So an email was sent out at work offering early retirement if you meet certain criteria. It doesn't apply to me, I'm only 34. But should I be concerned? Is this the precursor to layoffs? I would think that I am in a decent position to not get axed, but still.
Most likely this is an attempt to prevent layoffs, it definitely means business is down.
Although they may do furloughs or reduced pay/hours first.
every time cummins does layoffs they always do 'early retirement' for some of the older guys. its never a good sign.
Definitely trying to reduce headcount. Wouldn't hurt to look around some.
You can learn a lot about a company from reading their annual and quarterly reports, 10K's, etc. Always start reading those from the footnotes at the back. That's where they hide the E36 M3. Unless they are not publicly traded, then it is harder to get insight.
It's also a good way for the company to try and flush out the older, higher payed, higher medical costs, higher benefits, employees.
As a note, those plans rarely will allow anyone to really retire early unless they are really close. Realistically they normally just allow a bit more time and money to find another job.
In reply to aircooled:
Maybe. A friend of mine took an early retirement package in his early 50's a few years ago. He still has to wait until full retirement age before he can realistically access the retirement funds. Fortunately, his wife makes decent money, so he has spent the time since then taking care of his aging parents although he takes small IT jobs here and there.
Regrettably, it’s a pretty unambiguous sign of weakness….what’s the average age of your workforce – did you have an explosive period of growth at some point in the past.
I work in Med-Tech and we have layoffs all the time…assuming getting whacked is random, there’s only a 1.78% chance I should have survived this long so I don’t even blink at stuff like this anymore.
Working in a situation like that is stressful. I put up with threats of constant layoffs for two years. One time I was down to three days left on my two weeks layoff notice and then they rescinded it. I switched to a different industry. A large part of it for me was that the layoffs were not performance based, so whether or not I was on the chopping block was almost entirely out of my control and that is what made it more stressful to me.
I suppose, they will have some sort of force reduction numbers in mind based on how much they need to cut costs. There is a chance that they can meet their goals with actual early retirements and then the bleeding may stop at that point. I would try to not completely panic at this point, but start putting out some feelers if things go south. Don't be the last rat to jump ship if it comes down to it and remember it is always easier to get a job if you have a job. I'd devote a couple hours a week to a job search just to try to have an iron in the fire.
+1 on everything T.J. just said, though, given my experience, I think I'd turn it up a notch. Especially if there is no transparency to what is happening at the company as Dr. Hess suggested. Just the stress of dealing with the "maybe" isn't worth it. Be careful, though, don't panic and jump from the frying pan into the fire.
Counter point.
It can be a good opportunity for you. There will be some openings upward. If you are the right person, you might snag a promotion or advancement.
I am not saying anything contra to the above comments about corporate ill health. That all still stands. Just that some can benefit from this, try to make sure you're one of those.
I used to work for a company called CGI. Maybe you heard of their greatest accomplishment: The Obamacare Web Site. Yeah, that one. Their business model at the time was to go to vulnerable companies with poorly managed IT, offer to take over the whole IT infrastructure/people and do it for the same price they were paying now. They would provide the exact same service for the same price, but provide it in a more professional manner with better control. Oh, and "SOX!!! SOX!!! YOU COULD GO TO JAIL YOU KNOW, IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND SOX!!!!" In tiny, tiny print at the end of the contract it said "Anything else is extra." (A 1 line code change for a bug would get billed at $20K and take 6 months to implement. Hey, "extra" and "controls.") They would hire the whole group of people working there, everything would be the same, the paychecks just come from someone else. Their real plan was to suck the knowledge out of your head, fire you and ship the work to India. I was on the 6 month fire list. I know that because my boss, who got fired, told me he saw the list. So, ten years later, I was still there and CGI got fired. But the constant stress of dealing with an employer that wanted nothing more than to fire you and send your work to India really sucked.
An offer was made where I worked (past tense, I took it). The logic is young, hungry engineers would be moved up promoting new ideas on the way.
I do not believe this was a precursor to a lay off, then again enough people may have taken the generous offer that we'll never know.
Polish up the resume', keep your ear to the ground and never stop learning. If your field has a specialized arena, get involved. I expanded my training in NDT (nondestructive testing) which made me more valuable if a lay off came.
Dan
We build industrial machinery. When the economy took a nosedive they laid off a huge number of employees. Pretty much everyone that got laid off moved on to different jobs. That left only the old timers that had 30 years or so in. When things turned around in 2011 the orders started rolling in and they went on a hiring spree. I got in early. After a few years of assembly I took a job in their service department as a parts salesman. There is only one guy below me in the parts dept, but we only have six guys total, and I always get rave reviews from my boss so I hope I'm safe. I understand the go get another job idea, it's just that I really wanted to stay at this place until retirement. They have been in business at the same location for over 100 years. Plus I like it here, and I'm good at it. Last year was profitable, but not as much as they had hoped. I am going to hang in there. I hope they are just trying to streamline without making huge cuts. If not, the economy is fairly strong in the area and hopefully it stays that way if I need to go job hunting.
^I was the only person that did my job at a $120 million per year company when I was laid off last year. I thought it could never happen to me given what I had done for their documentation.
Then was hired on to a "revolving contract" that would have at least 2 years of work, was laid off 6 months later.
Just get the old resume polished up and put a feeler out with recruiters. It never hurts to keep your eyes open and ear to the ground.
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