nothing when I retired

[marko]

Unless management puts a 10' bronze statue of you in front of the corporate office, you are just "old cheese" at retirement.

Does having one of the conference rooms named after you count?

That was our tradition for many retirees; didn't matter if you were the janitor, engineer or the CFO, if you made a difference there, you'd likely get one of the conf rooms.

 

[mystang52]

OP - sorry for that experience.

 

[Dtail]

I volunteered for a package, so no celebration there.
I have no contact with anyone with any company who I worked for and I truly enjoyed my career.
Retirement is a different stage of life and wanted to move forward nice and clean for this experience.

 

[swakyaby]

Albireo13, I feel the pain of your posting, and it surely reflects badly on your coworkers who were likely hoping someone else would organize some sort of last day recognition events. It sounds like your experience is not an isolated one, but 35 years? Geez!

I only had 10 years at my last employment, and I think I fell on the more introverted spectrum of personality traits, so my expectations were not high on my last day. Yet, the nurses quietly organized cake, presents, gifts, a framed photo collage of nearly 50 employees, and were initially organizing a pot-luck lunch. When one of my colleagues saw this, he said, oh no, he'll organize a catered buffet-style luncheon in the employee lounge. Every effort on their part felt bittersweet, but I noticed my colleagues said very little. So I individually went to 8 of them, said I would like to take a picture for the memories. Each one of them looked surprised, and happy, and relieved. I wasn't sure why I detected they looked relieved. Is it that hard to tell someone they enjoyed working with them? Or something like that?

 

[FargoI]

You are not alone / unique in this regard. In lieu of looking backwards, because you can not change the past...look forward to enjoying the hard earned money and benefits. And periodically, take time to literally lol about the entire situation because no doubt your spouse/partner/children will chide you if you say one word to them about giving so freely of yourself and time to wxork.

Enjoy YOUR independence, every day@

 

[GaryTN]

I’ve had a similar experience. Only my last manager who happen to retire a few years before me has kelp in touch at least monthly and sometimes weekly. This is true for my previous long term employment job as well after leaving there.

There were about 10 of us that left at the same time at my last job. They did have cake and other food our last day. If it had just been me leaving, I would have preferred nothing to be done and only had lunch with my closest work friends.

 

[jrendt]

Reminds me of a joke.

A traveling salesman goes to a farmer's home and is invited to stay for dinner. After dinner as they are eating their pie, the salesman hears a clopping sound and into the kitchen walks a big pig. The pig has a gold metal around its neck attached with a blue silk ribbon. But, the most unusual part, was that the pig had two wooden front legs. The farmer seeing the salesman's confused look says, " That's Oscar, he's a hero. We had a fire in the barn last year and I passed out. Oscar came in and dragged me out of the flames. Saved my life he did. The local farm association gave him that there medal." The salesman nodded, then asked, " Did he loose his front legs because of the fire?" "No No!", said the farmer, " Great pig like that, you can't eat him all at once."

Never got this joke till I went to work a large hospital foundation.

 

[meleana]

My mom was a very hard worker and loyal employee with a large national company. She was very popular and well liked and won numerous awards over the years. But I always remember her words to me when I was stressed out at work:


"In the end, no one will even remember your name".


I had numerous jobs in my lifetime. Not more than 13 years with one company due to mainly the era of corporate takeovers. My last job-where I was the "face" of the company as a PR rep.- a few of my coworkers had a cake for me at lunchtime in the cafeteria and some gave me some small gifts like a bottle of wine.



But nothing from the company or management. In fact, not even a goodbye and good luck. Nada. Suddenly I was invisible. They could care less and just as well 'cause I could care less either. My mom's words always stuck with me.

 

[cat4ever]

I guess I never looked at work as any kind of social club. A lot of such parties I had to go to were for people I really didn't know that well, but they happened to be in my department, so I always saw them as a waste of time for the most part. Because of that the whole idea of a sendoff party organized from work has always seemed a bit contrived and fake to me, just something the manager felt obliged to do.

Don't get me wrong, I did make friends at work who have remained my friends and we still do things together, but it's completely outside of work. I never expected, and actually didn't want, any kind of job centered send off, and I got my wish.

 

[cat4ever]

But nothing from the company or management. In fact, not even a goodbye and good luck. Nada. Suddenly I was invisible. They could care less and just as well 'cause I could care less either. My mom's words always stuck with me.

Maybe I'm cold, but I actually prefer it that way. It's a job and a business, not a social club. Any intimations that it is, is bound to have a degree of fake-ness to it. If I want to make friends with some of them I'll handle that on my own outside of the context of work.

 

[HI Bill]

Important life lesson -- Work will never love you back.

+1. I worked at my last company for 5.5 years as a senior project manager. Working remotely, I didn't have any type of send-off. No gift, no bonus, nothing but a FEDEX label for the laptop computer return. I did earn a competitive salary, and a 3% 401(k) company match. I did get a gift for my 5-year anniversary. They laid people off who weren't consistently 90% billable. No trust, no love, no loyalty. To be fair, one manager did call me around 4PM on my last day to thank me.

 

[Lienlord]

Someone told me once, "If you die at work, they'll have your job opening in the paper before your obituary."

 

[Nick12]

Someone told me once, "If you die at work, they'll have your job opening in the paper before your obituary."

