Ask Slashdot: When Is the Right Time To Discuss Retirement With Your Employer?

An anonymous reader writes: As I am sliding down the far side of 60, retirement is something coming up in two or three years.

The usual notice time is two weeks, but I'm one of two people (maybe three if they pull one back in off other projects he's done the past four years) who do what I do, and is fairly important to the company's product. Yeah, we'd be in serious hurt if one of us were hit by a truck.

I'd like to give a lot of notice. It took them six months to find me for this position half a decade ago. But I don't want to be let go before I'm ready to go, either.

Most slashdotters seem to be a lot younger than me, so maybe I'm asking in the wrong place, but has anyone else dealt with this issue?

Comments

Let them know early

[XXongo]

There is no reason not to tell your employer about your intent to retire in 6 months. They aren't going to lay you off when you've already told them that you're leaving in six months anyway: firing somebody is a lot of work and has a lot of bad effects, and they'd gain only six months of your salary, which would get eaten up with severance pay and lawsuits. If they did want to get rid of you, having you retire is their best case scenario.

So, go ahead, let them know, and start training your replacement.

Re:Let them know early

[squiggleslash]

6 months of pay may be a significant thing for a smaller company

While this is true, there's presumably a reason they were paying him in the first place. Businesses are rarely evil, just sociopathic. That is, they'll make logical decisions in their best interests. Sometimes those decisions will end up screwing people over. But they won't make illogical decisions that are against their own interests just to screw people over. And, actually, even sociopaths know it's not actually in their best interests to screw people over so they tend to avoid it, and companies are the same way. Look at how normal it is to have severance packages when they're trying to reduce the number of employees, even if they operate in at-will states.

This entire comment section is utterly ridiculous, full of people absolutely convinced that the first thing a boss will do upon hearing someone is going to retire is fire them.

Why? Why would you fire someone who is leaving? Why wouldn't you take advantage of the fact you know this person is going to leave and when they're going to leave and use that to plan a transition?

This isn't hard people. I've seen it every where I work. I have literally never seen anyone fired because they gave more than two weeks notice. I've seen one person actually resign because they wanted to move across the country, and the company helped them with everything, including ensuring they had consultancy work to ease the transition while they looked for work in their new location.

Yes, there are some small businesses that are terribly run and terrible to their employees. But we're developers. We're not waitstaff. We're not retail assistants. We're not in any of those industries notorious for treating people like crap.

To the submitter: just wait until's a good time, when you'd be OK leaving now but another six months wouldn't hurt, and let the company know. It'll help them and your coworkers, it'll feel good when you leave, and, hey, you'll probably get a retirement gift.

Just don't do anything dangerous two days before retirement. That never goes well...

Plan to win

[weeboo0104]

I agree with the earlier poster who said let them know when you are ready to go.
Keep in mind that they may walk you out the door the minute after you tell them you want to retire.
With that being said...
Most companies have some kind of development plan structure in place for employees to give them room to grow. Initiate a development discussion with your employer and state that one of your development goals for yourself and the company for the year is to plan for retirement. (Where do you see yourself in a year? On a beach sipping margaritas.) This gives them a chance to either find a new hire to work with you on a transition, or an internal employee who might want to broaden their skillset and work with a mentor (you) for the next year or however long the transition is.
Mutually agree on a date to leave and invite them to hire you as a contractor or part-time employee if they need additional work done.

Re:Retirement?

[b0s0z0ku]

Of course it's an option:
(1) Assuming you have a paid-off home, rent it out
(2) Go live somewhere where it costs $1000-2000/mo to survive. Bali, Costa Rica, parts of Portugal, you get the drift.

Why do you have to be tied down to the US?

Re:No good dead goes unpunished

[Rob Y.]

I have the opposite problem.

Our 'team' has been whittled down to the point that it consists of 3 guys - all over 60. There are no junior people to take our places - and the company seems to have no plans to hire any. This situation arose out of a botched outsourcing program. The outsourcing firm was pathetic and was ultimately dropped after everyone who knew the product had been fired. They brought me back as a part-time consultant to replace the Indian guys, and that's fine with me. But at this point 2 out of 3 of us have gone part time, and it's finally dawned on my boss that he's going to have a completely unsupported - and largely unsupportable product on his hands in a few years.

I'm not sure how common this scenario is - but I suspect it's more so than you might think...

Plan your own transition. Tell boss when ready

[raymorris]

> This will allow him to plan a cautious transition. He will want the time to do it gradually rather than all at once. Trust me, your boss will love the idea of giving the new guy time to master each piece of the job before taking on the next one. Orderly transitions are worth the money.

All true and good. I'll add that where I worked the person leaving did a lot of the transition planning and that worked well because they were effectively TELLING their boss and everyone "here's what needs to be done before I go, and how long it will take". Looking at it in reverse "here's a ton of stuff that won't get done, and will cause problems, if you don't keep me until July."

So we'd have a rough schedule:

Over the next few weeks I'll document the processes for X, Y, and Z, and all admin passwords needed and other access information, etc.

Next month I'll show Bob how to do A, B, and C.

Then I'll let Bob do it himself (asking me questions as needed) and I'll check his work, clarifying any issues. We can then discuss whether it appears that Bob will be able to take over these tasks, or if someone else is needed to help.

In February we'll finish up the project I've been leading for the last year, etc. Bob will need a backup in case something happens to him, so in March Bob and I will walk through the processes with Sue, so she is also familiar with them. February and March I'll bring Bob into the monthly meeting with Very Important Client so they can meet him, and he can see how we conduct that monthly meeting.

The flip side of that is you're telling the boss "if I leave today, nobody will know how to do X, Y and Z, or A, B, and C."

At my last job, retirements were planned a couple YEARS in advance. That made for smooth transitions. When I left for a new job, I started planning an orderly transition as soon as I had a good interview, more than three weeks before my last day.

Re:No good dead goes unpunished

[networkzombie]

All situations are different. You should know best your relationship with your employer. I was laid off my last job. They gave me eight months notice. They hired me back as a consultant for 8 hours per week. That was 5 years ago and I still work there. They were the first of my many customers.

Re:The day of

[Headw1nd]

Wow you people sound bitter. What kind of terrible jobs do you have that you hate everyone there so much?