How is your career going?

[GreenGoo]

Boss/administrative supervisor brought a few opportunities to my attention, and offered to help me (anyone on the team) through the process.

My reaction was a big "meh". I just don't give a crap any more. I do my job but have zero ambition. Retirement is starting to look extremely good, even if it's years off still.

[Paingod]

We might save a dollar or two over someone's salary. We're going to piss away twice that through inefficiency and waste.

And that's before they inevitably lose you once you get fed up enough.

Without a doubt. I'm already looking for a new job. There are few opportunities in the realm I want to work around me, though.

The current person running the company has extensive finance background and nothing else. He has no leadership skills, no people skills, no organizational awareness, no vision. I have no idea why the board picked him over other finalists. There were other finalists that would have been better. I told them that during interviews. So did many others. They really wanted to promote from within.

So for the last few months everything has been about how we can save money, cut costs, trim labor. Before him we had someone who wanted to invest in people, create opportunity, and elevate our culture. It's a hard 180º turn.

[Kraken]

Summer doldrums have settled in for me. There won't be much campus news to edit until fall. Suits me fine, it's going to be a busy summer.

[Kurth]

Gave notice today at my current company. Bittersweet, but I am excited about the new opportunity at the new company, and my boss was sad but really supportive about my decision to leave. He was a great boss. Not perfect, but really smart, a good leader and, more importantly, a good person.

Makes it tough to leave . . .

[GreenGoo]

A good boss makes a huge, huge difference.

[Kurth]

A good boss makes a huge, huge difference.

So true. I was anxious about how he was going to take it when I broke the news, but he was incredibly supportive and understanding. Even more impressive given the amount of work I’m leaving behind that he’s going to have to deal with.

[AWS260]

I'm leaving my job, where I've been for 25 years, later this summer. So, uh, how does health insurance work when you're not employed?

[Kurth]

I'm leaving my job, where I've been for 25 years, later this summer. So, uh, how does health insurance work when you're not employed?

I think you need to talk to HR or look into COBRA on your own. I don't have any experience with it, but I think it's pretty seamless.

[Skinypupy]

I just had one of the strangest experiences of my 20+ year sales career.

For the past 6 months, I've been working with a woman (we'll call her Susan) at a large federal agency to potentially launch a huge learning and development effort. We have been on 6-7 virtual meetings and have traded dozens of e-mails regarding pricing, deployment, resourcing, etc. We had a meeting on Monday, and at the end of the meeting agreed that the next steps were for me to gather some past performance details and create a draft learning plan that she could take up the chain to her leadership team.

I was supposed to have this to Susan by the end of the day today, but am running a bit behind. So I e-mailed to let her know that I would get the deliverables we discussed to her by tomorrow instead. Susan sent the following reply:

Hi Skinypupy. Although great to hear from you, I think this e-mail may be intended for someone else.

Confused, I reached back out to confirm with Susan that those were the deliverables that we agreed on in Monday's 2-HOUR meeting. Her response:

I'm not sure what you're referring to, but I think you have the wrong person.

I have been working with this woman for months to get this project kicked off. We met two days ago. For some reason, she's acting as if we've never talked before.

This is all incredibly bizarre and I honestly have no idea how to approach it.

That’s got to be an IT screwup, right? Did you try gilraen’s approach?

Really interested to see how this turned out. If “Susan” is really just pretending you’ve never interacted, that’s a new level of business insanity.

I sent her all the details she requested on Thursday, and sent it as a RE: response to one of her previous e-mails so she knows what it's about. Haven't heard back yet...will keep you posted.

She has been very enthusiastic and communicative throughout the entire process. it would have been EXTREMELY out of character for her to suddenly switch directions on a dime, especially by claiming she didn't know who I was. We'll see...

Quick update. It's now been almost two weeks and still no reply or acknowledgement from Susan that she received any of the details that she requested. Two follow-up e-mails and a couple voice mails have all gone unreturned. She has simply disappeared into the ether.

