Pros and cons of giving notice when retiring?

[Jakob]

I welcome feedback and candid feedback. I have seen a lot of interesting ideas from other peoples post, but now I created my own.
I have been on a threshold of retirement for the past year. My DW is retired, has a pension and Medicare. I’m 62 years old, and three months, and have saved vigilantly for my retirement. I believe we are in as good a shape as any could expect, and this is verified by two financial planners at two different financial institutions.
The organization that I work for is heavy fisted in their management approach. At my current location I agreed to working four 10 hour days a week. Soon, one of our coworkers will retire and I was told that my schedule will return to five days a week. Because Pennsylvania is an “at will” state for working I believe I am required to comply.
As I am not interested in working a five day week, I am considering retirement. My question is am I required to give notice or any other legal consideration that is my responsibility. I was emailed 2 weeks prior to the afore mentioned schedule change.

 

[cathy63]

Yes, all states except Montana are at-will. Your employer has the right to change your working conditions at any time and you have the right to resign at any time.

There is no legal requirement that you give notice. It's generally considered the professional thing to do, but if you are retiring and you are not be worried about your reputation or about having a decent reference in the future, then you could leave with no notice.

 

[Bamaman]

There are two things about my ex-Megacompany I found strange.

Nobody ever worked to age 65. Most retired at 30 years with the company. They put out a termination package in 2008 that cost them out the nose to execute--overreacting to the economic climate of the day.

And whenever employees gave their notice to leave the company, they were told shortly thereafter to go on home. No going away party or luncheon. Adios, amigos.

It was nothing personal. But it was just the way things were. And I bailed @ 58.

 

[SecondCor521]

I took a 12 week personal leave of absence at the end of my working career. I emailed in my two week notice at the end of week 10.

This avoided all the going away stuff. It gave me a few months to try FIRE and bail if I didn't like it or if something went horribly wrong. It also gave me a few more months of benefits, including the company gym, stock option vesting, health insurance, and vacation pay.

During my 10 weeks, I slowly removed all of my personal effects, returned work property, exercised my stock options, cashed in my vacation pay, and generally made sure they couldn't screw me over. It was a good company and they didn't anyway, but I felt better not giving them the chance.

Lots of people - including me - considered giving a lot of advance notice to be extra courteous to their employer. Generally this doesn't work. The company doesn't take advantage of the extra notice, and as an employee you quickly end up being an awkward and useless third wheel for your remaining time. I was advised by people here to give two weeks' notice, and to keep my resignation letter short, professional, and to the point. I did that and it worked just dandy for me.

 

[Scuba]

I took a 12 week personal leave of absence at the end of my working career. I emailed in my two week notice at the end of week 10.

This avoided all the going away stuff. It gave me a few months to try FIRE and bail if I didn't like it or if something went horribly wrong. It also gave me a few more months of benefits, including the company gym, stock option vesting, health insurance, and vacation pay.

During my 10 weeks, I slowly removed all of my personal effects, returned work property, exercised my stock options, cashed in my vacation pay, and generally made sure they couldn't screw me over. It was a good company and they didn't anyway, but I felt better not giving them the chance.

Lots of people - including me - considered giving a lot of advance notice to be extra courteous to their employer. Generally this doesn't work. The company doesn't take advantage of the extra notice, and as an employee you quickly end up being an awkward and useless third wheel for your remaining time. I was advised by people here to give two weeks' notice, and to keep my resignation letter short, professional, and to the point. I did that and it worked just dandy for me.

I agree with not giving excessive notice unless contractually required to do so. Many people in my former company gave insanely long notice - one person actually gave two years notice! I gave 30 days, the minimum contractually required notice. I would never quit without notice unless I was being asked to commit a crime or was being harassed.

If the OP’s new schedule is completely untenable, rather than quitting with no notice, I would instead inform management that you are giving two weeks’ notice, and that you are not able to comply with the new 5-day schedule. If they want to them terminate you two weeks early, it’s on them. If they keep you for the two weeks and allow you to work the four day/10 hour schedule, then you get two more weeks of pay and have done the professional thing.

 

[badatmath]

Does your company have an HR manual online? Mine does and it states the requirements to retire - which is basically contact a third party - many people do not tell their manager at all though i plan to do so. Also note, at my employer quitting is "not eligible for benefits" and "retiring = benefits" so make sure you know the rules before you say anything. For us the main "rule" is age but there are a few other details.

 

[old medic]

I would read the HR policy VERY CLOSLY in regards to quitting or retiring. Ours says 2 week notice if you want your vacation pay out... but further on it states as a supervisor or department head you must give 30 days... And even though I have too submit my retirement paper work to HR 90-120 days prior to My planned date, I still have to submit my resignation in writing or could forfeit my severance pay...

 

[njhowie]

As you note, your employment is at will. If you desire, you can call in this morning, resign, and not do anything more for your employer.

