Company is offering employee buyout - crazy to consider it?
My company is offering a buyout - roughly a year's salary to employees in light of what is going on. Am I crazy to consider taking this? I feel like if things are so bad that I can't find a new job then I would just get laid off with regular severance regardless... also feel like a modes resume gap would be a non-issue given everything going on.
But still, it is a hard sell to volunteer to leave your job right now...
Details: post-MBA second year associate at F500 company
Definitely not crazy. I saw a note that TIAA (parent of Nuveen) was offering the same (announced 5/11). Offer was to ~75% of US based employees. Made me think... Would I take the offer if my company made it?
Details on the Nuveen “offer” were: 45-91 weeks salary (depending on service/salary), 100% of last years bonus, and 6 mo. outplacement assistance. Expectations were for only 5-7% of eligible employees to participate.
I lateraled, so I am probably floating around your age... Maybe a few years younger. Where’s your head at? I would definitely be crunching numbers and having some fun with my options. You like what you are doing? Were you planning to leave in the next 24-36 months? How much cash you have in the coffers?
I am “hating” this WFH garbage. Very appreciative to have a job, but it isn’t for me. It could be a cool way to skip a year and come back to reality when things are more normal.
I guess that is the gamble here... How sure are we that this “thing” will actually blow over and the field that you would like to return to will be hiring at a reasonable level?
Cash on hand is good, probably 2 years burn rate if I stopped work right now even with no buyout, maybe more. Still single as well which helps the situation I guess.
Ok with what I do. Don’t love it, don’t hate it. Good pay though, so the concern is finding a similarly paying job in a decent amount of time. Just hard to gauge where things will be a year or so from now.
Interesting. I would imagine these things are highly negotiable behind closed doors. Hopefully the Nuveen reference brings some sort of comp to compare to. I would also do some digging to see what comps you can find and if there are any sort of additional add-ons you could tag on to your package.
Is there a middle man they bring in to incentivize open discussion and avoid burning bridges with direct line managers?
Damn 75% of employees . . any idea on how many they expect to take the deal? Not really seeing why TIAA business would be so unusually hard hit.
paragraph two.. 5-7% is the expectation according to a spokesperson. I wonder if this holds? I am actually surprised it is so low. I spoke with a few friends to see what they would do... Almost all of them said they would take the cash.
The article actually presented an interesting angle on what the impact to your Nuveen funds if PMs leave. Never knew it worked that way.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.barrons.com/amp/articles/tiaa-offers-b…
Should I be concerned if I'm interning at TIAA this summer and was looking for a return offer?
Your question is fair but it would be a bit of a cheap shot to gave you a response that pretended to be definitive or "the answer". Way too many variables to consider beyond skimming an article that came across my BBG. I would hate to send a young guy heading in to an internship with his head spinning.
My guess is that this isn't targeted at interns and recent grads (years 1-3ish). This type of move is targeted at higher paid employees with costly benefit and comp plans. Lots of young guys chompin' at the bit to replace the old dogs raking in big money. Maybe even throw in a few targeted business units that don't align with the long term goals of the firm. Clean house a bit shore up costs.
Use your internship to gauge some of this from your coworkers after building a rapport. If you are planning to knock out an internship and work a few years before assessing your options (like most of us on here) you should be fine. If you get a bad taste use the internship experience and FT offer to recruit elsewhere.,
Hopefully some of the more seasoned guys on the forum who have lived through these scenarios can cite a few examples beyond my speculation.
The uncertainty of it all is the hardest part to think about. What if things literally go back to normal in a month or so given how many places are already re-opening? Or what if this thing lasts until end of 2020? Would the end of the COVID saga influence your buy-out decision?
If I knew CV19 would end by years end I would likely accept the buyout.
Ok, there's a very high chance COVID will end by 2020 and we'll be back to normal. We have more than 6 months since then. Accept the buyout. If this continues for another 3 months even, major companies will go bankrupt.
I would really be open to it personally, I might have an offer or two coming in June and would love to get a buyout instead of having to give my two weeks.
Do you like your job?
Tbh, I'm finding the field to be a little dry and not interesting because sure, you're closing deals but it's really just a sales job in the end and we're just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. I'm not a big fan of this and want more meaning out of my job. What do you think? Do you agree that IB is pretty boring?
Im incoming so I don’t think my opinion on it holds much weight. For what it’s worth, I thoroughly enjoy financial analysis (though that may not be the bulk of the work I’ll be doing). If you don’t like the job this is a good opportunity to take a boat load of cash and lateral elsewhere. I mean shit what if you could find a similar paying job? Then you’d just have gotten paid a years salary to find a better job.
