home-study thing. That's ok for some training, I've done many courses at home, much of it on my time, but this is going way overboard, in my opinion. Ok, I'm done whining now!

 

[KingB]

My work day is 10 hrs, and I work Monday thru Thursday.

<snip>

I may have to just flat out tell him I'm NOT going to do this crap on my own time, and let the chips fall where they may...

Instead, how about asking him to let you work 8 hrs, M - Th and then 8 hrs on Friday at home working on the course.

 

[W2R]

Martyb, any chance of taking the course materials to work, sticking them in the back of a bottom drawer somewhere, and working on the course during the slack time between other projects at work? That's what I'd do if I were in your place.

Some people bring books to work for times like that, which I never felt comfortable doing, but in your case this would genuinely be a work-related task. I don't see how anyone could object if you were completing your other work tasks as well.

 

[Nords]

I have 21 months till I can retire. My boss emailed yesterday (he's nearly 200 miles from me) and told me I need to go online & enroll in a training class that has 93 "lessons" and includes 200 "projects/experiments". This is an electronics type course, and the course materials will be shipped to my home, and will include multi-meters and other test equipment, as well as slodering equipment and who knows what else. The thing is, I will be expected to do a large amount of this training on my own time, at home...uncompensated. The amount of time I am to be alloted for completion is 9 months.

Free electronics hobby supplies?!?

There are enough talented electronics posters on this board to each take one or two lessons for you. Of course you'd have to be organized enough to make sure you returned "your" results in the proper sequence.

Fantasizing aside, whadda they gonna do-- force you to retire? It seems to me that if you're required to complete a course nine months into a 21-month timeline, then you'd be using up your vacation leave by the time they finally noticed your delinquency, properly documented your admonishment, and established a "remediation" program. In fact that 30-60 days of vacation might even give you enough time to complete the electronics course before they handed you your last paycheck.

I wouldn't even order the course for at least another 90 days.

 

[GregLee]

I have 21 months till I can retire. My boss emailed yesterday (he's nearly 200 miles from me) and told me I need to go online & enroll in a training class that has 93 "lessons" and includes 200 "projects/experiments". This is an electronics type course, and the course materials will be shipped to my home, and will include multi-meters and other test equipment, as well as slodering equipment and who knows what else. The thing is, I will be expected to do a large amount of this training on my own time, at home...uncompensated. The amount of time I am to be alloted for completion is 9 months.

As you can well imagine, you're just bringing out all our worst manipulate-the-system instincts. You get free stuff? That doesn't sound all bad. Let's see, you get 9 months to complete and you can retire in 21 months, ... When exactly do you have to start? Now, or maybe in 21-9 = 12 months? What if once you started, you were to become ill? There must be some provision for an extension in such cases ...