 

[big-papa]

As other say, read your HR Policy. In my past, though, at all of my employers, policies in our employee manuals regarding resignations were stated as "guidelines" not requirements.

Things to consider
- Rules for being paid for untaken vacation time, if its an accrued benefit. My employer recently changed to vacation not being an accrued benefit, so it's between the employee and his supervisor regarding when and how much to take. Meaning no extra money in the final check from my employer when I leave due to untaken vacation time.
- Healthcare benefits related to the actual day of the month that is the employee's last day. My typical employers covered me to the end of the current month, leading to "last day" being as close to the beginning of the month as possible.
- Vesting schedule for any RSUs/Stock Options
- ESPP. My employers have done this on a quarterly basis. So if I leave at any point during the quarter, any withholdings so far for that quarter for ESPP for the next purchase date have been returned to me in my final check.
- "True up" payment for 401K. I front end load my 401K withholdings every year which means I hit the IRS max limits early in the year, before I receive all of the matching I would have received had I spread it out over the year. So somewhere between April and June of the following year, I receive a "true-up" deposit from my employer. Some something to consider/ask about.

Other than 401K plans I have never worked anywhere that had any other sort of retirement benefits (eg pension, retiree medical benefits, etc), but if your employer does, that might be something else to dig into.

Beyond that, it's a normal resignation, unless your spidey sense is telling you that a layoff might be coming. More than one person in my circle has volunteered for those and ended up better off financially than they would have by just resigning. Depends, though, on whether a company might accept you volunteering. If they don't, then you still always retain your choice to say adios any time you want to.

cheers.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

I'm not dealing with politics but gave 9 weeks (would have given 4) to try to ease the transition and not burn bridges. With a bit over 2 weeks to go, they really didn't take much advantage of the time I gave. Worst part for me giving longer notice is that once the decision was made my mind shifted and I'm over it - these past few weeks are dragging on so long. It also provided more time for people to find out and ask me what I'm doing which gets old and my story keeps changing. The only thing I am certain is I won't have a job in less than 3 weeks. My standard answer seems to be sticking on "I'm somewhere on the spectrum between unemployed and retired".



FLSunFIRE

 

[scrabbler1]

I gave my boss one month notice instead of the usual 2 weeks usually given. This was because I was working only 2 days a week at the time (and had been doing so for 17 months), so it translated into 9 working days.

I was working mainly on one important project, one only I could really do, so I knew they wouldn't dismiss me that day. Working only 2 days a week had already made me ineligible for nearly all benefits, so that wasn't an issue. (However, I had unknowingly accrued 29 hours of unused PTO time the year before when I switched to 12 hours from 20 hours and was allowed to cash them out!)

My resignation letter was brief, so brief that the only thing one boss asked me was if it were for anything medically related. It wasn't, unless I considered "being sick of the commute" medically related (haha).

 

[Dalmore]

- Rules for being paid for untaken vacation time, if its an accrued benefit. My employer recently changed to vacation not being an accrued benefit, so it's between the employee and his supervisor regarding when and how much to take. Meaning no extra money in the final check from my employer when I leave due to untaken vacation time.

That is just exploitative and wrong. The Mega Corp I worked for played the vacation is capped at your accrual rate game. If you have three weeks vacation and you only take one week, the following year, you only accrue at a rate of 1 week for the year. I thought that was abusive. But to make it completely between you and your supervisor, you may get 1 day or you may get 6 weeks depending on how much you suck-up to the supervisor. We are drifting back to the pre-union days of the 20th Century.

 

[Midpack]

I'd provide 2 weeks notice and no more (I know because I provided several months notice and lived to regret it). We all think we're harder to replace than we really are. I watched people from all levels of Megacorp come and go, some suddenly including two SVPs, and it really wasn't much of a hardship. But how to apply to the OP's situation might be different based on HR/vacation policies, as others have noted.

 

[MRG]

After 29 years I gave them 2 weeks. If they wanted me gone it would be immediate.

 

[captain3d]

A perfect opportunity to say I am not working five days a week and see what happens.

 

[Jim59]

I require to give 5 months notice ( normally 3 months) to take advantage of a 3 month wind down. I would advise the OP to give the minimum notice contractually. The company don’t care for you so you should not suck up to them or feel you will burn bridges. You are in a good place to begin your new chapter of life.

I am surprised that the working week can be changed at a whim of the company.

 

[Time2]

This is a 10 minute story, a bit long winded but, the guy gave 30 days notice and was fired and told he wouldn't get his paycheck.

 

[cathy63]

I require to give 5 months notice ( normally 3 months) to take advantage of a 3 month wind down. I would advise the OP to give the minimum notice contractually. The company don’t care for you so you should not suck up to them or feel you will burn bridges. You are in a good place to begin your new chapter of life.