All very strange and rather disheartening, as that deal would have made most of my next year's revenue goal had it gone through.

[Isgrimnur]

I'm leaving my job, where I've been for 25 years, later this summer. So, uh, how does health insurance work when you're not employed?

I think you need to talk to HR or look into COBRA on your own. I don't have any experience with it, but I think it's pretty seamless.

Health Insurance Options If You’re Retiring Before Age 65

• Marketplace
• COBRA
• Spouse’s Health Plan
• Medicaid

[Jeff V]

Check the marketplace first (I can give you contact info for the agent I use). COBRA can range from insanely expensive to stupid hella insanely expensive. The marketplace might also be cheaper if you assess your needs and maybe scale back on certain coverages or accept higher deductibles. Your employer plan might have included a lot of bling you don't really need, but was nice to have just because they were paying for or subsidizing it.

[LordMortis]

I'm leaving my job, where I've been for 25 years, later this summer. So, uh, how does health insurance work when you're not employed?

Check with your state. I did it wrong in my state even after trying to do my diligence way ahead of time. I paid for COBRA for 18 months after I left my job, thinking that was a requirement to get on the ACA. It was not. I only figured this out when I applied for the ACA. You might even try applying right off the bat and see what it asks if your don't like your COBRA coverage. The ACA will largely look at your forward income estimate, IIRC, rather than backward. That was part of what I had wrong. By the time I applied my backward income was so low as well as my forward looking income (interest, dividends, and capital gains), I got denied coverage and then I had to wait for Medicaid to kick in, which required notification from the my COBRA provider/previous health insurer that my coverage was cancelled. The process took THREE MONTHS for my insurance middleman, COBRA provider, and Aetna to get their paperwork in order and sent to the state to let them know I had no insurance. This should not be the case, but you'll want to get your ducks in a row and keep watching the process if your experience is anything like mine.

[LawBeefaroni]

I'm leaving my job, where I've been for 25 years, later this summer. So, uh, how does health insurance work when you're not employed?

I think you need to talk to HR or look into COBRA on your own. I don't have any experience with it, but I think it's pretty seamless.

Health Insurance Options If You’re Retiring Before Age 65

• Marketplace
• COBRA
• Spouse’s Health Plan
• Medicaid

You can also buy outside the marketplace (AKA off-exchange).

COBRA is time-limited (I think 18 months for employment termination). It's also fairly expensive since you're paying for whatever your former employer had. It's OK as a stop-gap until you find something else or find a new job with coverage.

There is also short-term insurance which is a direct alternative to COBRA. These are usually available for up to a year or so.

[Carpet_pissr]

I just had one of the strangest experiences of my 20+ year sales career.

For the past 6 months, I've been working with a woman (we'll call her Susan) at a large federal agency to potentially launch a huge learning and development effort. We have been on 6-7 virtual meetings and have traded dozens of e-mails regarding pricing, deployment, resourcing, etc. We had a meeting on Monday, and at the end of the meeting agreed that the next steps were for me to gather some past performance details and create a draft learning plan that she could take up the chain to her leadership team.

I was supposed to have this to Susan by the end of the day today, but am running a bit behind. So I e-mailed to let her know that I would get the deliverables we discussed to her by tomorrow instead. Susan sent the following reply:

Hi Skinypupy. Although great to hear from you, I think this e-mail may be intended for someone else.

Confused, I reached back out to confirm with Susan that those were the deliverables that we agreed on in Monday's 2-HOUR meeting. Her response:

I'm not sure what you're referring to, but I think you have the wrong person.

I have been working with this woman for months to get this project kicked off. We met two days ago. For some reason, she's acting as if we've never talked before.

This is all incredibly bizarre and I honestly have no idea how to approach it.

That’s got to be an IT screwup, right? Did you try gilraen’s approach?

Really interested to see how this turned out. If “Susan” is really just pretending you’ve never interacted, that’s a new level of business insanity.

