Octopus Overlords

At least the paychecks cleared. And, if you have to do it again, you know how to do it.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 3:38 pm Assessment: all good!
Planning: maintain status quo but with less women's health.

We have closed several L&D departments across our system. We have had to tighten the belt as costs are all going up and reimbursement not so much.

RMC wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 6:37 am

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 3:38 pm Assessment: all good!
Planning: maintain status quo but with less women's health.

We have closed several L&D departments across our system. We have had to tighten the belt as costs are all going up and reimbursement not so much.

I was referring to Smoove's Tennessee "ASSESSMENT & PLANNING" dream job.


On topic, we're expanding but have the same pressures: huge cost increases and reimbursement that lags far behind costs. Nursing shortage, mass retirements, Medicare/caid cuts....

My new role is system VBC so I'm moving out of the FFS game and more into quality. But it's still no cakewalk, getting 9 hospitals, 4K physicians, $1B in VBC revs, and the associated support staff all on the same page.

Yesterday's fire drill is a vestige of my old role which will probably continue to be a timesink as well.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 9:06 pm At least the paychecks cleared. And, if you have to do it again, you know how to do it.

One of my direct reports had her merit increase wiped out due to an HR/IT error. Been fighting that one for over a month. The retro payment will be a nice pick-me-up for her though.

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 11:20 am

I know I am extremely fortunate to be in the situation that I am in, especially with my wife still having her full health and remaining cancer free 6 years in (she's been "fired" by her oncologist even!) - but I do question what the hell I've been chasing all these years. Like I've read from many on this thread - how much money will we need to live comfortably, able to travel a little and fly to see our kids (or fly them to see us if we end up living somewhere awesome). All depends on location, but the thought of both of us being in our 40s (or even early 50s) with zero income is a touch daunting. Another ten years or so and my pension would give a nice safety net payout - so maybe 55ish is when I should look at exiting, if I can stomach dealing with this CIO for that long - but I've promised myself I won't go down the path of heavy commutes, and stressful work relationships (with him specifically) just to chase a pension that I may not live long enough to enjoy to make it worthwhile. Covid perspective? Midlife evaluation of priorities? Who knows where it's all coming from.

Congrats on your wife's firing!

More similar mindset here--absolutely some COVID perspective (Mindset-Changing Life Event #2). Losing so much of the activities/socialization that I realized during COVID were incredibly important to me despite me being largely introverted woke me up to how low on the priority scale career actually is. I like most parts of my job, and I'm largely happy there. But it's a job, and it's not the center of my life. I don't want to be doing it in my 60s. We're not super-far off from where we could 'retire' (quotes because initial step for us would likely look more like reducing our work to 50% time for a few years), but the thought of ~20 years in the USA without employer-provided healthcare or Medicare is terrifying (another reason to go 50% for awhile--employer healthcare).

If nothing else, having the freedom to push back on commutes, bad boss behavior, etc, is freeing.

tl;dr - No way in hell I make it to 55 without a drastic de-prioritization of work, at minimum. I'm targeting 50, with a stretch goal of 48. LM's de-workification has been inspiring to me, and I hope the remaining years of your career go well and lead to many years of retired bliss with your family, FP.

I've been thinking about all of this a lot lately. Like...a lot.

My dad's entire life revolved around his work. Growing up, we knew that was his absolute, #1 priority. He left before we got up in the mornings, and usually came home just in time to get us to our 6:00 soccer games. For lots of those years, we took him to the airport with mom on Sunday morning, picked him up on Thursday night, and he spent the weekends at the office. His work defined him. It was what he did and who he was. I've never begrudged him that...it was what it was. He provided for his family, we never wanted for anything, and despite the decades of long hours I knew that dad was there for us and loved us.

Dad was basically forced into retirement at 67 when his company decided to shut down his local branch (he worked in insurance). Without the job, he was completely rudderless. He literally had no idea what to do. He'd spent his entire life working and couldn't conceive of just...not. It affected him mentally (he was pretty depressed) and his health almost immediately spiraled downwards. Massive weight gain, Bell's Palsy, two strokes, prostate cancer, then finally pancreatic cancer killed him on his 71st birthday. I (obviously) don't think that retiring gave dad cancer, but he had absolutely no will or desire to even fight once it hit.

