Epic FU money stories

[alcon835]

great stuff here, thanks for sharing. I'm at the precipice of executing my FU money.

The post FU part is cloudy for me. Good to hear so many positive things falling into place in the aftermath.

Do it! Figure out how long you can live without income and if its longer than 12 months, just do it. Sometimes, part of taking a break is figuring out what's next.

[Zamboni]

@Zamboni what is the incentive to volunteer? You probably lose unemployment and definitely lose time you could have a paycheck while finding a new job. It doesn’t seem an attractive choice…

The only information we have at this time is that the "selected" people for the "voluntary" program will be offered some sort of healthcare coverage continuance (could just be COBRA, or could be more, I don't know) and "a financial incentive." The fact that they aren't spelling out a formula for the financial incentive to me means that the financial incentive could vary a lot from person to person, which would be 100% on brand for my employer. Do people ever succeed in negotiating MORE than an initial voluntary separation offer?

[Captain FIRE]

Yeah, I suspect they may not be disclosing the amount because it's not much money, in which case unemployment might be a better choice.

[Dave1442397]

Do people ever succeed in negotiating MORE than an initial voluntary separation offer?

At my company (50k+ employees), that's a rarity. I saw a post from one ex-employee who hired a lawyer and eventually got an extra month's pay, but the lawyer got 35% of that, so it probably wasn't worth the hassle. If there's one thing corporate America is good at, it's using their legal departments to craft hard-to-fight separation agreements.

[okonumiyaki]

So a minor one.  I ended up in Dubai, and loathing it.  Job was fine, often enjoyable, but Dubai gives me the ick. Decided to try and push through for OMY for various financial reasons, but as soon as I committed to that, my body rebelled.  Not sleeping, spiraling into depression, and it was obviously starting to impact my work.  So I resigned.  I’m liked, and do a good job, so they made attempts to keep me (share options, that they would look to let me move location next year).

But life is too short to be miserable, and my finances, while damaged by divorce, are good enough that the main threat is political, not financial (ie war breaking out, collapse of the economic system) which even triple the funds wouldn’t guard against.

I agreed to work a bit longer than notice period, in return they will waive repayment of the outstanding balance of my relocation allowance.  I find the work interesting, so have left the door open to contracting/ consulting with them in the future.

Last day August 1st

[glacio09]

So a minor one.  I ended up in Dubai, and loathing it.  Job was fine, often enjoyable, but Dubai gives me the ick. Decided to try and push through for OMY for various financial reasons, but as soon as I committed to that, my body rebelled.  Not sleeping, spiraling into depression, and it was obviously starting to impact my work.  So I resigned.  I’m liked, and do a good job, so they made attempts to keep me (share options, that they would look to let me move location next year).

But life is too short to be miserable, and my finances, while damaged by divorce, are good enough that the main threat is political, not financial (ie war breaking out, collapse of the economic system) which even triple the funds wouldn’t guard against.

I agreed to work a bit longer than notice period, in return they will waive repayment of the outstanding balance of my relocation allowance.  I find the work interesting, so have left the door open to contracting/ consulting with them in the future.

Last day August 1st

Congrats! Definitely better to protect your health in that situation.

[BicycleB]

So a minor one.  I ended up in Dubai, and loathing it.  Job was fine, often enjoyable, but Dubai gives me the ick. Decided to try and push through for OMY for various financial reasons, but as soon as I committed to that, my body rebelled.  Not sleeping, spiraling into depression, and it was obviously starting to impact my work.  So I resigned.  I’m liked, and do a good job, so they made attempts to keep me (share options, that they would look to let me move location next year).

But life is too short to be miserable, and my finances, while damaged by divorce, are good enough that the main threat is political, not financial (ie war breaking out, collapse of the economic system) which even triple the funds wouldn’t guard against.

I agreed to work a bit longer than notice period, in return they will waive repayment of the outstanding balance of my relocation allowance.  I find the work interesting, so have left the door open to contracting/ consulting with them in the future.

Last day August 1st

Congrats! Definitely better to protect your health in that situation.

Congrats, @okonumiyaki!

