Hi,
Wondering if anyone on here has been successful in managing to get laid off from their job? (i.e. deliberately creating a situation resulting in their layoff).
In the last 8 yrs I have been spared 3 waves of downsizing. Not sure if there will be any more but I would be most pleased if they would lay me off..(6 figure severance, so would be a nice parting gift).
Want to hear from any practitioners of this fine art.
Thanks
M
How to get laid off from job?
If you get word of layoffs, I believe you can talk to your manager about working something out (volunteering to be laid off). At my job, I know that's an option. The worst that could happen is you get laid off...
I've strongly considered taking it when I've got enough stockpiled - the severance is indeed nice. On the other hand, it isn't "respectable" and also I don't want to burn bridges in case I want a reference or whatever.
I've strongly considered taking it when I've got enough stockpiled - the severance is indeed nice. On the other hand, it isn't "respectable" and also I don't want to burn bridges in case I want a reference or whatever.
The worst that could happen is you get laid off...
Unless they think, "Why give that guy the big severance we'd owe him? He just told us he wants to quit soon anyway."
I got a nice severance from a mass layoff. But it was dumb luck. I had to contain my smile amidst the paycheck to paycheck-er's devastation.
Unless they think, "Why give that guy the big severance we'd owe him? He just told us he wants to quit soon anyway."
I got a nice severance from a mass layoff. But it was dumb luck. I had to contain my smile amidst the paycheck to paycheck-er's devastation.
In my history with lay off's, the higher ups have told each manager to pick N of their people to let go.... and I never met one person who liked to lay even their worst people off. So unless you are in a very small company where they could actually connect the dots and act on the logic Mike's pointed out, I wouldn't worry about that scenario - I think they'd be happy to have a volunteer.
Re: How to get laid off from job?
If age > 40 & worked >=10 years
not concurrently employed & not on the management
You can get severance
min 45 day's salary
max 3 months' salary
as counted on your last salary
for voluntarily retiring (VRS)
not concurrently employed & not on the management
You can get severance
min 45 day's salary
max 3 months' salary
as counted on your last salary
for voluntarily retiring (VRS)
Re: How to get laid off from job?
I dream of this everyday but gosh darn-it I keep getting rated as a top performer.
Re: How to get laid off from job?
Sam from financial samurai sells a $90 or so book about this.
He at times sounds pretty salty about the “FIRE scene” and many seem to consider him an asshole, but I found his content to be usually pretty solid and different than the average FIRE blogger.
He was also among the very first to write about the subject IIRC.
Not that I’d ever pay $90 for a book on how to get fired but still
He at times sounds pretty salty about the “FIRE scene” and many seem to consider him an asshole, but I found his content to be usually pretty solid and different than the average FIRE blogger.
He was also among the very first to write about the subject IIRC.
Not that I’d ever pay $90 for a book on how to get fired but still
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Freedom_2018
- Posts: 479
- Joined: Sat Dec 18, 2010 12:10 am
Re: How to get laid off from job?
Ha...I guess I should have come back and closed the loop (or maybe I did in another thread... don't remember).
I did manage to get my name on the layoff list and at the end of the year I got my wish...had to work with my then boss on this and walk the fine line between becoming layoff material vs being fired for showing up whenever I pleased and doing pretty much whatever I wanted...just made sure that all the deliverables were on schedule and the members of the accounting and finance team reporting to me did not feel I was abandoning them (in the near decade at that company I sometimes found myself in the role of not just being their boss but also as they say in 'Car Talk' (public radio show) their technical, spiritual and menu adviser
). 8 yrs later they still call me to be a job reference, or for some random career advice etc.
It was weird on the day of the layoff to be the only one walking around the office with a big smile on his face, took entire team out to lunch. Should have seen the HR VP's face when my boss congratulated me on the layoff!!!
Got the severance I wanted and almost a full year of medical coverage. My friend in Boston who was working for a large Data storage company did the same a year later and has since gone from software engineering to being a professional photographer.
Somehow I was never much attracted to Financial Samurai's writing style .... fundamentally I felt he is at heart just a very conventional person, the type who would be happy living in an HOA and while I am sure he does a great job, not the type I find very interesting even though I probably have more in common in educational background and job type with him than Jacob, MM, Curry cracker or JL Collins etc all of whom I found much more interesting.
I did manage to get my name on the layoff list and at the end of the year I got my wish...had to work with my then boss on this and walk the fine line between becoming layoff material vs being fired for showing up whenever I pleased and doing pretty much whatever I wanted...just made sure that all the deliverables were on schedule and the members of the accounting and finance team reporting to me did not feel I was abandoning them (in the near decade at that company I sometimes found myself in the role of not just being their boss but also as they say in 'Car Talk' (public radio show) their technical, spiritual and menu adviser
). 8 yrs later they still call me to be a job reference, or for some random career advice etc. It was weird on the day of the layoff to be the only one walking around the office with a big smile on his face, took entire team out to lunch. Should have seen the HR VP's face when my boss congratulated me on the layoff!!!
Got the severance I wanted and almost a full year of medical coverage. My friend in Boston who was working for a large Data storage company did the same a year later and has since gone from software engineering to being a professional photographer.
Somehow I was never much attracted to Financial Samurai's writing style .... fundamentally I felt he is at heart just a very conventional person, the type who would be happy living in an HOA and while I am sure he does a great job, not the type I find very interesting even though I probably have more in common in educational background and job type with him than Jacob, MM, Curry cracker or JL Collins etc all of whom I found much more interesting.
Re: How to get laid off from job?