Mom was a little bit the same way. She was a special ed teacher for 46 years. When she retired, she then went back to work certifying new teachers. I think the focus was a little different (mom did it because she loved teaching and wanted new teachers to succeed) but she worked right up until she got her cancer diagnosis, then passed a couple weeks later. So the "work is important" gene has been burned into me from the get-go.

I'm currently 48. While I loved my job at one point, I don't think I do anymore. I do love and am very passionate about what I sell, but let's be honest, sales is really fucking hard. And as I get more and more sales territory (a natural consequence of doing well) it becomes more and more difficult. Out of 160 sales people in our company, I now have the 7th highest goal. The pressure to deliver revenue is massive and nearly overwhelming. I'm at my desk by at least 6:30 every morning (if not earlier) and I typically finish around 6 or 7:00 at night. I work at least 5-6 hours every weekend. And even then, I'm never caught up. It feels more and more that the job simply never stops. If it's not clients around the world needing this or that, it's internal leadership needing a new report or a new tracking sheet or a new forecast update. There is never a time where I feel like I can just turn my computer off and walk away. If I do (god forbid) take a day off, I will have to put in 14 hours the next few days to catch up on the 200-300 e-mails that I get every day. The job is always on my mind, which is what it takes to be wildly successful in this role. All the other high performers in the company absolutely thrive on that pressure and the potential $$ rewards that come with it, but it's simply crushing me. Neither me or my boss have any idea what to do with that reality. Those who get to the level I'm at are supposed to love it, not feel crushed by it.

Good news is that I've been incredibly fortunate and have done quite well for myself. After spending the first 10 years of my professional career making nearly nothing and coming out more in debt that I was when I started, I've been able to wipe all of that out and put myself right back on track for a decent retirement. Then when mom passed, we found out that she had far more money set aside than we thought, plus her house. It won't be "retire at 50" type money, but I'm certainly in a far better spot than I was before. I was able to pay off my house and get 100% out of debt. I now find myself in a position where I don't owe anything to anyone, outside of normal bills, taxes, etc. Which has really forced me to ask...what the hell am I killing myself in this job for?

I don't want to end up like my dad, working until he was forced out then having life go immediately into the shitter. I want to enjoy the time I have. I want my kids to know I'm there for them. I want to be able to go to my kid's choir performance or soccer game without having to spend the entire time on work calls or answering e-mails. Unfortunately, that's the expectation that comes with the paycheck in this job. You're on 24/7. As my boss once put it, "I need someone in this role who wakes up every morning and is thinking in the shower about the things they can do to increase sales that day". I don't think I want that anymore, but am trying to balance that realization with the fact that these are my "prime earning years". This is when I'm supposed to be making the big money that puts me in a place where I can be financially secure for the long haul. I'm closer than I was, but am still probably 7-8 years away at this point. I'm not sure I can keep up the pace for that long though. Plus, I really have no idea what I want to do for work, if not this. I've got no real burning desire to go do something else. Partly because I'm pretty good at sales (despite how frustrating it is) and partly because I've been doing it for so long now (18 years) that jumping to anything else seems completely terrifying.

My tentative plan is to tell my boss by the end of this fiscal year (Aug) that something needs to change. I would gladly take a 50% pay cut (which would still be more $$ than I need) and give away half my clients if it relieved some of the insane pressure. That may end up being the answer. I know I'd be hamstringing myself professionally (and I expect it would probably put me on an off-ramp out), but I think it will be worth it to save my sanity.

Sorry for the whiny brain dump...this has just all been on my mind a ton lately. I don't really know what to do, but know that I need to figure something out or I'm gonna break.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:19 am This is when I'm supposed to be making the big money that puts me in a place where I can be financially secure for the long haul. I'm closer than I was, but am still probably 7-8 years away at this point.

Do the math. How old are you at that marker? How old are the kids?

Does the thought of having to work another few years offset being able to take a fully disconnected, memorable vacation with your family? Don't defer all the things you want to do to some future date. As you can see, our group is starting to pick up cancer and other serious health conditions. The future is not guaranteed.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:19 am My tentative plan is to tell my boss by the end of this fiscal year (Aug) that something needs to change. I would gladly take a 50% pay cut (which would still be more $$ than I need) and give away half my clients if it relieved some of the insane pressure. That may end up being the answer. I know I'd be hamstringing myself professionally (and I expect it would probably put me on an off-ramp out), but I think it will be worth it to save my sanity.

