Happily married couple pulling the plug in 2018

[tmm2good]

HI everyone, great site with good people and lots of very good information. I wish I had found this place a few years earlier than I did.

My DW (elainejtm on here) are both 57 and will be retiring early 2018. We have ran the numbers multiple times on our own at several websites. (fire gives us 100%) as well as having financial planners run the numbers. We are good to go. Plans include RV travel around the good ole US of A and plenty of relaxing.

I am wrestling with how much notice I should give mega-corp, I get along well with my boss and respect him. My job is being automated so I know our days are numbered. I am concerned about some of my younger co-workers making it , We are going through a merger this year and I am hoping for some type of offers to come out this fall.

Thank you for the great site and being able to read posts from like - minded individuals, it is hard talking about ER to our co-workers ( we work in different places) because most think WTF, you are to young.

Have a great day all!

 

[ls99]

Whew, for a minute I thought you were divorcing. Then read the rest of the story.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

Welcome, enjoy your soon to be new life.

 

[omni550]

Welcome aboard!

I'd hold-off on telling your boss and others at work until 2 weeks before you plan to quit.

As soon as they are aware of your plans, you immediately become a 'lame duck', others who are less fortunate may resent you, and, possibly most critical in your case, if your job is being automated, they may decide to just let you go sooner or not offer you a severance package "as you were planning on leaving already".

omni

 

[Another Reader]

I would say nothing and hold out for a severance package. If it appeared that the RIF was imminent, I might say I would consider volunteering to be laid off if a severance package was offered.

 

[kimcdougc]

DH retired in Feb. 2015. He gave mega corp two months notice. He had already trained all in his department as not to leave them in need of hiring someone ASAP. Worked well for him and I think his boss appreciated it. Just my 2 cents. Welcome to the soon to be rest of your life. The sky is clear up here!

 

[rodi]

Folks on here tend to fall in two camps... The give 2 weeks only types and the give many months (even years) notice...

Only you can know if your megacorp and boss are the type to use your plan to retire against you. I let my boss know (and his boss know) that if they were doing layoffs - to please include me on the list. We'd pretty much had annual layoffs for a decade... but they kept skipping my work group. (Probably because we got stuff done.) My boss' boss let me know I wasn't the first one to approach him suggesting it would be ok to be laid off.

I got tired of waiting for the layoff and gave 2 weeks notice. I only gave 2 weeks because megacorp (at the director level and the HR department) was often punitive to those who had the audacity to want to leave... Why risk that after 20 years with a company.

Another thing to ask yourself in the "how long of a notice should I give" dillema - does your company give notice to those they lay off? Or do they march them out the door that day. The employer/employee relationship is two way... If they generally respect their employees - a longer notice might be more in order.

 

[tmm2good]

Thank you all for the welcome and advise,
ls99, i Wondered if my title would throw people off. did not mean for it to.

I agree on the decision to tell megacorp is personal, and I will struggle with that for a while. I definitely can see both sides of telling them early vs 2 weeks. I do not want to do anything to jeopardize my pension or health care benefits.

Megacorp usually gives people on the way out the door 2 weeks notice, unless there are other issues involved in which case you get 5 minutes to clean your desk out.

I work the overnight shift, so I do not have to deal with many bosses, rarely even see my boss. I think I can lay low up until the end. It does feel really good to be able to go out on my own terms instead of megacorp showing me the door.

 

[walkinwood]

Depends on how much you know and trust your boss. Are you friends?

If you are friends and trust him, you could let him into your plans so he can make sure you get a package when the time comes.

 

[elainejtm]

Welcome aboard!

I'd hold-off on telling your boss and others at work until 2 weeks before you plan to quit.

As soon as they are aware of your plans, you immediately become a 'lame duck', others who are less fortunate may resent you, and, possibly most critical in your case, if your job is being automated, they may decide to just let you go sooner or not offer you a severance package "as you were planning on leaving already".

omni

Yes - we go back and forth. DH has been with Megacorp for years so providing a little more advanced notice that he is leaving might be more PC. As for me, I'm have been with minicorp for about 6 years and this last year have been rough for many reasons, so I'm giving them 2 weeks notice.

 

[Bamaman]

Megacorp gave those 55 years old+ in our division 1 day notice of retirement--overreacting to the economic climate of 2008. They paid dearly in severance, vacation, health insurance and a salary supplement to age 62. We enjoyed 50 weeks of unemployment too.

Give'em 2 weeks--when it's time. Hopefully the merger will take place promptly so you can share in the spoils too.

 

[joeea]

I am wrestling with how much notice I should give mega-corp, I get along well with my boss and respect him. My job is being automated so I know our days are numbered. I am concerned about some of my younger co-workers making it , We are going through a merger this year and I am hoping for some type of offers to come out this fall.

Congratulations!

As always, the answer is "it depends".

You are in a position to have an idea how your company will treat your announcement, and if an early announcement will be appreciated, or cause retaliation. And you are in a position to sense if there is the possibility of a buyout in the fall.

I worked for a small company that was acquired by a megacorp. If the small company had remained in place, I would have given months of notice (and probably would have stuck around for a few more years anyway). But with the megacorp I gave two weeks' notice. My remote boss was very rude when I gave him the news, so that made me feel even better about only giving two weeks notice.

I knew I would be retiring for 6 months before I gave the notice, but waited until we were through with a major migration projects, so that I could help my team and my coworkers survive the merger/migration as best we could. I felt good about that.

Your gut will tell you what you should do. Listen to it.

 

[FiveDriver]

Good Luck as you get closer to "launch" date. It sounds like you're well positioned and the timing is right.

Is there any year-end Bonus to consider ??
Do you get all your Vaca Days on Jan 2nd 2018 ??
Can you make a big 401K contribution (with company match) in January?

In truth, you don't owe your boss or megacorp any more that 2 weeks notice. As has been stated here.....they sometimes don't give employees the same level of notice. I'd play it close to the vest and not say anything to anyone at work until Launch minus 2 weeks --you might even catch a RIF of some sort.

 

[GoBears]

Big law took away vacation accruals several years ago and instead provides attorneys with "unlimited" vacation, which means they don't need to pay for unused vacation upon separation. So, I aim to retire mid year 2019 or 20, take a 10-day late winter/early spring vacation, a nice two week vacation at the beginning of summer and come back and provide between two weeks and 30 days' notice.

 

[Koolau]

In most situations, 2 week notice is standard unless there is a contract involved. Whether OP wants to wait and see if there is some sort of "package" depends on what his time is worth to him. Stated elsewhere, I missed a package by about 18 months. It wouldn't have been worth it to stay that long since (as OP states) I was "good to go." YMMV