I sent her all the details she requested on Thursday, and sent it as a RE: response to one of her previous e-mails so she knows what it's about. Haven't heard back yet...will keep you posted.

She has been very enthusiastic and communicative throughout the entire process. it would have been EXTREMELY out of character for her to suddenly switch directions on a dime, especially by claiming she didn't know who I was. We'll see...

Quick update. It's now been almost two weeks and still no reply or acknowledgement from Susan that she received any of the details that she requested. Two follow-up e-mails and a couple voice mails have all gone unreturned. She has simply disappeared into the ether.

All very strange and rather disheartening, as that deal would have made most of my next year's revenue goal had it gone through.

1. Have you read or watched Stephen King's The Outsider?
2. She, on her own, or someone above her realized something wrong with this project, or somehow negative for them...and nixed it. Does Susan work for your company or is she a potential client? (or other?)

[hentzau]

I will be having my 35 year anniversary with my company in 2 months.

And I can honestly say, I have never hated my job more. I really, really am hoping they lay me off next year, I collect my severance, and then do some contracting or consulting or take another position somewhere with less stress. Or I just retire early. Poor, but early.

[Smoove_B]

I have ~26 years now in the public sector and I've had just about enough. I'm way too young to retire so I will just keep my head down and try to stay invisible and employed. My days of making waves are officially over, that's for sure. If I could pivot into something else, I would. The issue, quite frankly is the health care. My current role affords me access to a Cadillac plan and to give that up would be madness. But the realization that I'm essentially then only working to get health benefits? That's really quite sobering.

[gilraen]

But the realization that I'm essentially then only working to get health benefits? That's really quite sobering.

Hell, I'm only working for the health insurance and it's not even great insurance.

[Carpet_pissr]

I have ~26 years now in the public sector and I've had just about enough. I'm way too young to retire so I will just keep my head down and try to stay invisible and employed. My days of making waves are officially over, that's for sure. If I could pivot into something else, I would. The issue, quite frankly is the health care. My current role affords me access to a Cadillac plan and to give that up would be madness. But the realization that I'm essentially then only working to get health benefits? That's really quite sobering.

If you pivoted to an equivalent job in the private sector you would very likely much more than make up the difference in salary.

[Smoove_B]

Hell, I'm only working for the health insurance and it's not even great insurance.

I used to love my job - genuinely. Now...not so much and I'm having a hard time imagining another decade. Right now I'm focused on 5 more years (I'll be 55) and I'll re-evaluate then, assuming I make it.

If you pivoted to an equivalent job in the private sector you would very likely much more than make up the difference in salary.

Current salary isn't the issue at all; I make absurd money (quite frankly). I've looked into other work and the truth is, I get paid well, have insane benefits and on paper shouldn't have any complaints. It's just a matter of accepting what it is now and trying to keep at it.

[hentzau]

My health care isn't really that great. I'm still paying thousands of dollars a year out of pocket (well, out of HSA) for healthcare. You would think that a fortune 50 company could get decent healthcare for its employees...

I'm not going to get promoted any further, but I am what is considered a "highly compensated" employee so I'm doing my job, getting my 3% increase a year, have tried really hard to not work any more than I need to. And hoping to be RIFed every day.

That said, I am now working usually 2-3 nights a week implementing changes.

And on the plus side, I am well compensated, I do get to work from home, and I get slightly over 40 days of PTO to use every year now. Not that I can find time to use them.

But I'm ready to retire. I'm ready to be done. I'm not ready to live on a retiree's income, despite diligently saving to my pension and 401K every year of my 35 years here.

[LordMortis]

All y'all need to keep working! We can't have inflation, zero unemployment, a drain on passive investments, an apathetic incompetence in the workplace, and a low tax collection rate ruin my savings and investments now that I'm not working. I've already been hit by the 9% inflation bug while missing the 7-15% raises that came after. We can't have that spin out of control. Back to the rock pile with ya!!! you need the "Dignity, Joy, and Self Respect" that come with chasing a paycheck to meet your basic needs!