Sorry for the whiny brain dump...this has just all been on my mind a ton lately. I don't really know what to do, but know that I need to figure something out or I'm gonna break.

I think that's a good plan, to be honest. Sounds like you've got your ducks in a row and you can afford to start thinking about getting out of the rat race.

I was panicking a few years ago when I learned one of the owners was retiring and he and the co-owner were looking to sell the company. When that fell through after the venture capitalists looking to buy us out kept changing the terms of the deal, the other boss decided to stay on and take over ownership and buy the other one out. He's in his early 60s and conversations with him seem to indicate he's looking at another 3 to 5 years then retiring and turning the company over to someone else/selling. That may force me to retire at 60 or 62, depending on which length he goes for. My 401k has lost quite a bit over the last two years thanks to a shitty market after topping off at just over a million, but I should still have enough to retire at either of those ages. Or, at the very least, take something less stressful just to get health insurance and keep me a bit busy for a few more years. But I'll need to enjoy it, I would think.

I have zero debt, but I also have never bought a home. Something I probably should have done when I first moved to Chicago about 25 years ago. But I enjoyed not having the responsibility of home ownership. That might be the one thing that bites me in the ass now though. But I do have a rather substantial amount in stocks and bonds outside my 401k that I could probably use to put down a large down payment on a house or condo somewhere I would like to retire. Unfortunately, I can't make up my mind where that might be.

I may just call tgb and see if i can move in next to him in Mexico.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:19 am I've been thinking about all of this a lot lately. Like...a lot.

...

Sorry for the whiny brain dump...this has just all been on my mind a ton lately. I don't really know what to do, but know that I need to figure something out or I'm gonna break.

This is not a whiny brain dump--it's one of the most important decisions any of us semi-old folks are going to have to make at this point in our lives.

I'm currently 48. While I loved my job at one point, I don't think I do anymore.

..

I'm at my desk by at least 6:30 every morning (if not earlier) and I typically finish around 6 or 7:00 at night. I work at least 5-6 hours every weekend. And even then, I'm never caught up. It feels more and more that the job simply never stops.

...

If I do (god forbid) take a day off, I will have to put in 14 hours the next few days to catch up on the 200-300 e-mails that I get every day. The job is always on my mind

...

it's simply crushing me.

I think you've pretty clearly spelled out where you're at, and why you need a change.

Good news is that I've been incredibly fortunate and have done quite well for myself. After spending the first 10 years of my professional career making nearly nothing and coming out more in debt that I was when I started, I've been able to wipe all of that out and put myself right back on track for a decent retirement. Then when mom passed, we found out that she had far more money set aside than we thought, plus her house. It won't be "retire at 50" type money, but I'm certainly in a far better spot than I was before. I was able to pay off my house and get 100% out of debt. I now find myself in a position where I don't owe anything to anyone, outside of normal bills, taxes, etc. Which has really forced me to ask...what the hell am I killing myself in this job for?

That's awesome!

I don't want to end up like my dad, working until he was forced out then having life go immediately into the shitter. I want to enjoy the time I have. I want my kids to know I'm there for them. I want to be able to go to my kid's choir performance or soccer game without having to spend the entire time on work calls or answering e-mails.

At the end of the day, this is what life's about. If you loved the job, if you lived for it like your Dad, then it makes sense to sacrifice some of those things in order to elevate the career to the top of the priority heap. But when you don't love it? When you're crushed by it? GTFO.

My tentative plan is to tell my boss by the end of this fiscal year (Aug) that something needs to change. I would gladly take a 50% pay cut (which would still be more $$ than I need) and give away half my clients if it relieved some of the insane pressure. That may end up being the answer. I know I'd be hamstringing myself professionally (and I expect it would probably put me on an off-ramp out), but I think it will be worth it to save my sanity.

That sounds like a solid plan to me, too. (This may or may not be coincidental to the fact that your plan is very similar to my plan...) It's a question of balance--you may not yet be where you want to be financially to say fuck it all, but it sounds like you're on fairly solid financial footing. Those kids' performances/games are happening now. One thing I've learned is that if you don't set a specific action plan, you may find yourself in the same position 5 years from now, only you (and your kids) will be 5 years older, and you can't get those years back.

Is this where Harry Chapin starts playing in the background? I also will say again and again, I am soooo thankful for the time I am spending with my parents pretty much every week now. If I could do it all again, I'd take a bigger chance and have done it a year earlier. Of course, I'm spending a lot of effort improving my long neglected health and household and between that and taking a more active role in my finances a year earlier, that would be nothing but improvement personally. My cheese is a bit different than most, perhaps the most similar to Hep C's.

Also, ironically, now that I am settling in to a post work life, I play a lot less video games. Who'da ever thunk?

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:19 am My tentative plan is to tell my boss by the end of this fiscal year (Aug) that something needs to change. I would gladly take a 50% pay cut (which would still be more $$ than I need) and give away half my clients if it relieved some of the insane pressure. That may end up being the answer. I know I'd be hamstringing myself professionally (and I expect it would probably put me on an off-ramp out), but I think it will be worth it to save my sanity.

I would encourage you to use that off-ramp. Do the math and figure out how much you need. Start disconnecting at work and figure out what you DO want to pour yourself into.

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 11:35 am

My tentative plan is to tell my boss by the end of this fiscal year (Aug) that something needs to change. I would gladly take a 50% pay cut (which would still be more $$ than I need) and give away half my clients if it relieved some of the insane pressure. That may end up being the answer. I know I'd be hamstringing myself professionally (and I expect it would probably put me on an off-ramp out), but I think it will be worth it to save my sanity.

That sounds like a solid plan to me, too. (This may or may not be coincidental to the fact that your plan is very similar to my plan...) It's a question of balance--you may not yet be where you want to be financially to say fuck it all, but it sounds like you're on fairly solid financial footing. Those kids' performances/games are happening now. One thing I've learned is that if you don't set a specific action plan, you may find yourself in the same position 5 years from now, only you (and your kids) will be 5 years older, and you can't get those years back.

That's been weighing heavily on me. I went to Wonder Twin 9.10a's choir concert last night, and had to walk out midway through to take an "VERY URGENT!!" call and text from my boss at 7:00pm. Turns out that I hadn't filled out one row of the ridiculous spreadsheet that our new Sales VP is forcing everyone to complete (which essentially just replicates all of our CRM data in yet another format), and the VP had been hounding him nonstop for hours to have me do it NOW NOW NOW. I'm sorry, but fuck that.

Part of the reason I haven't taken the step already is because we've had a ton of turnover on my team and there simply hasn't been anyone to give up my clients to. I'm pretty sure my boss knows that something is up and that this may be coming. I've been strongly hinting this year that I'm feeling far too overloaded, but there just haven't been any options. I know that's not my problem to solve, but I really like my boss (we've worked together since my very first day here) and don't want to completely screw him over. I'll figure out how to manage that balance, but I can't continue like this. I realized this afternoon how quickly my heart started racing as I watched 16 "URGENT - NEED IMMEDIATELY" e-mails land in my inbox during a 30-minute client meeting (a meeting which also added another 3-4 URGENT action items).

I've started to become very conscious of things like that and how it's affecting my mental state...none of it positive.

At some point, you have to turn your clients over whether there's somebody ready or not. I'm not in the same situation, I'm in a lunkhead kind of job, but I still care about my patrons. I've come to the realization that I can do absolutely nothing about them once I have separated from service. When I do separate from service, I'm going to finally get to do the things that I want to do. The things that I can't do right now because I'm working my ass off and the organization expects it. Sooner or later you're going to have to let go of the people and the clients no matter how much you care about them. And then it'll be time for you. Start getting into that sort of mindset, because you'll be rudderless too if you don't.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 2:48 pm I've started to become very conscious of things like that and how it's affecting my mental state...none of it positive.

You know this, but I'll say it - your boss is abusive. I would do everything you're thinking of (reduction of work, transitioning away) that you've stated, but be prepared for your boss to just cut you loose completely. If you're not going to avail yourself to his "emergency" needs after hours and on the weekends, you might find you no longer have much use to him anymore. Figure out how that could look too and what you'd do. Offer a plan for reduced capacity but prepare for the worst.

I've been in my current professional position for 10 years, which would feel like stalling out, but there's literally no position I can be promoted to, and I'm not interested in going elsewhere at the moment. I was asked to apply for a gig that would pay a lot more last December, but working in Congress is a huge part of my self identity.

