The letter, delivered about 6 months before my FIRE Date (I wanted to start FIRE in summer).
Hopefully I've redacted most identifying words. OK, it's a little wordy, but I've been working on it for at least 5 years.
Two things that are not quite correct: The 401K will not be transferred to an IRA as 401K is slightly better protected from creditors (think lawsuit).
The end date is May 31st, as I have vacation to use or lose. So the 15th or so is the last working day, and the 31st is the touch the desk, skeddattle day (otherwise the vacation is unpaid if you don't have a "last day in the office").
To: Manager Date:12/13/2017
cc:SemiBigCorp IT “manager”
From:
markbike528CBX Your ref:
Phone: XXX-867-5309
Our ref: XXX-YYY-17-002
Subject:
Request for Leave of Absence and or Resignation /Retirement notice.
I am hereby giving notice of my intent to take a Leave of Absence for the summer of 2018 (May 15th to September 15th) or resign my position/ retire starting about May 15th 2018.
There are several options to consider, all dependent on your needs.
The options are listed in order of my preference. While I would like to be associated with the local office of SemiBigCorp I understand that because of headcount issues, this may not be possible.
1) Leave of Absence/Sabattical for the summer (May15- Sept 15th 2018) with a return to #2 or 3 below. This is the only option for which I would feel contractually tied to SemiBigCorp.
2) A switch to part time work to include very occasional field jobs and specific responsibility (gamma spectroscopy, SEM, etc) and training/mentoring.
3) Part time with consulting as above but no field jobs.
4) Traditional two week notice.
5) Immediate departure upon receipt of this letter.
However, after December 29, 2019 (DW and my 9th anniversary), field work would no longer be accepted.
Reasons for departure-General:
As I’m sure you and other of my colleagues have suspected, DW and I no longer need the financial support of SemiBigCorp.
The increasing level of “standardization” of work practices (project plans and other work that provides no extra customer value), extra QA, “Iknows” , CAPALs and other unspecified stuff have made my position a job to be endured, and not fun enough to bother with.
Field work is getting old and I’m also getting too old for field work.
I’m also getting tired of being in the office on beautiful days, or even not so beautiful days, when I could remain in a nice warm bed.
I promised myself that the summer of 2017 was my last summer working. I don’t make promises to myself lightly. If one can’t keep promises to oneself, who can one make promises to in good faith? One of the reasons for specifying no more summers, was the typical shuffling of vacations due to job needs. Even though this was minimal for me, I saw how it affected others.
Being restricted ,or even feeling restricted, on accumulation and use of compensation time (CTO) is now unacceptable. Casual (unpaid) OT is less than lame. I don’t care if it is “industry practice” or some other HR buzzword, it still is less than lame.
The layoff in October 2014 was a big reason to think about moving on. We lost many good people, just to satisfy some alleged “person” at the main office of SemiBigCorp. Seeing other people gone at a moment’s notice was a wake-up call for me.
While it wasn’t that much of a financial threat to me, the layoff definitely decreased my sense of loyalty to SemiBigCorp. The recent pension freeze and bankruptcy certainly didn’t help the sense of loyalty.
When “B” and “E” were left go in 2015, all sense of being able to care about SemiBigCorp left also.
While I have always welcomed the fact that we are separated by several thousand miles from SemiBigCorp headquarters, this separation does have its downsides. I have had a general feeling of being superfluous to SemiBigCorp upper management.
If this letter is a sudden thing, than it is probably because we got another DOE contract.
The following was paraphrased and plagiarized from:
https://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/07/25/sherwood-anderson-resignation-letter/Dear local office manager:
You have a man in your employ that I have thought for a long time should be fired. I refer to markbike528CBX. He is a fellow of a good deal of ability, but for a long time I have been convinced that his heart is not in his work.
There is no question but that this man markbike528CBX has in some ways been an ornament to our organization. His hair, for one thing.
But markbike528CBX is not really productive. As I have said, his heart is not in his work. I think he should be fired and if you will not do the job I should like permission to fire him myself. I therefore suggest that Mr. markbike528CBX be asked to sever his connections with the company on [the earliest convenient date]. He is a nice fellow. We will let him down easy but let’s can him.
