[QUOTE=scottkris]
Do you want to play"who sucks more?“”
You lose, as I “bounce” (not really, as I have overdraft protectionz) over $150 every 2 weeks, and my paycheck is less than $1200 a month…
[/QUOTE]
Well, on rare occasions it is $3000 a month…still.
[QUOTE=WhyNot]
Did the board get hit with a stupid stick this morning, or are y’all drunk?
Rick’s bosses offered him something good. He said yes. Now they’re saying whoops-maybe not. Neener-neener.
The details are irrelevant, he’s got every right to be pissed off about the neener-neener. He’s not pitting the fact that he’s got a decent job (for now) making a decent wage (for now) that’s better than a lot of people have (for now) - he’s pitting the disorganized and short sighted management that offered him something shiny and neat and then yanked it away like Scut Farkas teasing a schoolboy with a ferret.
[/QUOTE]
Finally, somebody understood my OP.
WhyNot you understand perfectly that I have been mentally packing my bags for the last month. Now I am being told not so fast.
Thank you for understanding.
[QUOTE=scottkris]
Do you want to play"who sucks more?“”
You lose, as I “bounce” (not really, as I have overdraft protectionz) over $150 every 2 weeks, and my paycheck is less than $1200 a month…
[/QUOTE]
Okay…you suck more. Don’t you get charged for those overdrafts? Isn’t there some kind of interest paid on that? My bank does not offer this luxury for free (and I never bounce checks).
[QUOTE=Kalhoun]
I saw it as “I’ll take it” and then they pulled the carrot just out of reach because EVERYONE said “I’ll take it.” So now it’s “you might get it and you might not.” He feels (and rightly so) that if he doesn’t get this, he may get royally fucked if a judge rules that Ford can dissolve his pension and leave him with nothing.
I’d be scared, too. Not sure how many years he has with them, but when you work a job for a long time, PLANNING to use the benefit they offered you, only to have them reneg on it, it can totally fuck up your future.
Now…that said, I assume only part of his retirement money is in the pension and a good amount is in a 401K. To me, that says he’ll get a $100K fucking, but won’t retire empty-handed. He’ll be another of a shitload of guys who has had his soul sucked completely and permanently from his existence. And that truly blows.
[/QUOTE]
All of my retirement money is in my pension, none in a 401K. Up to this point there has been too much expenses and not enough income. I will fix that with my new job.
[QUOTE=Kalhoun]
Okay…you suck more. Don’t you get charged for those overdrafts? Isn’t there some kind of interest paid on that? My bank does not offer this luxury for free (and I never bounce checks).
[/QUOTE]
$35 per check
Obviously, it is not “free” :smack:
But sometimes…
Sometimes…
I get through the 2 weeks w/ no overdraft.
:::::Snoopy dance::::
I WIN THE LOSER CONTEST
[QUOTE=Rick]
All of my retirement money is in my pension, none in a 401K. Up to this point there has been too much expenses and not enough income. I will fix that with my new job.
[/QUOTE]
<shudder!> HOLY SHIT, DUDE! I hope Ford turns out to be a stand-up operation. How many years do you have with them?
In two weeks it will be 15 years.
[QUOTE=Kalhoun]
I hope Ford turns out to be a stand-up operation.
[/QUOTE]
Isn’t Ford the company that sent out the goon squad and killed some protesters in the '30s?
I’ve always believed that Swedish companies were more humane in their treatment of employees than American ones. Let’s hope they have some influence over their owners.
I hear a lot of people saying that people should buck up and take responsibility for their actions. Why, for example, should we have universal health care? People should plan ahead and choose to buy their own insurance instead of buying a new car or drinking 200 lattes a month. Or when people who trained for a certain career and have spent 20 years doing it and then get laid off when the company offshores the position? They should have known 20 years ago they were going to get screwed. They were shortsighted, and it’s their own fault they have to flip burgers! But when a business wants to renege on its committments? ‘We must protect the business! Anyway, it’s the employees’ fault for not planning ahead and making other arrangements! We have to let the poor company discontinue its pension plan!’
Volvo-Ford should be seeing a problem here. They wanted to cut x positions. They’ve received applications from 175%x. What if all of those people left? Who will do the work that needs to be done? And how will those who do not leave feel about the situation? The company will be in danger of losing experienced people at any time. Morale is important. I see two reasonable solutions: First, the company can let everyone who applied to retire early. They made the offer, and they should not renege on it. Or, allow x people to retire early and then sign a contract with the ones who stay that guarantees that those workers who have already applied for early retirement will receive their full, previously-agreed to pensions (not the incentive-if-you-retire-early bonus) when they do retire no matter how the retirement plan changes in the future.
[QUOTE=scottkris]
That’s what bank accounts are for. Kids today are spoiled. 
[/QUOTE]
And this “kid today” doesn’t have any trust in pensions, or annunities, or Social Security, or anything else that has my money in an account that’s not directly under my control and without my being able to add money or move it around from stock to stock or fund to fund or bond to bond at any time. I’m 24. Social Security is going to collapse and stick my generation with the bill because of the goddamn Baby Boomers and their refusal to man up and do something about it now, annunities always have lousy ROI compared to the market, and why should I trust a pension these days, considering all the defaulting that has already gone on? Hell, I’ve never understood why people near retirement today weren’t out there investing 30-40 years ago. I can and do do it right now and I’ve got at least 40 years before I could even think about retiring (I still haven’t had an actual job in my speciality yet, what with school, and then college, and then grad school.)
