End Of Days Compensation Packages?

Waiting for the Axe to Fall asks: "I work for a larger webhosting company that has plans to consolidate one of its west coast data centers with an east coast location which they already have in place. Forget that this is a bad idea in terms of geographical redundancy--it is going to happen. The company did inform all west coast employees about the move, roughly a year in advance. This was done Im sure to ease the shock and fear of loosing ones job. This affects a small group (8-9) of employees, all of whom are tied up in operations and the data center specifically. If you were in this situation (as one of the employees), what would you require/want/wish for in this retention plan? The benefits of staying with the company, until the end, must out weight the risk of being jobless; or is this not the path you would choose? Would you leave as soon as the announcement was made?" "As employees, the group decided to go to management and request a 'retention plan' of sorts. This is a contract that outlines specific benefits to stay with the company through the move, and help getting the systems across the country without service interruption. The support of these few is a requirement, due to the vast array of legacy and non standard systems. The job could otherwise be done with consultants, however going this route would take substantially longer, and would be at a much greater cost to the company. So, it is truly in their best interests to have the staff that has managed these systems for the past 5-8 years stick it out."

Comments

From past experience

[malachid69]

Only one company I have worked for gave us a compensation package. They gave us 6 months notice and 3 months severance if we stayed through the last day. They also encouraged us to use company time to look for a new job. Not only did this give us the impression that they were not just hosing us, but it also helped ease the income-shock associated with the extremely unpredictable duration of unemployment. Every single employee (about 12) stayed until the last day.

Re:What Happens when the Writing is on the Wall

[Safety Cap]

I'll add to the above that you can either be IN CONTROL or OUT OF CONTROL. Guess which one is the loser?

In Control: Actively manages one's career. Continuously learning and expanding skills. Takes initiative to find new projects/products to work on. When current job's growth potential has flat-lined, actively searches out next place that will provide growth opportunities (see line item #1) Out of Control: Let's others manage one's career. Rarely expands skill-set. Waits for others to tell one which projects/products to work on. When current job's growth potential has flatlined, waits for job to deteriorate to the point where it goes away and one gets forced out (but with a package).

Question: which one is ultimately more successful, has less stress and enjoys her job more?