Ever notice how many people are just counting down the years until retirement, completely miserable but stuck because they’re so close to the finish line? I’ve watched coworkers who used to take pride in their work now just going through the motions, trapped by pensions or benefits. It’s depressing seeing people who once cared now just waiting for the clock to run out. If that’s not a wake-up call to make a change before I end up the same way, I don’t know what is.
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Here's perspective from someone who lived through this very situation: Yes, you are "frozen" by your pension and benefits, as moving jobs or retiring early (before 60) seriously impacts your retirement funding. This reality kicks in around age 50 (if you're a "lifer" with the company), definitely by age 55. You need to be 60 to get the full pension calculation, a lot of people breathe a sigh of relief on that birthday. After age 60, you're not advancing your retirement numbers as much (in part because your salary and merit actions also seem to "freeze"), hence why so many 60+ will leap for the EOI. On the technical side, it's very easy for your skillset to start to deteriorate in this decade as you have few opportunities (or, admittedly, desire) to be keeping up with current technology. This is also the time that age discrimination is brazen, again fewer opportunities for anything new or challenging. Add all this together and you may be able to understand those "counting the days". Yes, and add in as others have mentioned, having to watch daily the deterioration of what was a great company in your younger days.
Did you see that during all these meetings, the management only said: "we are doing this to maximize shareholders' value" blah, blah, blah. Nothing about EMPLOPYEES VALUE! NOTHING!
We are just...... numbers for their greed....
That's unfortunately life in this industry and company. ELT of this company and most other oil companies have wrecked employee morale and made it miserable on all of us to keep the shareholders and their own bank accounts happy. We need decent board of directors and ELT that at least has a shread of care for employees. We are all in an episode of Landman basically....
It is ridiculous how management has stretched the period of uncertainty out for so long: From the first rumors until the final layoffs span over two years! I can't think of a better way to ki-l morale and productivity: All for a %20 workforce reduction. We really need a significant change in Sr. management as part of this process, but that looks unlikely.
Less about being trapped by pension and benefits and more about sadness regarding the state of the once great company. Their efforts used to matter and used to mean something. Awful hard to see how they make a difference now.
These people worked very hard for their pension and benefits and are now close to being free from ever needing to work again. Pathetic that MW has squandered theses excellent resources and has allowed the company to inwardly spiral downward.
I am now only a stockholder, but it is disgusting what I am seeing. Also equally disgusting is how the BOD has allowed this to happen. If you stay, make sure you start a few side gigs you can grow over time into a future transition strategy.
You are at the right time to change your employment now. In previous generations, the idea was to get a job at a good company and stay until retirement but that dream has faded. Corporations are no longer the life long employer they were in post WWII. The corporation of today is about maximizing profits and increasing the stock price so the executives can get large payouts for performance.
The new model is to move jobs every 5 years and save your own money for retirement. In the future you will see more and more people working as contractors in short term assignments.
We are all just hamsters running on the wheel so we can eat and feed our families.