Respectfully submitted,
markbike528CBX
Reasons for Departure- Health:
From the most reputable news source: The Onion:
Health Experts Recommend Standing Up At Desk, Leaving Office, Never Coming Back
Health Experts Recommend Standing Up At Desk, Leaving Office, Never Coming Back
ROCHESTER, MN—In an effort to help working individuals improve their fitness and well-being, experts at the Mayo Clinic issued a new set of health guidelines Thursday recommending that Americans stand up at their desk, leave their office, and never return. “Many Americans spend a minimum of eight hours per day sitting in an office, but we observed significant physical and mental health benefits in subjects after just one instance of standing up, walking out the door, and never coming back to their place of work again,” said researcher Claudine Sparks, who explained that those who implemented the practice in their lives reported an improvement in mood and reduced stress that lasted for the remainder of the day, and which appeared to persist even into subsequent weeks. “We encourage Americans to experiment with stretching their legs by strolling across their office and leaving all their responsibilities behind forever just one time to see how much better they feel. People tend to become more productive, motivated, and happy almost immediately. We found that you can also really get the blood flowing by pairing this activity with hurling your staff ID across the parking lot.” Sparks added that Americans could maximize positive effects by using their lunch break to walk until nothing looks familiar anymore and your old life is a distant memory.
Appendix B: Reasons for departure-SemiBigCorp IT list:
SemiBigCorp has made ordinary work into a royal pain in the ass.
Boot times up to 15 minutes.
I once talked to a IT rep who had the same boot time,
and who failed to see that this was a desperate problem that needed fixing,
not an annoyance to be papered over.
Time to come back from a locked computer ~3 minutes. Gotten better lately, but 1minute is still too long.
Lack of being an admin for my own computer.
I have to go and beg to put needed tools on my laptop.
Printer drivers, really? At BigFieldJob 2017, I called in to IT to get a printer driver, and it had to be “escalated” to a Level 2, who responded late the next day.
This includes tools I would have liked to use (MathCad, Statistica/Minitab).
We are typically at least 2 revisions back on Internet Explorer.
By the time the SemiBigCorp version is available, many sites say it’s already too old.
Ditto on Java.
15 minute screen saver maximum time (time locked also). Noticed 4/12/17 fixed before 7/17.
Has no one at SemiBigCorp IT heard of hour-long meetings? See above on locked computer.
No webmail—are you kidding? How can G-mail, yahoo etc. manage this? I understand that using a Microsoft product (Outlook) is fraught with holes/bugs etc. The webmail was down from November 2014 to April 2015 or later (I gave up looking) and the page that came up was:
“In order to serve you better, this website is down for maintenance. Please check back later or contact the SemiBigCorp Service Desk at 1-XXX-867-5309. Thank you for your patience.”.
This is laughable, to the point of insolence. Fixed, after 6 months ~7/2015.
When in the field (off VPN), Internet Explorer popups appear (IE NOT open at the time) saying that I have been blocked from Facebook and several other sites. Note that IE is NOT open. Some of the popups fill the screen, blocking work. I’ve called IT about it, but to no avail.
Outlook flushing of old emails, specifically sent items.
Being able to prove/resend emails is critical to avoid being “thrown under the bus”.
Just because some directors can’t figure out how to manage their email, does not mean that the rest of us should be punished.
It is important to be able to document the sending of emails. Some projects last years, and being able to prove that some deliverable or information was sent can enable a project manager to have a much better bargaining position in negotiations, possibly leading to hundreds of thousands of dollars extra income for SemiBigCorp.
RSA token while in the office What bullshit. My code was/is written on the side. Problem eliminated in 2016, -- you can tell I’ve been working on this letter for a while, can’t you? Still a pain in the field.
Beyond Trust Software virus? 0.29 seconds slowdown on Explorer. Yeesh.
Personal webmail blocked. 12/17 on Chrome. There are times when the VPN and/or Outlook is not available and critical emails still need to be sent. Redundancy is OK , required for power plants, what about power plant workers. Some plants don’t allow VPN on their networks.
APPENDIX C Reasons NOT to leave:
Unless I retire after my 55th birthday, partial withdrawals from the 401K are not allowed even though allowed by law, without penalty after January 1 2019.
Solvable, move 401K to an IRA and take Substantially Equal Payments (SEPP, 72(t) rule).
Unless I retire after my 55th birthday, I am not “retired” and cannot get retiree rate medical insurance per SemiBigCorp Electric Company Retirement Event Guide Revised January 2014
(copy at C:\Users\markbike528CBX\Documents\Mark Root- formerly D\SemiBigCorp Corporate puffery\ C4_EventsGuide_Retirement.pdf ).
However at one point it says you can and other places not for 70 points retirement. This is probably a moot point given the bankruptcy and the small likelihood of this being offered in the future.
Solvable, don’t care.
I kinda like the job, and people.
Not solved yet.