I know we aren’t technically supposed to volunteer to be displaced but has anyone had this type of conversation with their manager and then get laid off (outside of location strategy)?
I feel like some managers may appreciate having one less decision (who to lay off) to make around this!!??
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I have an okay relationship with my manager and last year I told her I was not feeling motivated anymore and that if there were another round of layoffs I might be a good candidate. But she interpreted it to mean that I wanted a new job. She then did a re-org and gave me new responsibilities with a raise and increased annual bonus at review time. This wasn't really the outcome I wanted but I figure I'll just give it another year and see what happens. My point is that management does weird things and you never really can plan on anything personally.
Have that conversation in person, ideally off site. Leave no electronic trail.
Half the point in the downsizing is to drive fear that will motivate others to quit without a severance. As such, if you really want a golden ticket, what you should do is drop hints to your manager about how financially devastating being downsized would be for you right now. Sick relatives, hungry kids, whatever. Don't be ridiculous about it, just craft a series of hinting comments and drop them from time to time such that your manager knows how negatively it will affect you and your family. That's exactly the kind of person the execs want to downsize to send a message to the rest.
You can high key make this known and it will only work if HR lets it (currently). I work in a very large team and am close with sister teams. I know employees who made it known, we told they would be selected as there were others who wanted to stay, but then were passed up because someone voluntarily left. Another who blatantly wants to go but isn’t being allowed (hr will not move him up the list dispite the manager asking) and yet another who wanted it and got it when it was our depts time.
All that to say it seems like it’s really a cr-p shoot and it’s all dependent on HR.
I've been on two different teams over the years where people nearing retirement age let their manager know they were fine with being the chosen one in that year's layoffs. In both cases, these were efficiency layoffs where the manager ranked the team members with the lowest being cut. This would not work with location based layoffs or other schemes where the manager has no input.
In addition, the team member let the manager know far enough in advance that mid-year and end-of-year reviews could be tweaked to show a downward performance trajectory, justifying that employee being ranked at the bottom.
Sure, it's gaming the system, but that's about all we have at this stage.
It was posted on this board last week that on June 3rd Wells Fargo will be offering packages for all volunteers. I am waiting to see if this is true