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Wifes Company Is Laying Off Or Retirement Packages

dav1965dav1965 Member Posts: 26,540 ✭✭✭
edited November 2019 in General Discussion
Anybody that has a number above 80 will be offered a generous retirement package. My wifes number is 90.

She is 54 and has been their since she was 18. So 54 + 36 = 90

She has great work reviews. In 36 years she has received 35 4s and 1 3. 4 is as high as you can get.

Plus she has had perfect attendance 30+ years. One of the kids came early and her vacation was not timed right. LOL Since 1982 or 83 she has had perfect attendance.

Another good thing is she is in new products since 2012 so it would take someone about 3 years to figure out her job. Plus they send a private plan 2 or 3 times a month to fly her to meetings in Indiana. Plus they have sent her to China and Japan to fix problems so she should be pretty safe this time.

Now the bad things. She is at top top pay. She gets 15 holidays paid. Plus 2 weeks at Christmas and a week at Thanksgiving. Plus 5 weeks vacation. Also if she works any of them days she gets triple time and paid 8. 4 hour minimum. Even if all she does is log on to the computer from home.

She does not belong to a union where she works at but other plants for that company has unions so it covers her plant.

They can and will fire you if you do anything from home and not report it.

She works in new products so if she logs on they know so there better be a bill attached to it. She does not think responding to an email she should get paid but its not her choice.

The worst part of everything is they will use me being sick against her. Her company has health insurance however they use a company to pay the bills. Her company pays all the hospital bills out of their pocket. So when i had cancer they paid almost 2 million dollars. Throw in 2 hernias, 1 tendon in the foot, 2 knee replacements. 8 shots in my back and neck every 3 months with a ultrasound like thing showing where to put the shots. Plus operating on 2 hamstrings i think corporate might just know my name.

The other really really bad thing is my medicine is 300 a month with insurance.

So they have a good and bad reason to keep her or let her go. I just hate being the bad reason.

Comments

  • nmyersnmyers Member Posts: 16,892 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I suspect that the real problem (for the company) is your wife, not your medical expenses. (They have already paid the big bucks for you.) The company may see your wife's high salary, & the gap before she becomes eligible for Medicare, as a big liability over the next 15 years. Once she leaves the company, she will need to buy health insurance on the open market. (Thank goodness there is Obamacare for affordable coverage.)

    My wife's company wasn't nearly as nice. They just called in each of the long time employees, & offered them 1 week of pay for each year that they had worked if they would "voluntarily" resign. (They got their 401K balance, which, of course, they couldn't withdraw until age 65.) Fortunately, my wife was on my company health insurance policy, so she didn't have to worry about that.

    It's not personal, it's just business.

    Neal
  • WarbirdsWarbirds Member Posts: 16,938 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Take the money and run.

    The cost of insuring you or what you may have cost the Insuranance company is not a factor.

    This is the first haircut- next time it might simply be a layoff notice.
  • Sam06Sam06 Member Posts: 21,244 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Warbirds wrote:
    Take the money and run.

    The cost of insuring you or what you may have cost the Insuranance company is not a factor.

    This is the first haircut- next time it might simply be a layoff notice.

    +1

    This is a right to fire state and with all the experience she has they may bring her back as a contract employee working part or full time.
    RLTW

  • bustedkneebustedknee Member Posts: 2,001 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Listen to Warbirds. "....Take the money and run...."

    Nowadays big companies are run by "Economist/Managers who bought their degrees.
    They:
    Get rid of productive employees
    They are a threat to the lazy and incompenent.
    Get rid of the older employees
    They are making the most money and using the most benefits.
    Get rid of the people that know what what they are doing
    They are a direct threat to everyone else, esp the managers.

    I ran into this very thing working for the government. Which brings up my major point.
    I saved and invested then retired one week after I became eligible (age55) eventho I could have drawn more retirement had I stayed longer -- assuming I would have lived through it.

    I have not regretted my decision for one damned second!

    There is too much to do, too much to see, too much to smile about. And I don't get up at 3:30 AM anymore!
    I can't believe they misspelled "Pork and Beans!"
  • Rocky RaabRocky Raab Member Posts: 14,497 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The company is making a business decision. So should your wife. Run the numbers and if she gets a pension with even partial medical bennies, it might add up to a sizable percentage of what she's now earning. Plus the possibility of coming right back as a consultant. And she's still young enough to offer some other company 10 years of work if she wants to.