What I like of FS is that his perspective is pretty unique.
There seem to be:
One blog/book that thinks about life design, has FI as a side effect but thanks to its name became part of the fire scene (that's ERE). Due to its extreme approach on frugality it is the Black Metal of FIRE (small audience, most people think it's crazy etc).
A small number of blogs that gravitate in the FIRE scene but that mostly deal with other stuff (best example being the awesome portfoliocharts). That's like prog. A bit more tool-ish, complex, etc
Approximately 2378327963781783 blogs whose approach is "be a software engineer/any other career where you make $200k in your 20s, save 50-60% by only spending slightly above average, invest in index funds and retire in your 30s (maybe in the massive place you bought with daddy's money)". That's the pop music of FIRE
I don't find these particularly useful as they can all be susbstituted by MMM blog, which was really great when he was posting early.
What I also don't like is how most of these call themselves "frugal" when in reality they're just really rich people that have understood it's not mandatory to spend all the money you make all the time.
I was living like that before discovering MMM/ERE (somewhat, I never made that much money) when I had a slightly above average salary and was saving 30-35% of my income. Non-americans find this to be pretty standard: most of my italian frends who make good money save a fairly large % compared to US standards.
Financial Samurai (and maybe Wall Street Playoboys?) look at it from the "you must become super rich" perspective, which in terms of pure FI is mathematically the same.
Personally, I think too many people pursuing FI overlook the income side and focus too much on the expenses.
If you do not believe in ERE as a "way of life" and your only goal is to be FI, cutting costs has its limits. It makes you more fragile (if you see cutting costs as a painful thing you MUST do) and after a certain point, making $10k more (relatively easy for I'd say a good 50%+ of the US population) can simply go a longer way.
There seem to be:
One blog/book that thinks about life design, has FI as a side effect but thanks to its name became part of the fire scene (that's ERE). Due to its extreme approach on frugality it is the Black Metal of FIRE (small audience, most people think it's crazy etc).
A small number of blogs that gravitate in the FIRE scene but that mostly deal with other stuff (best example being the awesome portfoliocharts). That's like prog. A bit more tool-ish, complex, etc
Approximately 2378327963781783 blogs whose approach is "be a software engineer/any other career where you make $200k in your 20s, save 50-60% by only spending slightly above average, invest in index funds and retire in your 30s (maybe in the massive place you bought with daddy's money)". That's the pop music of FIRE
I don't find these particularly useful as they can all be susbstituted by MMM blog, which was really great when he was posting early.
What I also don't like is how most of these call themselves "frugal" when in reality they're just really rich people that have understood it's not mandatory to spend all the money you make all the time.
I was living like that before discovering MMM/ERE (somewhat, I never made that much money) when I had a slightly above average salary and was saving 30-35% of my income. Non-americans find this to be pretty standard: most of my italian frends who make good money save a fairly large % compared to US standards.
Financial Samurai (and maybe Wall Street Playoboys?) look at it from the "you must become super rich" perspective, which in terms of pure FI is mathematically the same.
Personally, I think too many people pursuing FI overlook the income side and focus too much on the expenses.
If you do not believe in ERE as a "way of life" and your only goal is to be FI, cutting costs has its limits. It makes you more fragile (if you see cutting costs as a painful thing you MUST do) and after a certain point, making $10k more (relatively easy for I'd say a good 50%+ of the US population) can simply go a longer way.
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horsewoman
- Posts: 659
- Joined: Fri Jun 07, 2019 4:11 am
Re: How to get laid off from job?
@seppia *sigh* if only I could bring up as much interest in investing as in dissecting and analysing Tool songs... I'd be rich! ;)
Nice analogy!
Nice analogy!
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ThriftyRob
- Posts: 148
- Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2020 7:20 am
Re: How to get laid off from job?
@Seppia - thanks for a great analysis of the FIRE landscape. I had concluded that MMM and his devotees are 'affluent people who surprise themselves by making selective cost savings'. Like you, I have never spent all my income (despite working in a peer group that was leveraged to the hilt) but have lived with self-doubt about whether I was being cheap for not spending as much as I could on cars, fancy clothes, home renovations and holidays. ERE not only legitimises my innate thriftiness, but has presented new challenges and opportunities which I'm joyfully pursuing.
Re: How to get laid off from job?
...DIY aesthetic, Scandanavian, notorious...
I think you are onto something
Re: How to get laid off from job?
For nearly 5 years, I attempted to get laid off from a job I despised (but was very easy and paid very well.)
The typical severance package I would have received (based on years working at the company) was 6 months of pay.
I failed to get laid off. At one point, I nearly flew too-close-to-the-sun, and was put on an actual "performance plan", which could have resulted in me being fired (without severance.) I came out on-the-other-side from that "plan" with my job in-tact.
I just very recently pulled the plug on my own, and moved on to another job.
In retrospect, I find it quite hilarious that I actively tried to get laid off for years, and failed. There were at least 6 or 7 rounds of layoffs in that time -- and I "missed out" each and every time. Heh
The typical severance package I would have received (based on years working at the company) was 6 months of pay.
I failed to get laid off. At one point, I nearly flew too-close-to-the-sun, and was put on an actual "performance plan", which could have resulted in me being fired (without severance.) I came out on-the-other-side from that "plan" with my job in-tact.
I just very recently pulled the plug on my own, and moved on to another job.
In retrospect, I find it quite hilarious that I actively tried to get laid off for years, and failed. There were at least 6 or 7 rounds of layoffs in that time -- and I "missed out" each and every time. Heh