Take the severance package and take the job up north. Double income! :)
"DGB454" wrote:
Thanks for breaking this out, I was afraid of taking over the last thread and that's not what I wanted to do. You have a big decision to make and so do I. They are both similar and I just wanted see if I could help by letting you know that I was also going through a big change in my life due to my employment situation.
As for me taking the money and running. I wish it was that easy. I have built up 15 years of pension in this company as well as putting money in my 401k. The 401k I can take with me. The pension I cant. I can freeze it until I retire however. There is no one out there that offers a pension any longer. In order for me to make it after retirement in 15 years I kind of need that pension. My first 19 years of work and building up a pension with a company was for nothing. The company went bust and the pension was gone thanks to a judge who decided that it was OK for a certain Ex-Pistons basketball player named Bill Lambeer to steal from it and only have to pay pennies on the dollar as a settlement. I get a grand total of 6 dollars a month for every year I put into that company when I retire.
Now I am left with a decision. Do I take the money and start over again at the age of 51? Or do I stick it out for another 15 years in a job I don't like and look forward to retiirig with a full 30 year pension and a 401k?
20 years ago the decision would be easy. Take the money and say the hell with a company that doesn't understand tha kind of money I generated for them the past 15 years. (Everything they run in that plant I designed.) At 51 however I tend to look more to the future and my eventual retirement.
Put it away when your young Kevin. Never trust a company because the bottom line is they don't give a crap about you or anyone else. It's all about money for them.
"Zero2Cool" wrote:
DGB454,
I feel for you. I imagine you have already thought of this, but have you thought about a sort of intermediate strategy. Plan to stay with the company in the job you hate for max 3-5 years, socking away as much extra as you can in the meantime. At the same time, make "enable the exit strategy" your top personal priority.
You owe an employer solid effort for your salary, but you don't have to share the employer's priorities. Use the shit job for the cash flow that finances making the well-deliberated "starting over" decision.
I guess what I'm saying is don't think of it as "severance package vs. pension." Instead, think of it as "which path maximizes what you can put together in years 4-15." I'd put the severance package up against that "shit job job cash flow for socking away and exit strategy."
Also, while there are no pensions out there anymore, there are still investments for your funds. I'm not saying you can (or should) become a compulsive user of Ameritrade; I'm only saying that you might consider using a few years of the shit job to finance your figuring out which is the best way to build up funds for retirement.
I have no idea what kind of severance package you've been offered. It's none of my business. But unless it's completely huge (as in multiple years of your salary), you're going to have to use it for household, current bills, etc., while you're looking for jobs, re-tooling, whatever. And that means relatively regular looking over your shoulder and maybe making big decisions too quickly or with too little information. If you use the shit job as continuing cash flow, though ...
Because I hate to say this, but given what it sounds like, I wouldn't count on "staying the course" guaranteeing that pension will be there in 15 years. The company has already proven it isn't interested in your well-being. And I'd never depend on the courts/guvmint to protect it either, as your experience already shows.
*They* say that pension will be there in 15 years. But *they* said that 15 years ago, too, did they not. And 15 years ago didn't have the fucked up political/economic outlook that today does.
For what it's worth, that's what I ultimately decided to do. My situation isn't quite like yours. It sounds like you have some marketable skills and a resume to sell; I just have useless degrees. I don't have the pension issue, but I do have the age issue (I'm 52, and what I consider a toxic work environment. And because of all those degrees, my 403(f) (or whatever the academic equiv of the 401(k) is, wasn't started until I was past 40.
I was lucky in one way; as a tenured faculty I could take a leave, albeit unpaid, and still have the job to come back to. And shortly after I started that leave, I knew I'd be coming back. But I came back not for the money, or not just for the money, but because I knew the job could serve the exit strategy. I used to think of my job and my calling as the same thing. It took the shit to make me realize that my job is not the calling, it's just a way to help finance it.
I struggled for a long time with the decision. I worried that I'd end up cutting corners on the job, become a slacker and do-the-minimum guy, to enable the exit strategy. But that hasn't been the case. If anything, I'm focused more on the high-value activities than I used to be. And since still provide sufficient value to school and students, I feel no ethical qualms about the "disloyalty" of having said strategy where it is on my priority list while I take the employer's salary. They're getting value far in excess of what they pay me.
Your boss has shown it's all about money for them. That means they have forfeited their right to anything more than you providing value to them at least as great as the money they pay you.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV)