I think we discussed this before, but I don’t recall a solid answer was given.
Normally, if you plan to leave your job they want 2 weeks’ notice. Well, I’m retiring. Even with a pandemic lock-down, I’m just soooo done. I’m assuming 2 weeks is not enough. From a practical standpoint, I could just leave. I don’t need a recommendation in the future. But I harbor no ill-will, and I’m a stockholder, so I would rather exit gracefully.
I’m thinking two months’ notice. That gives them time to interview, get someone for me to “show the ropes”**. Enough? I’m assuming I have to notify both my manager and HR (that is probably company-dependent, but I wouldn’t think it ideal for a manager to hear it from HR before he hears it from me).
Etiquette isn’t my strong suit.
1poorguy
**I’m not going to be able to train a new failure analysis person…that takes on the order of a year since they don’t teach that in college. But I can at least show them what is where, and who to talk to if various situations arise.
I’m thinking two months’ notice. That gives them time to interview, get someone for me to “show the ropes”**. Enough? I’m assuming I have to notify both my manager and HR (that is probably company-dependent, but I wouldn’t think it ideal for a manager to hear it from HR before he hears it from me).
Etiquette isn’t my strong suit.
Since you really don’t care when, let your supervisor know you would be willing to work with them within reason, and let them tell you how much time they would like. Negotiate from there. Some companies will escort you out the door that very moment, some try to milk you for every second they can get. Also consider leaving yourself open to contracting to train the replacement. It can be much more rewarding financially, particularly if you already have the benefits covered with retiree benefits.
You don’t owe them anything. It’s great that you want to be accommodating, but make it worth your while. DH went from 60+ hour weeks on salary, to being paid $220/hour with increments of 15 minutes, and paid from the moment he left the door of the house. Checking emails? Charge them for that. So much work time the average salaried employee does for free.
Contracting can be a nice transition to retirement if you have the expertise they want.
IP
We’re so close to the next ESPP purchase, that I would want that to trigger before I depart. Otherwise, I don’t care when. I could leave tomorrow. But the ESPP is a little over a month away, and it’s a nice perk.
We’re so close to the next ESPP purchase, that I would want that to trigger before I depart. Otherwise, I don’t care when. I could leave tomorrow. But the ESPP is a little over a month away, and it’s a nice perk.
Then be careful about giving notice until after you can do that purchase.
Bro felt he was such a big deal in the company he was working for that he gave them a year’s notice. They had security walk him out. Didn’t want to give him the time to gather secrets and clients to take with him to a competitor.
Be ready to leave when you give notice. It’s not certain how it will be taken.
1poorguy, I think your gut instinct is correct, go for 2 months and see what they say. They depend on you for the work that you do and it’s a considerate thing to do to give the extra notice. I don’t think they can use a fill-in person right off the bat if you left your job in two weeks. Give them a heads up.
What’s that saying? Do unto others what you would like done for you.
And another one is, how would you like to be remembered? You left them hanging out to dry or that you were considerate enough to give them some time to get their ducks in a row?
Two months sounds good. If you give more than that, they’ll just procrastinate on finding your replacement, and then say, “What, you were serious?” when you bring it up again two months before your departure.
Let your manager know first, privately, after the ESPP happens. The manager is the one that will be impacted. HR’s role is t crossing and i-dotting; telling you to fill out this form, contact that benefits department, and telling the manager to tell IT security when your last day is via email/form, etc. If they’re like my companies, that’s all they are.
I gave notice in November that I would retire some time around the end of this school year–I work for a school, and that’s pretty standard there, although generally it’s teachers and they need to hire replacements well in advance. I do accounting and will probably end up staying through our audit this summer to close out the fiscal year, although sometimes I feel like if they would escort me out the door now, I’d be dancing all the way (and I don’t even dance).
I want to give the school plenty of time to plan for replacing me (I’ve been there 30 years) and to find a good person and get them properly situated. I didn’t give a firm date, and left the door open to accommodate the school’s timing if they had another idea of what would be good timing, or if they stumbled across a good person sooner. I’m close with my boss–we’ve worked together the full 30 years–and I don’t want to put her in a bad situation.
Watching how some other people’s exits have gone, I may need to give a firm date at some point or I will be there longer than planned. And given that many parts of my job are on a yearly cycle, I expect I will get calls for a while after I leave, asking how to do things (or asking what the heck I did when I did x…)
Congratulations!! I’m sure you’ve worked long and hard to be able to make this life change!
I agree that it’s best to wait for your variable compensation to get settled before having a discussion with your manager. I think it all depends on your individual situation.
I retired from an IT leadership role of a large global team that was trying to move mountains within a $25B organization. I had a very large organization and budgetary responsibility. I gave my boss 6 months notice (which he conveniently just ignored) right after I cut the last check for our last kid’s university. I think it was about 2 months before my targeted quit date when I approached him and really had a heart to heart chat with him about accepting and planning for my departure.
So if your think that two months seems reasonable, I’d go with that. But, I’d wait until after the ESPP to give notice, though. Just to be safe.
I think it depends on your particular situation and your relationship with your boss.
In my case, my boss knew a couple of years prior to my retirement that it was coming, and when I finally settled on a date, I gave her a year notice. She informed her manager, who was the VP of our division as it made a difference in staffing plans. Interestingly enough, he gave her approval to hire my replacement a year ahead so that I could train them (I was the only one doing that function in the company), but she was in denial that I’d ever retire and dragged her feet.
One of the reasons that I gave such a long notice was that I did not want to receive stock options as part of my quarterly bonus since I was not going to be around for them to vest. Giving them my intentions early allowed them to adjust my bonus so that it was all cash, and give the options to someone who would be around for their vesting.
I ended up moving my retirement date out one month when my boss pointed out that I’d get one more bonus if I did that.
In my case, my company treated me very well even knowing when I was going to retire. I do think it makes a difference between retirement and just leaving for a new opportunity, and so there was very little chance that I was going to be walked out the door.
I left on very good terms, and 3 years later, I am still in contact with a lot of the folks who were there including my boss who retired last year. But it really depends on each individual situation.
There are exactly two things giving extra notice will do for you: Jack and squat. It is 100% downside, no upside.
If you make this mistake, what you will find is that they will rapidly replace you in their minds. Your opinion regarding any future project (which is all of them) will not be valued because you won’t be there. You will be a ghost in meetings. You won’t be seen as part of the team anymore. They will naturally start thinking of work arounds that don’t involve you. Your last two months will be a death march, at best.
As others have pointed out, they might not even take your offer. At which point you will come to understand how much your generosity is appreciated. Here’s an experiment. Stick your arm in a bowl of water. Remove you arm. Record how much the water level has changed. That is the exact measure of how much they value your extra notice.
And fair is fair. If there were layoffs coming, you would get exactly no notice. Why do you owe them consideration they refuse to extend to you?
Now, you are not a savage. If they truly value your contributions and wish that you stay on for some additional period to ease the transition, then of course you should entertain the offer, as a reasonable person should. Perhaps you stay on at full salary for a time of mutual agreement. Perhaps you could consult with them at a lucrative rate. You’re leaving. You hold all the cards. It is the company’s job to make the counter offer. But get it in writing.
As a manager, I’d appreciate a heads up in the manner of: “Hey, just so you know, I’m seriously thinking about retiring sometime this year.” That at least puts it on my radar. I don’t care about the actual date until we’re ready to lock it in with HR, but some advance notice so I can plan projects without getting blindsided by unexpected attrition. That said, I like to think of myself as an easygoing manager. The relationship with my employees is that we could discuss plans for someone’s planned departure without anyone’s feelings getting hurt or asking security to escort someone out of the building.
We’re so close to the next ESPP purchase, that I would want that to trigger before I depart. Otherwise, I don’t care when. I could leave tomorrow. But the ESPP is a little over a month away, and it’s a nice perk.