If that happens, the company won't need to shut off your computer access, cell phone or access to the building.

 

[meleana]

Maybe I'm cold, but I actually prefer it that way. It's a job and a business, not a social club. Any intimations that it is, is bound to have a degree of fake-ness to it. If I want to make friends with some of them I'll handle that on my own outside of the context of work.

The thing is for the 13 years I was working there there were lots of personal and pleasant conversations with the bosses and other management. We were expected to socialize like at XMAS parties and forced "voluntary" community events, etc. It was a small company so everyone knew everyone and saw everyone daily. It was a real people place. There were relationships throughout- two of the bosses even married employees! LOL!



I don't miss any of it, that's for sure.


The worse thing was after working full time since I was age 16 (now 65), no pension or severance or buyouts or paid health insurance or any of that from any of the jobs. Well- except for a pension of $29 per month from one of my jobs 34 years ago! And that starts this 7/1!

 

[imnontrad]

I can understand this. Companies are still struggling. Maybe after they are back to normal, they will have something to honor all retirees who left during this time - but do not hold your breath.

 

[Gary 1958]

You should feel lucky you got that. I also retired 09/2020 after 30+ years at the same company. I traveled for work and we were working from our homes at the time. When COVID hit I was told that I will need to travel more because the other members of my team had families and can't risk getting sick. So, I give a 6 weeks notice and my supervisor said that I was leaving him in a bind but he would turn in the paperwork.

The only communication I received after that was from the HR Dept. A week before my last day I received an email from my supervisor telling me what I needed to return and the date that he MUST receive the items or I'd be charged for them.

Not one congratulations or thank you for the hard work. My first week of retirement some of my co-works were contacting me and asking "Why an I getting your work?" No one told them anything they just reassigned my work load.

The company has over 10,000 employees world wide. America has some real issues and companies like the one I worked for are a part of the problem.

 

[cyber888]

Well, it's work. I'd like to leave and retire without any fanfare, because I know that I will be forgotten soon by many. I work so I can retire well with family. That's what happens when you leave your workplace. You can be popular, but don't expect it to linger. Many jobs are Thank-less jobs. You've done so much, but it ends - just like that. You're just another head count that is no longer there. Forgotten and gone forever.

 

[AbbA]

I kind of find a bit funny that y'all feel insulted, etc.when nobody says proper good-bye. That's called corporate culture in America. We were or are just disposable pieces of corporations, an expense on their P&L's. Managers come and go; Employees come and go. The focus is on today, not the past, or what a great job you did. You're retiring, bye! What management cares is who's going to be next to make money for the company in the cheapest way. It's way different outside the USA, but I sometimes wonder if globalization is spreading this bad side of Americanization too.
OTOH, I think it's more common in the large companies and I hope small companies still manage to appreciate their employees, but I don't know.

 

[Car-Guy]

Does having one of the conference rooms named after you count?

I had one named for me "while" I was still working, at one particular location... I spent so much time in there, everyone just started calling it by my name... Gosh, I sure don't miss that room!

 

[jldavid47]

We were or are just disposable pieces of corporations, an expense on their P&L's.

Way back in 1996 when I w*rking for Megacorp they did something that p*ssed-off most of us. I blurted out "Don't you realize that we're all just a bunch of disposable labor units to them?" And the group was enlightened.

 

[Caskem]

Just remember if you die before you retire, your job posting will go online before your obituary.

 

[martyp]

These days I have to imagine that Covid has tainted the desire for a party gathering. I retired 10 years ago. I remember sending out an email announcing my retirement to work colleagues in and outside the company. I got a good response but there were a few curious non-responses from a couple of people I had worked with closely for many years. I also got a surprisingly nice retirement party. However, the work environment cut ties with me fairly quickly even as I was waiting out my last work days. They, after all, had work to do.

After I retired I made a point of scheduling lunches with my former co-workers. We got together 3-4x per year for 6 years until I moved out of the country. Facebook was a key factor to help stay in touch. I only started using Facebook in 2011 at the time of my retirement. If you want to maintain a connection to your work buddies you have to work at it yourself.

 

[doneat54]

Same happened with me, back in 2017 after a 30.5 year career. BUT, not the least bit surprised then. Total sh!tty megacorp. I recorded video of my face on my phone as I walked out the last day. I was glad to have gotten out, and years later only realize just how bad it was.

That being said, my DW organized a very nice retirement party for me with 30-40 friends and 2 bands. THAT is what mattered.

 

[Stevan]

Work friends

I left at the end of 2019. Great timing for me. But I’ve always said work friends are work friends. I do stay in contact with my boss and a few friends in the office just to text a quick message or a photo but I’m sure that will get less and less. Many friends of ours outside of work have said the same. So for what it’s worth I feel your pain

 

[travelover]

I can understand this. Companies are still struggling. Maybe after they are back to normal, they will have something to honor all retirees who left during this time - but do not hold your breath.

Maybe. Back at Mega we supervisors were asked to pay for company events out of our own pockets because we were part of the team, after all, and times were tough. Yet, as part of my job I traveled with the senior management and they were still ordering hundred dollar bottles of wine at company expense. And, when the company "could no longer afford pension plans", who retained their pension plan?
So glad to be gone.