[Smoove_B]

[LordMortis]

I will say, as much as I am constantly extremely budget conscious, the only single day I've regret getting out of the work pool is the day I got hit by a car in pursuit of working on my long neglected health from years of all work all the time. I don't want to imagine going back. I've served my time. I've paid my debt to society.

Also, I saw a piece suggesting society "needs" us to work until 75 now even as we are no more able to work that long, and perhaps are less so due to high mental demands, than we were when our life expediencies were shorter. Of course this pieces are always put together by people who make more in a year than most fairly well off people make in a lifetime and they do so in non traditional working ways.

Also, also, everyone says "what will you do if you aren't working?" like everything is a horrible void if you aren't filling it making other people more wealthy. It's already 1500 and I just realized I haven't slowed down enough to even brush and floss my teeth yet today. (Got distracted at 0630 and haven't slowed down until just now)

[Carpet_pissr]

Hell, I'm only working for the health insurance and it's not even great insurance.

I used to love my job - genuinely. Now...not so much and I'm having a hard time imagining another decade. Right now I'm focused on 5 more years (I'll be 55) and I'll re-evaluate then, assuming I make it.

If you pivoted to an equivalent job in the private sector you would very likely much more than make up the difference in salary.

Current salary isn't the issue at all; I make absurd money (quite frankly). I've looked into other work and the truth is, I get paid well, have insane benefits and on paper shouldn't have any complaints. It's just a matter of accepting what it is now and trying to keep at it.

But you said you are working basically bc your work offers a Cadillac plan, but if you are making absurd money...why would that be such a factor?

Just spitballing the numbers here bc I don't think I am making my point very well, sorry:

As a public servant let's say you make $115K plus cadillac healthcare plan (worth, what about $20 K a year? I have no idea, again, spitballing) Total package value in our example is $135K (salary plus value of cadillac plan)
It's very common that public sector jobs pay a lot less than similar job functions in the private sector (primarily bc of typically better benes), so let's say you could make $150K in the private sector, and say they only offer a basic plan (doubtful, if you are making $150K), that's worth roughly half the cadillac, at $10k). Total package value: $160K
You could take that $25K difference and apply it to get a similar cadillac plan, and still $15K left over for hookers and blow.

Obviously simplified, but I have had similar conversations with my wife who has worked for our state govt. for years.

An employer I worked for for 15 years gave us a cadillac plan, and they covered 100% of the cost. Those were the salad days! and

Truly a unicorn employer that I completely took for granted because I was young and stupid.

[Smoove_B]

Obviously simplified, but I have had similar conversations with my wife who has worked for our state govt. for years.

You're not entirely wrong. I think my current healthcare (plus prescription) is somewhere around $25K (estimated) for a family plan. It's extremely generous with coverage. My wife works corporate and she's on my plan. Her plan is embarrassingly horrible. I think the core issue is that I've not seen any type of private-sector equivalent - and I've been looking for 5+ years. It's probably where I'm living and that what I am able to find is closer to NYC. I think whatever I've seen would require extensive travel/driving and I don't know if that's in the cards for a 50 year old Smoove. I also question whether or not a private-sector employer would hire me at this point - knowing I'm just running down the clock. I feel like I missed the transition to the private sector by about 10-12 years.

I think I'm really just trying to come to terms with not liking work anymore - having previously loved it. It's weird to not be excited about it (for me) and maybe I'm still processing it on the back 9 (so to speak) as I'm finally seeing the endgame off in the distance.

Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to have a job and to be doing well. I know so much changed for people over the last 5 years. Just received a major promotion back in January that put me at the top of my range - largely because of the insane workload I've been shouldering since 2020 and I think I'm just genuinely burned the f out.

[TheMix]

[TheMix]

What gilraen left out is that while her healthcare isn't great, mine pays me (us! ) $500/month to be on her healthcare. So even if mine was better, it would need to be $6000 better. That's a big chunk of change to overcome.