[12daysofchristmas]

My own (not so?) epic FU money story (I will try and keep it short):
I took a risk and relocated for a training programme. I'm mid-career, over 10 years experience in my field. The new programme was a side step in that it utilised some of my existing skills really well and it seemed like a good fit. Was told lots of things I wanted to hear during the (long) recruitment process. The decision was a difficult one, but I took the risk. For context the programme was long, 5+ years.

I get through the door and immediately something is off. Lots of goal posts were changed, the programme was significantly increased in length whilst I was waiting to start the job (and I wasn't informed). The programme sounded like it was moulded to the person, it wasn't, it's one size fits all with what amounted to a few weeks training throughout the whole thing. Progression was discussed during recruitment, but nope there were now promotion freezes and likely to be until the end of the decade. Oh and at the start of the programme you are put into an unrelated role to acclimatise to the organisation. Now I knew this part, but HR made this sound like this was a few months and that if you were experienced and it was based on merit, you would be moved onto something appropriate quickly. Nope, it's now 18 months to 2 years in this unrelated post.

It becomes apparent that the unrelated post is one that they cannot fill. I'm sat next to someone in a very similar position to myself, that is, very specialised in their field (although different to mine), promised lots of wonderful things to leave their old job, and both essentially sat in a compliance job (which is far away from both our science based fields). I was bored and there was very little training for the role. My colleague was 6 ish month ahead of me on this "programme", he had done everything right to raise the issue appropriately and try and get himself into a role that utilises his skills and licence/accreditation. However, he hadn't been successful. Meanwhile I start networking in the organisation, attend CPD courses, talks etc.

I also give it a go and try and raise the issue appropriately with the department that "own the training programme" and it went like this:
I wanted the department to join me with the problem as I recognised that recruitment has been expensive from both side so was open to discuss any possible change.
Can I go on an accelerated version of the programme so I can get into a role that utilises my skills sooner? No
Can I go on loan for 1 day per week during this first unrelated post, to the department that is actually in my field? No
Can I leave the programme and apply for internal vacancies that come up? No
Is there any flexibility at in this situation? No, it's one size fits all, take it or leave it.

During my networking and finding more about the organisation, it's clear that the culture is off. Lots of unhappy staff, lots of passive aggressive communication. And lots of fear. As myself and my colleague were asking questions about this programme, our peers within the same team were becoming angsty that they would be punished in some way (by the training programme dept) because they were associated with us.

Shortly after this meeting, a cohort of new starters arrive, due to go on the same "training programme" as me. Nope, they have all been diverted to a different programme due to staff shortages. No consultation period, forced to work in the new programme for 4 years, before being able to resume the original programme, which would take them another 4 years. The programmes utilise different skills so undermine their entire recruitment process.

I also learn of someone who was redeployed (against their will) from HR to catering ... again because this company cannot get their shit together.

You can see where this is going - It gets to the 3-4 month point and I've exhausted all options of making my situation better. I gave notice without another job lined up, I was very bored, and I felt the longer I stayed there, the more weird things were going to get and there's only so much of that you can be around before it has an impact. I had built up some contacts during this time and I let the department that is linked to my career to date know that I was leaving. They say "wait! we've got an internal post being advertised next week, can you apply for that and we will just get the training department to release you". That went around in circles for a few weeks, I applied, but I knew HR blocked applications being released if you were already allocated onto training elsewhere.

So I left! First time I've been unemployed in 15 years, scary, but I'm very glad I have FU money!

[AO1FireTo]

This is always my favourite thread and I always hoped to post here someday.  I work for a huge tech company and we recently were re-organized with a new big boss.  My job changed significantly with a new boss who is clueless.  I had a pretty good case for constructive dismissal, but when the legal costs are factored in, and the bridges you burn I decided it wasn't worth it.  I met with the big boss, and asked him what was the thinking behind putting me under this person who had didn't have a clue about what the job was about.  He all but admitted it's because he needed to maintain certain "ratios" within the department and stressed it wasn't a performance issue.

I stewed on this for a couple of weeks and yesterday I decided F this, I got more than enough money to retire, so told them they better start looking for a replacement for me, because I had no plans to remain in this current position.  Turns out another role is now suddenly available they want me to take.  Turns out when you don't need the money and you've given your last F@@K stress kind of just melts away.  I'll probably take the new role as I like the manager and it's a pretty interesting position, but if not I'll just FIRE and enjoy the summer.