I'm in my second year of my other position, and it's been great so far.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 2:48 pm Part of the reason I haven't taken the step already is because we've had a ton of turnover on my team and there simply hasn't been anyone to give up my clients to. I'm pretty sure my boss knows that something is up and that this may be coming. I've been strongly hinting this year that I'm feeling far too overloaded, but there just haven't been any options. I know that's not my problem to solve, but I really like my boss (we've worked together since my very first day here) and don't want to completely screw him over. I'll figure out how to manage that balance, but I can't continue like this. I realized this afternoon how quickly my heart started racing as I watched 16 "URGENT - NEED IMMEDIATELY" e-mails land in my inbox during a 30-minute client meeting (a meeting which also added another 3-4 URGENT action items).

I can't speak to your position or company but I had a history of working for places, and the last on for 25+ years, that believed work 'em until they break. If they break, then they needed fixing anyway. You do you (and that's hard to figure out when it comes to work). The company won't. Even if they like to call work "a family" and try to make it seem that way. The best you can do IMO is give them notice of your intent and work with them on a reasonable time to react and accommodate. Just be prepared to discover that you are not be needed at all if you need to be needed less. If your boss has gone this long not addressing your overload, they aren't going to without incentive. Then they'll address it one way or another.

Edit, more or lessed bam'd by Smoove.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 3:28 pm You know this, but I'll say it - your boss is abusive. I would do everything you're thinking of (reduction of work, transitioning away) that you've stated, but be prepared for your boss to just cut you loose completely. If you're not going to avail yourself to his "emergency" needs after hours and on the weekends, you might find you no longer have much use to him anymore. Figure out how that could look too and what you'd do. Offer a plan for reduced capacity but prepare for the worst.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 3:34 pm I can't speak to your position or company but I had a history of working for places, and the last on for 25+ years, that believed work 'em until they break. If they break, then they needed fixing anyway. You do you (and that's hard to figure out when it comes to work). The company won't. Even if they like to call work "a family" and try to make it seem that way. The best you can do IMO is give them notice of your intent and work with them on a reasonable time to react and accommodate. Just be prepared to discover that you are not be needed at all if you need to be needed less. If your boss has gone this long not addressing your overload, they aren't going to without incentive. Then they'll address it one way or another.

You're both right. The one variable in my favor is that there's 15 sales people on this team, and I'm currently producing just over 35% of the revenue for the entire team. So he may be a bit more motivated than usual to make sure that I don't just shuffle out the door.

That said, I'm sure they could probably hire a few junior level sales people for what they're paying me, split up my territory between them, and hope for the best. If that's what they decide to do instead of working with me to make a more manageable workload, then ce la vie. I used to worry about that, but at this point I'm not sure it would bother me that much. I'm sure I could find something else to do, and would be fine for quite a while even if nothing came up immediately.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 4:09 pm You're both right. The one variable in my favor is that there's 15 sales people on this team, and I'm currently producing just over 35% of the revenue for the entire team. So he may be a bit more motivated than usual to make sure that I don't just shuffle out the door.

That said, I'm sure they could probably hire a few junior level sales people for what they're paying me, split up my territory between them, and hope for the best. If that's what they decide to do instead of working with me to make a more manageable workload, then ce la vie. I used to worry about that, but at this point I'm not sure it would bother me that much. I'm sure I could find something else to do, and would be fine for quite a while even if nothing came up immediately.

I'm in a similar mindset. I love my job. Never been unemployed since college. Always been with large corporate organizations. Told my family last year that I'm retiring at age 60.

Work has always been a priority for me and that's very sad. I want it changed. I do love my job, but it is not better than family and friends. I have one remaining kid in the house, sophomore HS. Three are gone and off the payroll. One is working as a software engineer, another in a law office about ready to start law school, and the other is at Berkeley getting a PHD. I have seven years left, the countdown is on.

Now I need to figure out how to do it. No financial planner and I'm not knowledgeable financially. I feel our savings are good enough to retire at 60, just not sure how good.

Also, we are still living in the same house that we bought when our twins were born way back when. The urge is to start looking for a smaller, less maintenance, and perhaps warmer weather home/condo. But do not really know what budget is possible.

Retirement is scary and hard to figure out.

Just venting a little.

I don't normally get worked up about pay rates. Lots of factors go into them, sometimes things might look a little funny from a certain point of view, but I'm generally alright with what I get paid.

