I'm 57 and hoping to announce retirement this week!

[MCOguy]

Wow - I only wish I had discovered this board earlier. I just found this site a couple days ago and have been reading thru lots of different threads, most of which are very helpful and answer or at least question some of the same things I've been wondering about as well. I love how this board allows people's circumstances as individual cases, vs sometimes the boiler plate advice of one size fits all.

I'm 57 and was anxiously planning on giving my retirement notice to my boss tomorrow during our bi-weekly one-on-one meeting. The ER date would be about a month from now, although if you subtract 2 holidays and 4 days vacation already planned, it would be just over 3 weeks notice.

Problem is I'm a remote employee at a MegaCorp, and my new boss (new to the company and industry and also remote several states away) just canceled our bi-weekly meeting for tomorrow as well as our team meeting later in the week, so he's very busy with something. (I keep wondering if it's for the typical year end layoffs, probably not but you never know. It would actually be good if it happened as the severance would be very good.)

Any suggestions on how to handle this as far as when to give notice? He will be tied up this week traveling for work and in meetings all day, and next week will be a short week with the holidays. I guess I could wait until early next week (which is a holiday on Thursday and Friday). Is it too unprofessional to send an email with subject line: ABC employee resigning on Dec XX, and copy HR? (It sometimes takes him a couple days to go thru his emails.) I doubt I would be asked to leave earlier as I have a project meeting already planned the following week (with airfare, hotel etc), plus they need my expertise on this one. I was planning to tell him in person, and then send the email resignation notice, but not sure now when we can actually talk.

I'm not planning on working part time or staying longer than this date.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Everyone has a story, and it's been interesting reading others. Life is short, and I'm ready to enjoy it now to its fullest without deadlines, projects, constant work travel etc.

 

[pb4uski]

Email him and tell him that you need to talk to him for 15 minutes sometime over the next couple days and ask what time would be best for him.

IIRC I let my boss know by phone as I was rarely in the office and telecommuted.

 

[davebarnes]

Hang and wait for the axe.
If there no layoffs, then give notice. If you are leaving the workforce then you can give as much notice as typical lay-off victims receive—8 minutes.

 

[Bamaman]

Have you considered staying until after 1/1/2020 in order to get another year's vacation? And if layoffs are coming, you're right about severance pay being great.

 

[pb4uski]

It might not be a year... my employer credited me with 1.7 days a month.

But you are right in that it is smart to design you quit date with benefits in mind... also, make sure that your physicals, dental appts, eye appts, etc are all done while you have access to corpora coverage.

 

[Pellice]

Fancy free in 2020! Must feel great! You will look back on this last minute wrinkle and think "Well, it's fitting that that's the LAST time I ever stressed out because of MC."

 

[CRLLS]

In addition to what has been said, if you are in a possible bonus situation, perhaps resigning on Jan 3rd, the first Friday of 2020, would be advantageous? Many corps require one to be employed the full year to receive the bonus. Working up to Jan 3rd may also get you 1 more month of insurance. If there is a severance package, payments could be 100% Roth contributions in 2020. There could be a lot of benefits to making your last day in 2020. vs the last day of 2019.

 

[Aerides]

Your boss cancelled your 1-2-1, cancelled your weekly staff meeting, and next week is out for the holiday.

I say wait, until after thanksgiving, or until the 2 week clock is close. Either way the result is the same, you're out by the holidays, but you may just end up with a package if you wait!

Do NOT under any circumstances send anything on email hinting you're done. If you feel you really need to get this done with this week, ping him or his assistant to get 5 minutes, and promise it will be quick, but is needed.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I guess the first question you need to answer is whether you want to wait to see if there are (regular, seasonal?!??) layoffs. If not, I'd ask your boss when they would have 2-3 minutes to talk, which should be soon; anything more is on them, not you. You can probably say what you need to say in about 15 seconds, actually! Add a minute or two to say you're going to wrap things up after this trip, pass off X to Cersei and Y to Jaime, instructions are on the network folder, it will all be laid out in an email.

Congratulations!

 

[CRLLS]

One could ask in that 2-3 minutes of 1-2-1 talk, if there are plans for layoffs, would they allow you to volunteer for it? Throw yourself on the hand grenade. What is the worse that could happen? They either say yes or no. If yes, you win. If no, then you announce your leaving.

You may even be saving someone else's job since many layoffs are based on headcounts vs salary.

 

[workmyfingerstothebone]

Similar circumstance as yours, age 57 and ready to give notice.
Emailed boss that I needed to meet for about 15 minutes.
Boss emailed back that would not be possible as they were out of town at a meeting.


Sent a reply that I had wanted to tell them in person I was giving two weeks notice.
Since he would not be available, then this email is my notification.


Two weeks later I was retired!


Almost 4 years now and no regrets


PS.
That was a long two weeks, even though I just ran around completing the exit tasks at the company.

 

[MCOguy]

Have you considered staying until after 1/1/2020 in order to get another year's vacation? And if layoffs are coming, you're right about severance pay being great.

I thought about staying until 12/31/19 mainly to get the Christmas holidays, but at this point I'd rather just be done with it and enjoy a work free Christmas. We accrue vacation per month, so the beginning of the year is not a factor. Thanks.

 

[MCOguy]

Thanks, unfortunately the axe thing is so true. Fortunately I'm remote so I don't have the packing up box in front of co-workers stigma, which has happened to often for office employees.

 

[MCOguy]

It might not be a year... my employer credited me with 1.7 days a month.

But you are right in that it is smart to design you quit date with benefits in mind... also, make sure that your physicals, dental appts, eye appts, etc are all done while you have access to corpora coverage.

I accrue PTO monthly as well and am using up the last bit this month. I am doing all of the medical appointment stuff already. I also researched the HSA which I can roll over and contribute to next year as well, even if I have no earned income.

 

[MCOguy]

One could ask in that 2-3 minutes of 1-2-1 talk, if there are plans for layoffs, would they allow you to volunteer for it? Throw yourself on the hand grenade. What is the worse that could happen? They either say yes or no. If yes, you win. If no, then you announce your leaving.

You may even be saving someone else's job since many layoffs are based on headcounts vs salary.

I love this forum! Thank you and everyone for your input; I really wish I had found this a year or two ago. I actually did what you suggested about a month ago; i.e. casually volunteered to be added to the list if there were the rumored layoffs this year like last. My manager (again he's brand new to our group and company too) was quite surprised and said I'd be the last person considered. I left it at that, but don't think it's really his decision overall; he's just to new to know what he doesn't know about megacorp. Anyway it's so slow right now at least the last couple weeks shouldn't be to hectic. Actually looking forward to going away for my last business trip, and booked a nice luxury hotel on the way out.

 

[dirtbiker]

Congratulations on your upcoming retirement. If you're all set mentally and financially and it doesn't sound like you're going to get a layoff with a severance package, pull the plug and enjoy life! I'd try to get a five minute conversation with him. If he can't fit that into his schedule, well that's too bad. Email will work... Or just call HR and let them know. They'll get the message to him.

 

[CardsFan]

Volunteering for a package can go two ways. If you are respected, a high salary and they are looking for your demographic and your department to complete the grouping, you might be in luck. Flip side is, you don't fit the the bill, this time, but have now made it known you intend to leave. No soup for you! Now, or in the future.

That said, there are some reasons to stretch into the next year, as stated above, but none are substantial (unless it is a big bonus). I did it, and it probably netted me less than $10k in benefits (HSA contribution on the first of the year, two months HI, additional vacation days, since they credited vacation days for the vacation days I took off). In my case I had the vacation time to stop working in mid-December, but officially retire February 3, 2016.

A package can be nice, but there is something satisfying about giving notice and leaving on your own time frame.

FWIW, I actually was asked to work PT for the last 4 months of the year (planned retirement was end of August 2015). I am pretty sure they wanted me on the payroll near the end of the year, and then could show a head count reduction in early 2016). I am OK with that. Maybe I saved someone's job.

 

[pb4uski]

I ended up with the best of all worlds because I had about 6 weeks of unused vacation... my last workday was the last workday in December, then I was on vacation through February 1, my last day of work. All of my gross pay for January was deferred into our 401k so I had no W-2 earnings for the year. Also, since my last day on payroll was February 1, I qualified for employer sponsored health insurance through the end of February.

 

[HarveyS]

Consider timing if you have a flex spending account. (but just to be honest...Even with that, I'd go before Christmas. Life is better outside of the megacorp).

 

[TNBigfoot]

I can only answer as to what I would do. You indicated it takes several days for boss to get through e-Mails. Since time is short, leave your leader a VM stating you need to talk prior to Holidays. If he is any kind of leader, he will make time. Keep the discussion short and sweet with your last day in the office well defined.

I most likely will have this discussion with boss at end of year tooth extraction typically called end of year review. My date will be out to mid-year but I want to leave on good terms with the org having plenty of time for succession planning. Realize the succession part most likely will not happen to last minute, but hey....that’s on them.

 

[albireo13]

It may be advantageous to quit at beginning of the month. With many companies, some benefits have you are covered through the month as long as you worked 1 day of that month.

 

[finnski1]

One could ask in that 2-3 minutes of 1-2-1 talk, if there are plans for layoffs, would they allow you to volunteer for it? Throw yourself on the hand grenade. What is the worse that could happen? They either say yes or no. If yes, you win. If no, then you announce your leaving.

You may even be saving someone else's job since many layoffs are based on headcounts vs salary.

I did this and got really lucky. They paid me for 8 months(2 weeks for each year worked) and had health insurance.
I also did save someones job because I wasn't the one on the layoff list.

 

[Ronstar]

One could ask in that 2-3 minutes of 1-2-1 talk, if there are plans for layoffs, would they allow you to volunteer for it? Throw yourself on the hand grenade. What is the worse that could happen? They either say yes or no. If yes, you win. If no, then you announce your leaving.

You may even be saving someone else's job since many layoffs are based on headcounts vs salary.

I agree with this ^ & Congrats on your soon to be retirement!

 

[brett]

I was in no hurry to retire. I knew the layoff would come when our new executive came on board. The golden handshake was well worth the extra nine month wait for me.

 

[Dean56]

Thanks, unfortunately the axe thing is so true. Fortunately I'm remote so I don't have the packing up box in front of co-workers stigma, which has happened to often for office employees.

What about a yearly bonus for 2019? Are these given out...if so, do you need to be around til Dec. 31st? Just something to consider.

Good luck with your decision.