I was in a similar situation in late 2020, and here’s what I had planned:
-Work though the February date where the bonus for hitting previous year’s metrics was paid out
-Ask if there were any “packages” anticipated that quarter. The “package” is some severance given for a voluntary layoff.
---->If there were any packages, evaluate whether another six months pay would be worth working another X months past my target leaving date
-Otherwise, give two weeks notice after getting the bonus. If the company asks to stay longer, evaluate the offer to see if it’s worth staying the extra time.
Advantages to being laid off vs. just leaving:
-Possible severance
-Unemployment payments (if you’re interested in looking for a different job–sounds like this doesn’t fit you)
-Eligibility for COBRA health insurance
-The government may pick up some of your health insurance cost. For those laid off in 2020 due to Covid, the federal government paid April - September health insurance payments. (There were some restrictions, like you had to be on COBRA I think.)
With all the 2020 layoffs at my company and problems in my industry, there wasn’t any 2020 bonus.
Now, you are not a savage. If they truly value your contributions and wish that you stay on for some additional period to ease the transition, then of course you should entertain the offer, as a reasonable person should. Perhaps you stay on at full salary for a time of mutual agreement. Perhaps you could consult with them at a lucrative rate. You’re leaving. You hold all the cards. It is the company’s job to make the counter offer. But get it in writing.
Yes, get it in writing, including waiver of liability for your work for them as a contractor, which is something you enjoy as an employee.
DH found that with his much higher than employee contractor rates, the bullsh!t work went to other people and the level of interest his job provided actually went up. I minded much less the (fewer) hours he spent working, knowing he was doing projects that interested him and he was getting paid for all the work he put in, not having extra work thrown on top of a full plate because work knew he was dependable and seemed to think you should work 24 hours a day when salaried. It was a great way to transition into retirement, both for him and the company.
Retirement is awesome. Congratulations on getting there.
In today’s world giving 2 weeks notice is a standard anymore. Obviously if you don’t want to burn bridges you want to be careful but people do all kinds of stuff. I’ve never given more than 2 weeks noticed and have left anything from 0 to 2 weeks.
I once worked for a place that essentially just placed you into positions at other sites and spoke with 2 ladies that worked there and I kind of reported to and asked them about giving notice. They essentially told me (this was late 2001) burn your leave and just quit. I guess they didn’t trust the new management so that is what I did.
In other cases I resigned after finishing projects and left after a day. In another case the manager said he’d cover my health insurance for a month if I wanted to leave at the end of the week which was fine to me. I always like to take off weeks between jobs.
Too many people think they owe something to a company but you don’t. And when cuts come, companies can be ruthless. I’ve never been laid off or unemployed (except by choice) but people give too much to companies in many cases.
With retirement sometimes you have to give more notice depending on the paperwork involved. At least with the government they often would like 3+ months notice.
I’m trying to hang in there until the end of the year.
Only you know what your relationship with your manager and the company is like.
I would wait until after the ESPP and/or any other bonuses or stock vesting is locked in, then approach my manager and tell him/her that you are going to retire and give an approximate date.
Say that you will notify HR in writing giving 2 weeks notice but you are giving him/her a heads up.
Since you are retiring and not going to a competitor you will likely not get walked out.
Then see what your manager does. Might ignore it for a while or might start looking for a replacement. You can then put in your 2 weeks notice whenever you want, knowing you gave them plenty of time. If you are suddenly out of the loop you can leave sooner. If they are really looking but not finding a good replacement you might stay a bit longer. It they don’t seem to be seriously looking you can choose to leave any time.
Also, keep the communications with your manager going.
As others have said, wait until your ESPP is locked in before giving notice.
Have you checked your employee agreement (you probably signed something when you started) and/or the HR Manual for notice requirements? It’s usually spelled out there.
Be prepared for both extremes; being walked out when you give notice to being asked to stick around for a few months.
I only have 1 regret about being retired. I waited too long.
