Frankly, I’m surprised that I wasn’t, since age discrimination is a real thing. I’ve seen enough of it over the past years to be able to confirm it. They’ve somehow forgotten about me. I would take severance money and never work again. I’ve had enough. But no such luck.
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I retired in May of this year. I can confirm there are no benefits in retirement save for keeping your restricted shares, which continue to vest each year until they are gone. I had to give 90 days notice since I was a MD in CB. Leadership made me work 60, then the last 30 was non-working. Glad to be out of here, although I check this site still since I have so many friends here. But, nothing in retirement save for the RSRs.
To the poster of this: I recently retired and while it’s true that you get nothing in retirement, you are able to keep your RSRs vs. quitting and losing them. I had about $100,000, so definitely worth retiring.
WF incompetency extends into your retirement also. If you opt for COBRA expect NO communication originating from WF. You will have to initiate the conversations with your outsourced offshore HR dept. Have fun with that.
Your RSRs and prorated bonus, if you have one, will sc--w you over as well. WF does not report those payments as earned in an earlier year. Thus, SSA thinks it was earned in the year paid which can hurt you if you retire early. There is a cap on annual earnings you can have and collect social security until you hit full retirement age. SSA took away 8 months of my social security for being over the cap. I eventually got it back but WF was utterly worthless in getting it fixed. There is a govt form of course that WF can file to correct. It took me weeks to find anyone at WF that knew what the form was and more weeks to find who should be completing it. I mailed it where they said and got ghosted. It's two years later and WF never sent in the form nor could anyone tell me what happened.
I found a great SSA employee, pleaded my case with the little evidence I had and they reversed the decision and sent me my money back. The SSA employee said WF is the only company they see that does this routinely.
Lastly when I applied for a part time job the company I interviewed at called WF and was told that I never worked there. He said that I worked there for 24 years, which is true, but the WF HR person said people fake experience with WF because it is such a prestigious firm. I couldn't stop laughing. I know all WF will do is verify employment but they couldn't even do that.
How to quietly quit by getting first in line to be laid off.
- You are working too hard. You need to slack off. Remember, you have given too much to WF. They have probably ignored what you have contributed or others have taken credit for your work. Let this go. Pretend you never gave anything. Surprise them on the exit interview.
- Tell management you are learning stuff that doesn't apply to what they have assigned to you. Like you are learning AI and thinking it might be applied to application X (when they have you maintaining application Y). Most managers like sheep not go-getters.
- Tell management you are thinking of applying for another position somewhere else.
- Get nasty. You have been too easy to manage. Ask for a raise. Gripe about what you are getting paid. Get your mentee to quit.
Tell your manager he/she is doing something wrong. Be non-committal, passive-aggressive etc.
Do any/all of these things to the extent you get laid off and not fired.
"You fit a minority profile and they need you for that percentage"
I have my doubts. Over the last nine months my group of ~30 experienced several layoffs, including all three of its LGBTQ team members (I among them). Our minority status didn't save us, and now the team that's left is actually LESS diverse.
Location and efficiency strategies are ruthless across the board.
They haven't forgotten. Either: a). You fit a minority profile and they need you for that percentage. b). Manager is counting on you to retire and minimizing severance cost to boost his/her rating and bonus.
Restricted Share Rights. Google it.
Reverse psychology, those who want to stay tell them you want to retire or get laid off. those who want to get laid off or retire tell them you want to continue working!
My manager kept asking when I was going to retire. Although I was planning on retiring in about a year, I always told him that it would be “sometime in the next 10 years “.
I ended up getting laid off 3 months before I was going to retire anyway. Thank God I never told them about my plans. They would have just let me retire, instead of giving me a severance.
what are RSRs?
Yes, always tell people you have many years ahead of you. Never know, they might pay you to retire rather than walking away for nothing.
I recently retired and while it’s true that you get nothing in retirement, you are able to keep your RSRs vs. quitting and losing them. I had about $100,000, so definitely worth retiring.
There is no such thing as retiring from WF. The benefits or lack thereof are the same as just quitting. Hold out for package as long as you can
NEVER let your manager know what your plans are. If they ask laugh and say you have no plans to retire. Say things like you never want to quit working because you don’t want to be bored.
If you ask for a layoff you won’t get one - but they WILL bully you until you want to quit. I’ve seen it happen. I hope it’s not too late for you.
I agree with @yfa+1tfIAhBr. If you've told your manager you're close or considering retirement, a "good" manager that had to lay someone off would pick you or at least bring up the subject with you. It could be you'd rather get your retirement benefits, whatever those are, rather than being laid off, but if you're okay being let go and your manager has to let someone go, it's a win win.
Funny, I’ve been in conversations, however informal, where proximity to retirement might factor into soft volunteering.
How old? what is the typical retirement age here?
They know you are close enough to go without paying the severance. I was in those conversations and when one of the managers asked why not XXXX he was told he's close to retirement so they wont waste the severance.
OP--nice to be you---so just continue to collect your pay, contribute to 401k, and enjoy health care while you can.
Trust that everyone has a number on their back--only a matter of time....
Ok bro