And I, for one, understood the OP just fine. Ford can’t manage the Detroit Lions, so why the hell would anyone expect them to be able to know what they are doing with a heavy manufacturing company? If a CEO can run a company into the ground and make out with millions, why the hell can’t the workers have some actual security?
Rick, maybe you should just bail now anyway and go to an actually profitable, well-managed company. Like Toyota.
[QUOTE=scottkris]
That’s not the way I saw it. I saw it as the company said “here you go, take it or leave it”. The OP said “I’ll take it,” and then complained about it.
<shrug>
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Rick]
I got a call this afternoon from my manager. It seems that management has made three lists.
First list: Those that are getting the early retirement deal. I am not on that list.
Second list: Those that are not getting the early retirement deal. I am also not on that list.
Third list: Those that are on standby. I am on this list.
[/QUOTE]
???
Drunk or stupid?
[QUOTE=scottkris]
Do you want to play"who sucks more?“”
You lose, as I “bounce” (not really, as I have overdraft protectionz) over $150 every 2 weeks, and my paycheck is less than $1200 a month…
[/QUOTE]
My takehome per month is approximately $700. I win. Or lose… how’s this work again?
Corporations do not play nice. The husband of a friend lost his job, at a store where he’d started as a checker when he was young. He worked there 33 years, moved into middle management, and then his job went to India.
The company (Kroger) offered a buyout for employees who had 25+ years service. The catch was that they had to be 55. He missed that by a couple of years. Then it turned out they had a date which, if you would turn 55 by that date, you could still get the early retirement deal. He missed it by three months. No pension. At all. Back on the job market at age 53, with only one employer on his resume. Thirty-three years down the drain.
Stupid. No way to go through life, son.
Rick, it’s not over. It wasn’t over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, it’s not over now.
Are you going to be let go without the bennies, or is there a slim chance you keep the job?
[QUOTE=Rick]
It never occurred to you that you might have more than X number of employees apply for the early retirement?
You never gave that possibility a thought?
Do you really think we love you that much?
[/quote]
Yes. Managers at large, traditional, hierarhical organizations tend to think that their employees are drooling goons who would be helpless without kindly high-level executives to take care of all their earthly needs. I was amazed at the pervasiveness of this mindset during the years that I worked in telecom. The more sophisticated the employees really were–engineers, computer programmers, financial analysts–the more management viewed them as a grown-up version of “Jerry’s kids”, and believed that that was how the employees viewed themselves.
They are neither. They just think that you’re stupid.
You lost me with this comment, though. If you could be making 50% more money somewhere else, then maybe your management is right about you.
[QUOTE=Freddy the Pig]
Yes. Managers at large, traditional, hierarhical organizations tend to think that their employees are drooling goons who would be helpless without kindly high-level executives to take care of all their earthly needs. I was amazed at the pervasiveness of this mindset during the years that I worked in telecom. The more sophisticated the employees really were–engineers, computer programmers, financial analysts–the more management viewed them as a grown-up version of “Jerry’s kids”, and believed that that was how the employees viewed themselves.
They are neither. They just think that you’re stupid.
You lost me with this comment, though. If you could be making 50% more money somewhere else, then maybe your management is right about you.
[/QUOTE]
I read that as 50% OF salary (commonly described as ‘half’); not an ADDITIONAL 50%.
[QUOTE=DrDeth]
In any case, if the pension defaults, that just means your max pension is $45K/year.
[/QUOTE]
Oh goody. The taxpayers can foot the bills to pay the pensions when a company decides they don’t want to pay it anymore because they aren’t competitive.
[QUOTE=Annie]
I read that as 50% OF salary (commonly described as ‘half’); not an ADDITIONAL 50%.
[/QUOTE]
50% MORE usually means more, not less. “Half” is less.
I was given a 33% cut of my gross income and then terminated 6 years later.
If I was RICK I would be mad too.
I understood him just fine.
If you worked for something and are then given the shaft, the fact that you are are better off than me or even many people does not negate that you were given the shaft and I, for one, am not going to bad mouth anyone who is unjustly deprived of what they worked for or were promised.
I was lucky to be born in the US of A, I could have been born a lot of places much worse. That does not mean that I have to stand for unjust or just plain wrong treatment just because I am better off than some folks in a third world country.
The world is round.
It is not fair.
It is just round.
*
Agreed. Now…if they said, “Hey, Rick…we might give you the pension we promised for the last 15 years, but we might not, so you better put your eggs in additional baskets” then that would be fair. I’m guessing that’s not how it was laid out to him, though.
:eek:
What happened in here this morning?! What is with you guys? I’m telling you, it is a rare day on the SDMB where I and a few other people understand perfectly what’s going on like it’s plainly obvious and the rest of you are totally out in left field.
Upside down world!!
Rick, I feel for you. I watched my Dad go through the same thing with Edison, only I don’t think they threatened to take the whole thing away. He had to take the early retirement, and now he drives a bus at almost 60. This is why my husband and I are starting our own business at 34. I cannot imagine HAVING to go to work every day when I’m 60. It will. Not. Happen.
Not that the businesses success is at all guaranteed, but the field we’re going in to has a better chance of surviving with our souls intact than most others and we don’t have to suck corporate dick anymore.