Hi FireFolk!
I mostly lurk here, but thought I'd chime in regarding an interesting situation that I find myself in.
I w*rk for a large company that's imploding. MegaCorp is following the path of Enron and Sears. I see this company from the inside, and I can't imagine it surviving for much longer. We've just announced that we're reducing headcount by 25,000.
The leaders of MegaCorp have done some bad things, and they have gotten caught. Several times. The company has paid Billions of dollars in fines (and that's Billions with a "B"). There has been one high-profile scandal in the press after another. The CEO was called before Congress and then ousted, and the person who replaced him as CEO was also dragged in front of Congress and is also now gone. The "interim-CEO" then stepped down, and after a lengthy search the board hired CEO#4. Several other CEO candidates turned down offers to work here.
Customers generally don't choose to do business with MegaCorp. We get most of our customers through "acquisition", and once we've got them, we've GOT them. Our customers rank us near the bottom in every metric that I've seen, and they consistently will get away from us if given the opportunity. Due to the nature of our business, our customers are a "captive market" and in nearly all cases simply don't have the option of going elsewhere.
Employee turnover is high, and the only people being hired (and I truly mean the ONLY people being hired) are foreign contractors who often have limited English language skills. While it's often said that "nobody is irreplaceable", we've already lost a LOT of good people who indeed are "irreplaceable" within their areas of expertise, which has resulted in repeated failing of internal systems - sometimes impacting the public and getting coverage in the national press.
The "A-team" players are already long gone, and the "B-team" people are leaving fast. My boss quit last week. Another person in my group just quit today. Many of the people sticking around are the kind of people who would have trouble finding another job anywhere (even in this economy).
And then there are people like me...
I'm one of those folks who are "retirement eligible", and have been quietly maxing out my 401k for DECADES. I'm all set to FIRE, with a score of 100%. I have a short commute, a quiet office in a safe location (although there is talk of eliminating my office and moving everyone "downtown"). My spouse is still working in a reasonably well-paying job that she loves and with people who are her friends, so there's nothing to be gained in my quitting until she's ready to retire.
My lifestyle wouldn't change one bit if I were working vs not working. At this point I consider every paycheck to simply be a bonus. It may sound strange, but I'm having FUN in the midst of all this turmoil!
I'm tempted to say that I've got the best deck chair on the Titanic. But perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I feel like I'm on a lifeboat, with a cup of hot chocolate in hand while quietly watching the Titanic as it slips beneath the waves.
So glad I started saving when I was young, and that I kept at it. The peace of mind that I now enjoy is priceless!
.
I mostly lurk here, but thought I'd chime in regarding an interesting situation that I find myself in.
I w*rk for a large company that's imploding. MegaCorp is following the path of Enron and Sears. I see this company from the inside, and I can't imagine it surviving for much longer. We've just announced that we're reducing headcount by 25,000.
The leaders of MegaCorp have done some bad things, and they have gotten caught. Several times. The company has paid Billions of dollars in fines (and that's Billions with a "B"). There has been one high-profile scandal in the press after another. The CEO was called before Congress and then ousted, and the person who replaced him as CEO was also dragged in front of Congress and is also now gone. The "interim-CEO" then stepped down, and after a lengthy search the board hired CEO#4. Several other CEO candidates turned down offers to work here.
Customers generally don't choose to do business with MegaCorp. We get most of our customers through "acquisition", and once we've got them, we've GOT them. Our customers rank us near the bottom in every metric that I've seen, and they consistently will get away from us if given the opportunity. Due to the nature of our business, our customers are a "captive market" and in nearly all cases simply don't have the option of going elsewhere.
Employee turnover is high, and the only people being hired (and I truly mean the ONLY people being hired) are foreign contractors who often have limited English language skills. While it's often said that "nobody is irreplaceable", we've already lost a LOT of good people who indeed are "irreplaceable" within their areas of expertise, which has resulted in repeated failing of internal systems - sometimes impacting the public and getting coverage in the national press.
The "A-team" players are already long gone, and the "B-team" people are leaving fast. My boss quit last week. Another person in my group just quit today. Many of the people sticking around are the kind of people who would have trouble finding another job anywhere (even in this economy).
And then there are people like me...
I'm one of those folks who are "retirement eligible", and have been quietly maxing out my 401k for DECADES. I'm all set to FIRE, with a score of 100%. I have a short commute, a quiet office in a safe location (although there is talk of eliminating my office and moving everyone "downtown"). My spouse is still working in a reasonably well-paying job that she loves and with people who are her friends, so there's nothing to be gained in my quitting until she's ready to retire.
My lifestyle wouldn't change one bit if I were working vs not working. At this point I consider every paycheck to simply be a bonus. It may sound strange, but I'm having FUN in the midst of all this turmoil!
I'm tempted to say that I've got the best deck chair on the Titanic. But perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I feel like I'm on a lifeboat, with a cup of hot chocolate in hand while quietly watching the Titanic as it slips beneath the waves.
So glad I started saving when I was young, and that I kept at it. The peace of mind that I now enjoy is priceless!
.
).