I've been at my company for 5 years. We have WFH/telephonic nursing jobs. My job is training the new nurses we hire. About 18 months ago my job got reorganized so that I'm under the training dept, rather than the department the other nurses are under. No biggie, some slightly different policies.

I see today they've posted a job listing for new nurses (the ones I'll be training), and they're starting pay is going to be 30 cents per hours below mine. I know from previous discussions that my dept is pretty budget constrained on wages, since we're considered "not a profit making department." But when they going to hire new folks for me to train at my same pay rate, definitely feels like they don't value my experience much.

I did forward the job posting to my manager today to ask about it, so we'll see what happens.

I've been underemployed a while. Apparently I am not doing that well of a job guiding tours in San Francisco as one of those tours decided not to schedule me any more. Fine, if they decide that they can let a couple white folks run tours in Chinatown, so be it. They claimed I have been getting poor ratings. AFAIK, the only time he told me I had bad rating fed back to me was two weeks before they stopped scheduling me, and I've only gotten one tour a week anyway.

On the other hand, that spurred me to find a tech support job, and this one may be right up my alley. Let's see if they want to schedule me for a second round. I thought I did pretty well in my first round, but we shall see.

Looks like I may have just scored a proper tech support job, should received the offer later today, and orientation is on Wednesday.

Good luck! Don't screw it up

Looks like the times, they might be a changin’. After nearly thirteen years of being a contractor, it looks like it’s time to join the feds. The process to do that has been absolutely ludicrous (we are like 7 months into it at this point). But we are almost at the end now.

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 12, 2023 5:19 pm Looks like the times, they might be a changin’. After nearly thirteen years of being a contractor, it looks like it’s time to join the feds. The process to do that has been absolutely ludicrous (we are like 7 months into it at this point). But we are almost at the end now.

But did you receive the appropriate college experience to allow you to take maximum advantage of this opportunity?

Zaxxon wrote:But did you receive the appropriate college experience to allow you to take maximum advantage of this opportunity?

No, although I overcame that with work experience.

malchior wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:09 pm

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Fri Jan 27, 2023 3:55 pmBut what ever came of malchior's wife's predicament from the summer?

It's a long update - it's to put mildly a shit show. Still the worst run company I've ever seen that wasn't criminal. It might be criminal. I don't know. It makes so little sense. The highlights because the full litany of insanity is bottomless:

Edit: Quick recap - my wife started working at a profitable, well-respected chemical supply company in northern NJ. 6-months in it was sold to what can best be described as the worst run billion dollar business I've ever seen. Within months of closing the deal the new management manufactured a rationale to fire her boss on flimsy pretenses and announced they'd be closing her location and merging it with another location.

<Snipped out insanity>

* So why is my wife hanging around? They did eventually throw her a decent offer of a retention bonus to be paid out in late Spring. Even then she is a hair away from pulling the trigger to go work for her old boss who has agreed to build a wet lab in our basement (we're only talking a bench, a sink, and some equipment - nothing major). She is trying to walk a tightrope to keep him on the line while trying to get her bonus. We'll see but THIS IS INSANE obviously.

To finally close the circle on this. The place got more insane. Too much to detail but just an organization that makes arbitrary decisions and is completely dysfunctional.

She got paid out that retention mentioned above and she has been holding onto an offer letter from the aforementioned former boss. The upshot is that she negotiated a huge salary increase, 3 days in office -- the location is over an hour away, and the aforementioned home lab so she could work from home. She's quitting on Friday. Such a relief.

The last few weeks have cemented her decision to leave. To be a little vague this week was the final straw and she was relentlessly pressured to make personnel decisions that were nonsensical and arbitrary. Since she is (secretly so far) on her way out she was transparent with the team about what she was being told to do. What she was told to do was something that the management said they wouldn't do. Worse they said the exact opposite on a company-wide quarterly call last week. They're just scummy. Most of her team will likely be gone in a few weeks. The job market here is extremely robust which makes her current employer's terrible and frankly cruel conduct look even dumber.

Congrats on her escape!

I mentioned a while back in the Viral Economy thread in R&P that my employer is reducing offices and mandating more back to the office at the same time, which would potentially result in me having to move to Dallas or Atlanta unless I could get an exception to work VO from Chicago. It seems more appropriate for this thread, though, so I'll update here.