I am surprised that the working week can be changed at a whim of the company.

I see you are in Glasgow. Here in the U.S, the vast majority of workers have no contract with their employer, so there's no document that spells out working conditions or requirements on either side. Therefore, the employer can change working conditions or pay rates at any time (as long as its not retroactive or discriminatory), and the employee can quit at any time for any reason.

 

[Yipper]

I'd provide 2 weeks notice and no more (I know because I provided several months notice and lived to regret it). We all think we're harder to replace than we really are. I watched people from all levels of Megacorp come and go, some suddenly including two SVPs, and it really wasn't much of a hardship. But how to apply to the OP's situation might be different based on HR/vacation policies, as others have noted.

I've shared that same exact sentiment to my team at Megacorp with similar examples. What makes you think anyone in a 200k employee organization will be missed?

 

[Aerides]

I'm always curious why folks think they should give so much of an off ramp of notice.

If you found another job and weren't retiring, 2 weeks would be the max your new employer would really want to wait. And if you were leaving to go to a competitor, you'd be walked out the same day.

Either way, this topic comes up so much just search "how much notice" and you'll find we talk about this with some frequency.

 

[KingOfTheCheapos]

Because Pennsylvania is an “at will” state for working I believe I am required to comply.

I think you mean "at call"? Then its likes CA where you can be fired (or can retire) without giving notice.

Note, that doesn't mean you have to agree with every move your company throws your way. In particular they can say come back full time and you can say, but I agree to 10 hours (or what-ever). At this point they can choose to fire you. I think that's a better option as you may get some termination benefits you wouldn't get if you resign.

Best of luck.

 

[Montecfo]

I took a 12 week personal leave of absence at the end of my working career. I emailed in my two week notice at the end of week 10.

This avoided all the going away stuff. It gave me a few months to try FIRE and bail if I didn't like it or if something went horribly wrong. It also gave me a few more months of benefits, including the company gym, stock option vesting, health insurance, and vacation pay.

During my 10 weeks, I slowly removed all of my personal effects, returned work property, exercised my stock options, cashed in my vacation pay, and generally made sure they couldn't screw me over. It was a good company and they didn't anyway, but I felt better not giving them the chance.

Lots of people - including me - considered giving a lot of advance notice to be extra courteous to their employer. Generally this doesn't work. The company doesn't take advantage of the extra notice, and as an employee you quickly end up being an awkward and useless third wheel for your remaining time. I was advised by people here to give two weeks' notice, and to keep my resignation letter short, professional, and to the point. I did that and it worked just dandy for me.

Surely you do not think these steps went up unnoticed?

Officially I gave 6 weeks of notice which was about right. Enough to be more than fair to the company while avoiding the awkwardness of extended notice. But my maxing my 401k over five months, and in-service withdrawal of same was not missed.

Selecting the timing and terms of your departure is one of the great benefits of FIRE.

 

[KingOfTheCheapos]

I took a 12 week personal leave of absence at the end of my working career. I emailed in my two week notice at the end of week 10.

This avoided all the going away stuff. It gave me a few months to try FIRE and bail if I didn't like it or if something went horribly wrong. It also gave me a few more months of benefits, including the company gym, stock option vesting, health insurance, and vacation pay.

What a great suggestions. I'll definitely try that.

Surely you do not think these steps went up unnoticed? (referring to taking away personal affects and returning work items)

Not if you do it at night ...

 

[PageTwo]

Funny that this thread popped up on my feed just today - as this morning I had "the conversation" with my manager - and gave him 3 months' notice. I know that based on some comments above this is too much, but I strongly felt it was the right thing to do and he was very supportive and appreciative. He'll have to hire someone, which takes time, and then between the 2 of us we'll have to train the new person and hand over my projects.

He sent me the nicest email a few minutes after we talked. And during our conversation, he even said that he was "a bit jealous"! Telling him actually lifted a weight off my shoulders (as I've been planning this for almost a year) and I'm actually looking forward to the coming 3 months.

I hope I don't have to eat my words But I'll own up to it if I do!

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I think you mean "at call"? Then its likes CA where you can be fired (or can retire) without giving notice.

Note, that doesn't mean you have to agree with every move your company throws your way. In particular they can say come back full time and you can say, but I agree to 10 hours (or what-ever). At this point they can choose to fire you. I think that's a better option as you may get some termination benefits you wouldn't get if you resign.

Best of luck.

I'm in California and never heard of "at Call".
When my company was preparing to close the office and dump us all without notice, they were sure to have us all sign the new employee handbook stating we were "at will" employees.
They did however give us a separation package for promising not to say bad things about them, not great but okay.
in retrospect it was the best day of my life. I now realize I could easily have retired before then but was always so scared and probably would still be working today if it had not happened.
Financially, I'm worth far more today than I was then.