[Carpet_pissr]

Obviously simplified, but I have had similar conversations with my wife who has worked for our state govt. for years.

I think the core issue is that I've not seen any type of private-sector equivalent - and I've been looking for 5+ years.

Well there's the rub. Carry on, Smoove. Ride the shit out of that Cadillac!

[Skinypupy]

I just had one of the strangest experiences of my 20+ year sales career.

For the past 6 months, I've been working with a woman (we'll call her Susan) at a large federal agency to potentially launch a huge learning and development effort. We have been on 6-7 virtual meetings and have traded dozens of e-mails regarding pricing, deployment, resourcing, etc. We had a meeting on Monday, and at the end of the meeting agreed that the next steps were for me to gather some past performance details and create a draft learning plan that she could take up the chain to her leadership team.

I was supposed to have this to Susan by the end of the day today, but am running a bit behind. So I e-mailed to let her know that I would get the deliverables we discussed to her by tomorrow instead. Susan sent the following reply:

Hi Skinypupy. Although great to hear from you, I think this e-mail may be intended for someone else.

Confused, I reached back out to confirm with Susan that those were the deliverables that we agreed on in Monday's 2-HOUR meeting. Her response:

I'm not sure what you're referring to, but I think you have the wrong person.

I have been working with this woman for months to get this project kicked off. We met two days ago. For some reason, she's acting as if we've never talked before.

This is all incredibly bizarre and I honestly have no idea how to approach it.

That’s got to be an IT screwup, right? Did you try gilraen’s approach?

Really interested to see how this turned out. If “Susan” is really just pretending you’ve never interacted, that’s a new level of business insanity.

I sent her all the details she requested on Thursday, and sent it as a RE: response to one of her previous e-mails so she knows what it's about. Haven't heard back yet...will keep you posted.

She has been very enthusiastic and communicative throughout the entire process. it would have been EXTREMELY out of character for her to suddenly switch directions on a dime, especially by claiming she didn't know who I was. We'll see...

Quick update. It's now been almost two weeks and still no reply or acknowledgement from Susan that she received any of the details that she requested. Two follow-up e-mails and a couple voice mails have all gone unreturned. She has simply disappeared into the ether.

All very strange and rather disheartening, as that deal would have made most of my next year's revenue goal had it gone through.

1. Have you read or watched Stephen King's The Outsider?
2. She, on her own, or someone above her realized something wrong with this project, or somehow negative for them...and nixed it. Does Susan work for your company or is she a potential client? (or other?)

She actually responded yesterday, and made no mention of the whole "wrong person" interaction. Sent over a list of questions that stakeholders on her team were asking about. I guess things are potentially back on track so...yay?

Still, it was just an incredibly strange situation all around. I'll bring it up with her AFTER we win the contract.

[hepcat]

I've got one word for you:

doppelganger

You may be in danger, my friend. Be careful.

Edit: damn it, carpet beat me to it.

[Zarathud]

It’s time for Smoove to get out the temperature readers and hit the strip clubs — for public health!!

[Zarathud]

I like what I do but the business side of it sucks. And I need a vacation longer than and more relaxing than GenCon — without coming back to a backed up workload.

[RunningMn9]

A few things:

1) Your estimates of $25K for a Cadillac plan make me laugh.

When I left my job in July and transitioned to federal service, I had to cover like 16 days of healthcare for my family on my previous employers plan. It was good insurance, but not a Cadillac plan. Those 16 days cost me like $3000. The plan cost $62k per year.

2) Question for Smoove. Knowing what I know about your history, what are the private industry prospects for what you do? I only ask because your field is pretty public service centric, no?

[Smoove_B]

1) Your estimates of $25K for a Cadillac plan make me laugh.

Sorry, that's what they quote it would cost for me to purchase the plan I'm currently in. I have no doubts they're paying much, much more.

2) Question for Smoove. Knowing what I know about your history, what are the private industry prospects for what you do? I only ask because your field is pretty public service centric, no?

