ER at 52+/- from corporations: Why?

[Orchidflower]

Since I worked for myself, I really do not know the answer to this question. Can someone who was a corporate animal enlighten me?
I know 2 people who were retired by their corporations at 52, which, I assume, is early retirement. Both had "good" management jobs. They did not ask to be retired, but were told they were retiring early.
Why is this? Why do corporations normally early retire someone? I would think that if they were doing a bang-up job, they would want to keep that person on the payroll or am I being naive?
I really do not know the answer, and have been wondering. Is this the norm in huge corporations?

 

[FinanceDude]

Since I worked for myself, I really do not know the answer to this question. Can someone who was a corporate animal enlighten me?
I know 2 people who were retired by their corporations at 52, which, I assume, is early retirement. Both had "good" management jobs. They did not ask to be retired, but were told they were retiring early.
Why is this? Why do corporations normally early retire someone? I would think that if they were doing a bang-up job, they would want to keep that person on the payroll or am I being naive?
I really do not know the answer, and have been wondering. Is this the norm in huge corporations?

Easy..they think they can hire a "young buck or doe" for HALF or LESS of their compensation package, to bring "fresh ideas" and a "new mindset", including the willingness to work 16 hours a day for months at a time without complaining...........

 

[RetireeRobert]

Since I worked for myself, I really do not know the answer to this question. Can someone who was a corporate animal enlighten me?
I know 2 people who were retired by their corporations at 52, which, I assume, is early retirement. Both had "good" management jobs. They did not ask to be retired, but were told they were retiring early.
Why is this? Why do corporations normally early retire someone? I would think that if they were doing a bang-up job, they would want to keep that person on the payroll or am I being naive?
I really do not know the answer, and have been wondering. Is this the norm in huge corporations?

Maybe they weren't doing a bangup job, but were in the way. Maybe there weren'g doing a bad enough job to be fired, so they were "promoted" out, to get them out of the way of the direction the company wanted to take.

 

[brewer12345]

A lot of times it has nothing to do with the individual's performance (or lack thereof). Companies whack middle management jobs regularly, when times are bad or when profits simply aren't high enough to max out senior management's bonus pool. They also seem to whack people in their 50s and 60s pretty frequently because: 1) they are paid relatively well, 2) they up the company's health insurance and pension costs more than yunguns, and 3) age discrimination (but don't tell anyone about taht last one).

 

[Orchidflower]

I'm no naive innocent Pollyanna, but what a crap sandwich these corporations sound like. If I worked for one--and they "retired" me at 52--I'd be p.o.'d. What a number this has to do on one's ego, I would suspect.
When I was a lowly secretary before college, I worked for a guy that was about 51. When he had his birthday his gift was a "retirement." He used to sit in his office popping Seconals all day long. Truth. Sad.
You know, it seems like such a waste of talent. My gosh! people in my family quit working their businesses at 82 (not 52).
The corporations sure know how to show their appreciation for all your hard work for them....yeah, right.... I hope all corporate people get great pensions to make up for the insult!

 

[laurence]

Well, DW's work "retired" some management with some pretty nice packages, including 18 months severance. Usually you have an option to take a much degraded retirement check, or wait until 62-65 to get a check almost as big as if you had worked until that age. Worker bees were laid off DW's work with a 10 week base severance plus one week for every year served. Some people got 25 weeks because of that. My work laid off ~100 people last year - worker bees, they got 10-12 weeks severance, an extra year put in their pension, a year of health care, and a grab bag of other goodies. If you can get another job somewhere else it may end up getting you ahead financially. But yes, it's why I have no problem demanding as much as I can when I join an employer, I know they won't have any qualms getting rid of me!

 

[USK Coastie]

Most MegaCorps are like fans... Stand in front of them and they blow. Stand behind them and they suck. Stand beside them and they don't do a damn thing for ya....

 

[fisherman]

Most MegaCorps are like fans... Stand in front of them and they blow. Stand behind them and they suck. Stand beside them and they don't do a damn thing for ya....

20 days to go and boy is that on target!