    As mentioned above, if she decides to stay, she could get laid off with much fewer choices in just a few weeks or months anyway.
    I may be a bit crazy - but I didn't drive myself.
  • mark christianmark christian Member Posts: 24,443 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    It will require three years for someone new to figure out your wife's job? Really? We can change Presidents of the United States every four years. I will agree with the others who have said take the deal and don't look back, because the next time around there might not be a deal on the table.
  • grdad45grdad45 Member Posts: 5,381 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have a friend who was in the same situation at 50 years old. He opted to take their offer, and one month later he became a consultant to other companies in the same field. He had made a lot of contacts doing his job. He recently retired at 65 after selling his company for about 2 million bucks.
    Your wife may be able to use her job experience that way. Good luck to you both.
  • serfserf Member Posts: 9,217 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Sounds like you need to file for disability insurance and hope your 65 soon for medicare insurance. As the baby-boomers retire the government is going to be hurting to cover their ponzi schemes however.

    serf
  • dav1965dav1965 Member Posts: 26,540 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I am on disability i make over I continue to urge members not to post personal financial details in this forum. Dave, if you want to edit this post and reinsert the amount of your monthly income then feel free to do so. Mark C. . My military pay messed me up bad when i was in. They did not count that as income.

    My wife would come back as a contractor about 90% positive at a massive salary.

    Not being funny it would take about 3 years for a smart person to take her job. Someone could come in tomorrow and follow the tech books and figure out a problem in about 4 hours but she can figure out a problem within minuets.

    I used to work at the same place she did before i got sick. I did maintenance for her moving or installing cranes opening up new work stations, etc.

    Im sure Caterpillar would offer her the moon to change jobs but she would never work for them because she is 100 percent faithful to the company she works for. They looked out for her when i had cancer and she will never leave them unless they let her go.
  • dav1965dav1965 Member Posts: 26,540 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Mark C thanks i do not mind being corrected. My wife is always complaining about me being to honest. Thanks again. David
  • fatcat458fatcat458 Member Posts: 436 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    My daughter is in HR :( lf l worked for her company she'd lay me off if she thought it would save the Company an extra 50 cents. lf the company thought they could save a nickel they'd put my daughter in the street in a New York minute... Thank goodness my UNION looked out for its Members... As employees we looked out for the company. After retirement we have a pension AND medical lns.. My son chose non-union employment in the SAME craft as me. Approaching 50 and after working for almost 30yrs he has NOTHING. No retirement pension or med lns, just a pay check, cel phone, and a company truck... Now he is sick, likely COPD due to unsafe work habits and smoking.. Likely he will be let go when he cant perform. No more paycheck, company truck, or cel phone :shock: ..
  • Hawk CarseHawk Carse Member Posts: 4,383 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Good for her.
    My agency operated on a similar point system.
    We were offered a handsome early retirement plan with the warning that there would not be another. I took it and ran.
    I was no burden on the health insurance plan but the month I turned 65 and went on Medicare, The Incident put me in hospital. I hit them hard, also BCBS supplemental and homeowners. They won't get it back from premiums if I live to be 105.
  • jrentjrent Member Posts: 89
    edited November -1
    What does that extra money go now that these companies use to put in a pension fund for their employees? Profits are good and wages have not went up much so for a lot of companies there has to be some good income to go somewhere and the employees sure don't get much of it.
  • nmyersnmyers Member Posts: 16,892 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Many retirement plans provided by private employers are covered by ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974). Plans are guaranteed that, if the plan goes bankrupt, covered workers will get a partial benefit from PBGC (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp), a federal agency. They force companies to keep a certain amount in their pension plans.

    The maximum PBGC benefit is about $67,000 per year, often a lot less. It's always less than the company told workers they would receive. Often, companies would look at their pension fund, declare that it had excessive money in it, & withdraw it & distribute the money to the executives. When business got bad, they would just declare the pension fund bankrupt, & dump it on PBGC. It shouldn't happen, but private industry pays accountants & lawyers a lot more than the government pays the ones that work for them.

    Many folks covered by ERISA will never get their pension because they won't be able to locate the plan administrator when they turn 65 & need to collect.

    Neal
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