Ready to FIRE?

[Aerides]

I would like to tell my manager my plans next week, so he would have 7 months notice. Most of my friends tell me NOT to tell him that early, and just give 2 weeks notice. Thing is, I would LOVE to leave earlier with a severance package, and might not get “chosen” if people don’t know I plan to quit soon. Thoughts?

This is about your corporate culture. In my old world, the consensus was if you asked for a package, you would not get one. Why should they if you are gonna leave anyway?

But that can depend on your boss and your company. Sometimes they need to provide sacrificial headcount to meet a number. And if your boss has to do that and would rather give your name than someone else, great. But if you know there are low hanging fruit on your team that they'd rather be rid of, eh... you never know.

I did some major hinting for a package without using the words. I got one, but only because I fell into a specific category, not my bosses doing at all, nor something he could have overridden.

 

[Koolau]

This is about your corporate culture. In my old world, the consensus was if you asked for a package, you would not get one. Why should they if you are gonna leave anyway?

But that can depend on your boss and your company. Sometimes they need to provide sacrificial headcount to meet a number. And if your boss has to do that and would rather give your name than someone else, great. But if you know there are low hanging fruit on your team that they'd rather be rid of, eh... you never know.

I did some major hinting for a package without using the words. I got one, but only because I fell into a specific category, not my bosses doing at all, nor something he could have overridden.

Yep, Corp. culture is everything.



Our Corp. officers were so tight lipped about "packages" that we never knew what was about to happen. We had our President/CEO up to our plant site for a visit and tour. Heh, heh, they painted the sides of all the buildings that would be toured. We even planted a couple of trees (the ones with the root ball as big as a VW Bug.)


Anyway, he addressed the staff level people in person and the rest of the plant site over the PA. He all but lied, suggesting there would be no package. He didn't say explicitly no package - just made it seem only a remote possibility.


Sure enough, the biggest package in Megacorp's history was offered late in the year. It hurt us badly because a lot more folks took the package than had been calculated up front. You never can plan for what people will actually do. Apparently they had strong armed the eligible folks and put the fear in them that the next "lay off" would not be voluntary and there would be no "door prizes" on the way out. I think something like 95% took the deal instead of the anticipated 80%.


Heh, heh, be careful what you wish for...

 

[Alex The Great]

I think leaving without package is fine, as long as you don't have to pay anything. My current company practice slavery: they give sign-in bonus when hire you and you have to pay it back to company if you leave voluntary, until it is vested. This is actually the reason I'm waiting for 25 months to expire, before taking early retirement.
Anyway on my opinion, it is wrong to give 7 month notice regardless of culture or relationship with manager. Your company would give you 5 minutes to take your staff and leave in case of layoff, isn't it? There are plenty of reasons for that.

 

[Montecfo]

I would mention the hope for a severance package without telling him about the 7 months.

With or W/out a severance, you and DH are fine. Jump in. The retirment waters are nice and warm.

Agree. Why tell him you are planning to leave if no package? Let that be your secret.

You can always stay longer or leave tomorrow.

 

[slowsaver]

This is about your corporate culture. In my old world, the consensus was if you asked for a package, you would not get one. Why should they if you are gonna leave anyway?

But that can depend on your boss and your company. Sometimes they need to provide sacrificial headcount to meet a number. And if your boss has to do that and would rather give your name than someone else, great.

I touched on this a little in post #15. There definitely is the regular "sacrificial headcount" situation at this company.

Now I'm leaning toward not telling him a date. I just want to say that I'm leaving soon, but willing to stay a while longer if he'd like me to train my replacements. I also am curious how the company's merger will end. It's happening sometime between September and October. It's likely there will be massive layoffs, but maybe not the engineers.

 

[Aerides]

I just want to say that I'm leaving soon, but willing to stay a while longer if he'd like me to train my replacements.

This is usually not a great approach. Because they won't hire anyone anytime soon to replace you. And then that person won't start for another month. But now you've committed. Better to gear up your existing team to take on your stuff, and then they can train the new person. Train the trainer. You can do that before waiting for a new person to magically appear.

I was RIF'd but given months to wait because they wanted to wait for me to train, and my severance papers said I had 3 months to go...

I trained the new guy over about 6 weeks, despite him being an internal lateral transfer (when I took the job I got a week as the prior director was retiring). I was in a different location so traveled 3x to spend weeks with him each time. Oh, and the last week? HE TOOK VACATION TIME starting on the day after I arrived... (I then spent the week having long lunches and breakfasts with colleagues I really liked, my severance-victory-lap lol).

They RIF'd my replacement within a year. Complete waste of my time.

 

[slowsaver]

They RIF'd my replacement within a year. Complete waste of my time.

That's terrible! Thanks for sharing. Maybe I'll just offer to "document" my work, and if anyone has questions while I'm here, then I'll answer them.

 

[slowsaver]

Just to follow-up: I told my manager that I'm planning to quit this December, and until then, I'll be working on detailed documentation for whomever takes-over my work.

He did some research, and just got back to me. Apparently there aren't any layoffs planned now, but his manager always keeps a list of people to lay off, whenever the call for layoffs comes up. He has put me on the list. My fingers are crossed!

 

[Katiek]

Congratulations, that's a big step, but an exciting one!

 

[slowsaver]

I'm happy to report that I successfully got laid-off with a generous severance package (5-months free COBRA, 5-months pay as severance, 25% of unvested-RSUs accelerated vesting) on Monday! I'm already enjoying being retired!

 

[Bigdawg]

I'm happy to report that I successfully got laid-off with a generous severance package (5-months free COBRA, 5-months pay as severance, 25% of unvested-RSUs accelerated vesting) on Monday! I'm already enjoying being retired!

Awesome. Good for you. Love good news stories. Best of luck with FIRE. I've been figuring it out since February. So far so good.

 

[Koolau]

I'm happy to report that I successfully got laid-off with a generous severance package (5-months free COBRA, 5-months pay as severance, 25% of unvested-RSUs accelerated vesting) on Monday! I'm already enjoying being retired!

Great news. Thanks for sharing. Welcome to the club.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Congrats!

 

[Retch The Grate]

congrats, that's a great way to wrap things up.

 

[Aerides]

I'm happy to report that I successfully got laid-off with a generous severance package (5-months free COBRA, 5-months pay as severance, 25% of unvested-RSUs accelerated vesting) on Monday! I'm already enjoying being retired!

Congratulations!

 

[Closet_Gamer]

Fantastic!

 

[brett]

Depends on your relationship with your boss.

IF the operation is lean your boss may in fact be happy to know your plans and include you in the package list. It could help him if your resignation may help him save one more employee that wants to stay.