Today was the exciting day to hear to the news, and I'm pleased to say that I'm one of the 6% in the department being granted VO. I think this is due to a combination of my somewhat unique family medical situation and the fact that I'm the only lawyer currently doing a certain important piece of work at the company at the moment. I'm still going to keep my ear to the ground about other work in the area, but it's good to know I won't have to relocate or find another job immediately.

The bummer is that I'm assuming most of my Chicago legal colleagues will not be so lucky, and I think most of them will opt to retire/take severance rather than relocate.

Yay?

Congratudolences, sir!

Red State policies are affecting where talent is willing to relocate, so I’m not going to be surprised if your company sees a lot of retirements. Plus, Texas is a community property state.

I've had three new potential clients approach me in the past two weeks, all referred by word-of-mouth. If I were even five years younger I'd be able to selectively build my business as much as I'm willing to work. However, I'd rather retire. I'm going to start drawing SS in November, but won't quit working until we solve our retirement housing dilemma. It's nice to be in demand until then, and I did "fire" one client whose annual project I just don't want to do again.

Zarathud wrote: ↑Tue Jun 20, 2023 6:05 pm Red State policies are affecting where talent is willing to relocate, so I’m not going to be surprised if your company sees a lot of retirements. Plus, Texas is a community property state.

Honestly, it's less about politics (heck, some people would probably prefer a red state) and more about demographics. By and large, the Chicago office (and a lot of our other regional offices, I'm guessing) is made up of refugees from Big Law who are trading a bigger paycheck for quality of life (not that the pay check is bad, mind you, but it's not what you'd make as a partner in a big firm). That means the office skews a bit older to begin with - almost no one is joining the AT&T law department as a young lawyer. They got here in their 40s and have 20 years and were really just looking to ride things out until retirement. Their families are all here and they're established in their communities. They're not really seeing much upside in uprooting for the final 2-5 years of their careers. I'm a bit of an outlier in my early 50s with 25 years already with the company because I took a non-traditional path to my job.

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 12, 2023 5:19 pm Looks like the times, they might be a changin’. After nearly thirteen years of being a contractor, it looks like it’s time to join the feds. The process to do that has been absolutely ludicrous (we are like 7 months into it at this point). But we are almost at the end now.

In classic government fashion, everything takes forever, until it doesn't. 7+ months of absurd delays, and then a phone call asking if I can transition immediately. The careful planning for the transition is out the window, but there's nothing to be done about that. Time to get a taste of that sweet pension life SmooveB is always talking about.

Hopefully your character references don't turn out to have any скелеты в шкафу.

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 04, 2023 1:45 pm a phone call asking if I can transition immediately.

Wow. I had no idea.

I can't even imagine pension life. I'm so sad short of government, pseudo government, and some union jobs, it's a dream of the distant past.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Tue Jul 04, 2023 4:37 pm

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 04, 2023 1:45 pm a phone call asking if I can transition immediately.

Wow. I had no idea.

I can't even imagine pension life. I'm so sad short of government, pseudo government, and some union jobs, it's a dream of the distant past.

The hospital system I work in has a pension, it's not a lot, but they contribute like 5% of your annual salary into it. Plus a 5% match for your 401k, so it's a decent amount, if you work there for a long time... I have been there almost 15 years now, so yeah I qualify on the long time part.

RMC wrote: ↑Tue Jul 04, 2023 7:05 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Tue Jul 04, 2023 4:37 pm

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 04, 2023 1:45 pm a phone call asking if I can transition immediately.

Wow. I had no idea.

I can't even imagine pension life. I'm so sad short of government, pseudo government, and some union jobs, it's a dream of the distant past.

The hospital system I work in has a pension, it's not a lot, but they contribute like 5% of your annual salary into it. Plus a 5% match for your 401k, so it's a decent amount, if you work there for a long time... I have been there almost 15 years now, so yeah I qualify on the long time part.

Wife is about 10 months out from her 10-year employment anniversary in academia, whereupon she can retire with a very nice goody basket -- including a modest pension. Academia and government have much in common.

My father gets a pension. But it’s like 400 dollars a month or something. I’m always surprised when I hear about pensions. To me, they’re like beasts from mythology.

Kraken wrote: ↑Tue Jul 04, 2023 9:32 pm Wife is about 10 months out from her 10-year employment anniversary in academia, whereupon she can retire with a very nice goody basket -- including a modest pension. Academia and government have much in common.

Academia around here that provide pensions are psuedo government aka state subsidized universities.