I'm a generalist in practice, however, there are private sector equivalents that work in dedicated fields doing only one specific thing that I'm expected to do at any given time during the day. I have...skills I have acquired over a very long career. By way of example, early on, I interviewed with a major supermarket chain and another time with a restaurant chain to become an in-house inspector for them - basically traveling around to various stores and conducting training, audits, inspections, etc... for internal loss control. I could also get work with various environmental companies or even an engineer do fieldwork and/or plan review. I was actually looking last week to see about getting work in mosquito control for the county - mainly because it would be outside and I wouldn't need to be around people.

There's actually quite a few part time jobs available locally right now (because everyone is retiring/fleeing), but the pay is abysmal.

The "public service' element is really just how the skills have been applied. I would totally use the same skills for a corporate overlord if they'd be willing to bankroll it.

[coopasonic]

I am a senior (experience, not age you jerks) individual contributer (in other words, not management) on a tech team. A couple weeks back I told my boss I wanted to move to a different department because I didn't like how the work was being handled and the way the team was being run. We had some extended discussions about other opportunities for me in the department and what was wrong with the team. Next month I take over running the team. That did not turn out how I had expected. I had been thinking about making the jump to leadership for a while, but didn't expect it to fall right into my lap. This could be... interesting.

That was a year and a half ago... it didn't actually pan out as someone backed out of the swap. Now there are two open people leader slots and my Director has asked me to step up. The slot I am likely to take involves leading two of the best, most talented people I know. It's both exciting and intimidating for a serious introvert with social anxiety.

In another 18 months I look forward to telling you how it never happened, again.

It is actually going to happen this time. I'm splitting time between teams now and just learned the most experience dev on the team (who is also my level so wouldn't have reported to me) is rotating out so that's going to be extra fun! New team and I immediately have an opening to fill. I guess it's a good thing I am one of the top interviewers!

Oh yeah 2% raise this year, more importantly they decided to keep paying me.

...and 3 years later I talked to my Director about no longer being a people leader. I'm just not great at it and as we've been very tough in performance management the last couple years my people have suffered for my failings. I'm excited to get back to coding and using what I've learned as a leader over the past 3 years to my advantage. Way less stress and no change in compensation. Downside is that tough performance management may actually get me as I will be "competing" with some of our top talent.

[Kraken]

I never really wanted to go into management, but I kept ending up there. Apparently I have a knack for it. Or did have; I've been self-employed for 20 years now.

Fun fact: the need for subsidized health insurance is the #1 thing that keeps Americans from striking out on their own. If we didn't need employers for that, employers would have a lot fewer employees.

[gbasden]

An employer I worked for for 15 years gave us a cadillac plan, and they covered 100% of the cost. Those were the salad days! and

Truly a unicorn employer that I completely took for granted because I was young and stupid.

Not a unicorn, as that's my current deal. Some employers are awesome that way. It, unfortunately, doesn't solve the burnout factor.

[gbasden]

Downside is that tough performance management may actually get me as I will be "competing" with some of our top talent.

Stack ranking is ridiculous bullshit. At least in my experience, good people end up on teams together because they attract good talent. Arbitrarily voting 15% off the island is stupid 90s bullshit thinking.

[RunningMn9]

The "public service' element is really just how the skills have been applied. I would totally use the same skills for a corporate overlord if they'd be willing to bankroll it.

Roger. I was just wondering how serious they were about the public aspect of “Public Health”.

[Kurth]

Downside is that tough performance management may actually get me as I will be "competing" with some of our top talent.

Stack ranking is ridiculous bullshit. At least in my experience, good people end up on teams together because they attract good talent. Arbitrarily voting 15% off the island is stupid 90s bullshit thinking.

But that’s how it’s done at so many companies today. I hate HR. We just did our annual performance reviews, and I got massive pushback when my direct report and everyone on her team got a highly successful rating. HR told us that was well beyond the anticipated percentage of highly successful employees. We told them to stick it.

Helps that my last day of work is this Friday!