[TimCFJ40]

Congrats @AO1FireTo and @12daysofchristmas
I've exercised the FU muscle a few times when the corporate BS strikes.  I love my current job, have a fantastic boss and good flexibility, but I know that this won't stay the same forever.  It's very freeing to have the option to leave even if you don't need it at the time. 

@12daysofchristmas Good call getting out of there.  It sounds like the "training program" is designed to hire people into undesirable roles under the guise of "training".  Reminds me of one of the Auto Manufacturers around here that was hiring Mechanical Engineers out of Mexico for "Engineering Jobs" only to put them on the assembly line building cars full time. 

[Zamboni]

Definitely sounds like it was good to cut your losses on that job, 12daysofchristmas. Are you going to stay in the new location, move back to where you lived before this "training programme," or go somewhere else?

Reorgs where highly skilled people get put under random incompetent managers in roles with duties outside of their wheelhouse never made sense to me. Like you, I've seen it happen. It's about to happen where I am working, I'm afraid, with a whole bunch of people being let go and all of their work tasks needing to be spread out over those who remain.

[crocheted_stache]

Reminds me of one of the Auto Manufacturers around here that was hiring Mechanical Engineers out of Mexico for "Engineering Jobs" only to put them on the assembly line building cars full time.

Not strictly an FU money story since I never even applied, but at least I had a choice and did not need to pursue this "opportunity" out of desperation. (Details changed/omitted to protect the probably-guilty and because it's been a long time and I don't remember that well.)

Once upon a time, a place tried to recruit me. It might have been during the aftermath of the dot com bubble bursting or an otherwise sluggish job market. It was out of left field enough to prompt some brief but intense web searching on my part, and I may even have agreed to a brief phone call, mostly to try to understand what they were thinking.

The place was a foundry somewhere in the deep South. They cast stuff like manhole covers and fire hydrants. They wanted to recruit and train up all new management.

I'm a woman engineer and a proud California native, with no experience in such heavy industry. I was probably in my 20s. Probably anybody I'd be managing there would be older and male, and generally not enthusiastic about taking direction from anyone who looked like me.

The notion of anyone being so eager as to want someone like me for something like that set off the "what's the catch?" alarm bells.

The web search turned up a recent but "resolved" federal investigation about whatever pollutants they'd been discharging into the local air and water. Also they'd had a couple recent safety incidents that had resulted in two employee deaths.

Um, thanks for your time. This doesn't seem like the right move for me.

Now, I hope they hired some fresh faces and actually gave them the training and power to change what needed to change about that place. I'm afraid they were really looking for someone who could take the blame and be let go of next time something terrible happened, to show they were doing something about it.

[BicycleB]

Reminds me of one of the Auto Manufacturers around here that was hiring Mechanical Engineers out of Mexico for "Engineering Jobs" only to put them on the assembly line building cars full time.

Not strictly an FU money story since I never even applied, but at least I had a choice and did not need to pursue this "opportunity" out of desperation. (Details changed/omitted to protect the probably-guilty and because it's been a long time and I don't remember that well.)

Once upon a time, a place tried to recruit me. It might have been during the aftermath of the dot com bubble bursting or an otherwise sluggish job market. It was out of left field enough to prompt some brief but intense web searching on my part, and I may even have agreed to a brief phone call, mostly to try to understand what they were thinking.

The place was a foundry somewhere in the deep South. They cast stuff like manhole covers and fire hydrants. They wanted to recruit and train up all new management.

I'm a woman engineer and a proud California native, with no experience in such heavy industry. I was probably in my 20s. Probably anybody I'd be managing there would be older and male, and generally not enthusiastic about taking direction from anyone who looked like me.

The notion of anyone being so eager as to want someone like me for something like that set off the "what's the catch?" alarm bells.

The web search turned up a recent but "resolved" federal investigation about whatever pollutants they'd been discharging into the local air and water. Also they'd had a couple recent safety incidents that had resulted in two employee deaths.

Um, thanks for your time. This doesn't seem like the right move for me.

Now, I hope they hired some fresh faces and actually gave them the training and power to change what needed to change about that place. I'm afraid they were really looking for someone who could take the blame and be let go of next time something terrible happened, to show they were doing something about it.

Wise analysis, @crocheted_stache! Nice addition to the thread.