If you don’t love it and you feel you got out of it all that you will, I’d take it. Look for a job in PE or VC, maybe CorpDev. Get some better hours and more stimulating work. People are talking about the job market drying up which is all hearsay. No one knows. Hell maybe buyside recruiting will increase with the rise of distressed companies seeking an out
Good lord I would take a 12 month buyout in a heartbeat
Exactly my reaction when I read that. surprised the sentiment isn't shared more
Seriously.
Is it me or has WSO changed in the past few years?
Also OP I’d take it... learn a new skill. French, coding, etc...
Nah, this place has always mostly been about chasing prestige and bi-weekly paychecks.
I just think about what you could do, both career-wise but also life-wise, if you had a year of guaranteed income. I am now dreaming about getting such an offer.
Why the fuck would you want to learn French
If you have to ask... Learning a foreign language is a good thing, plus it stimulates the mind. I’ve caught up on reading during this down time.
French used to be a popular language in international diplomacy back in the day and is still relatively popular abroad.
Because "that blouse would look great on my hotel room floor" is just not charming enough in English
Interesting that it’s a no brainer for you - how come?
Smooth
Dude same. If my firm offered me that package I'd be 100% taking that deal, no hesitation.
Not sure, why you are waiting. I'd definitely take it. Nobody knows the future and if you're guaranteed a years salary that would be awesome. One additional benefit would be to take it now and then apply for unemployment. Not sure if its possible since your voluntarily leaving, check with your state on this, but thats an extra $600 per week if you do qualify. Take the money because we dont know whats going to happen.
i would suggest countering with 18 months salary + continued employee benefits for the full 18 months (health insurance, etc...)
we are about to go thru a long depression...will be over 12 months before we have a vaccine....another 6 months for everyone to get it
things won't bounce back right away...could be 2-3 years before things are back to normal
sounds a bit rich
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you know what they say, if you don't ask you don't get. Does not meant you are going to get the 18 months, maybe you get the boot instead lol
Take the money and run, 100%.
How good is your pedigree? How competitive is your sector / role?
Those are the two gating factors. If you have a strong academic/corporate pedigree and you're generally well positioned for your sector/role then take the buyout. If you're background is good but not great, I'd take more time to think about it.
The other flip is, what are you going to do. Seems kinda boring. Can't really travel, got out, party, etc. Seems kinda like a waste in many respects. Granted, that will be just for the next couples of months but who knows maybe longer. If this was an ordinary recession where you could go do something cool for a 3-6 months would be a no brainer. These times are certainly more ambiguous.
It is pretty good but not great. I probably would look to start another job soon, so travel isn’t really on my mind. Thinking about moving to a lower COL city and doing something more interesting even if it pays less.
If you plan on using it as an opportunity to move, seems like a good idea.
Also, what I didn't consider but someone else pointed out, if you think there is actual layoff risk without a package in the near/mid term the 100% take the buyout.
I don't know about your personal situation but I know what happened in 2008. Right off the bat the large banks still had cash on hand and hadn't really realized the extent of their losses on their illiquid positions. They offered for senior management a nice package (might have been less senior as well, but I was a grad so not about to exactly leave!) - vest all your share a year of salary and go knock yourself out. That was the best package. Then came the first round of layoffs - the company realised they were actually fucked. The packages were not as good because there was less money left and the business was thinking more about money versus helping out employee. Then came the second, third, and fourth rounds of layoffs - those were not as structured and involved less employees which meant the companies could get away with paying less. The entire market was bleeding hard so it didn't really matter if you didn't take care for your employees as everyone was doing it so it didn't affect you from a PR standpoint.
I'll let you make your own assumptions on this. But if you think there is a chance you might get let go - take the first package they are offering you today.
EDIT: I recently helped my friend's little sister with a negotiation like this (pre-corona merger redundancies). They usually bring a third party to do this, you can negotiate extras. I got her to keep her company iphone and had them add an extra 10% for moving costs. While usually the packages are pretty set, you can negotiate on small shit like this - it doesn't matter for them as much but it does for you. Someone said go balls to the wall and ask for an extra 50%. You want to be somewhat careful, if you ask for too much they'll just tell you to keep your job as it's cheaper to keep you. And if you come back to the table you will have lost all your negotiating power.
100% this re. situation in 2008/2009. First packages were the good ones. Some people had second thoughts and had to take a suboptimal package down the road. In addition, bring one of the first may give you the chance to be early on on new opportunities (e.g. new position, setting up shop with a few friends/colleagues etc.). I was ready to take one of the said packages and exit the industry altogether... Never got offered one. Btw. The outplacement services seem to be quite standard and don't expect much magic to happen there. In summary, it depends on your personal situation (already some years of experience, some skills developed etc.), expectations (lay-offs hitting you soon, ability to find a new job, etc.) and wants (one in a lifetime paid opportunity to explore life/world, learn new skills, visit people, expand horizons). If single, some years experience on my buckle, runway, and interests beyond career I would do it. Only my personal view, bit hope it helps Good luck with your deliberations, keep us posted!
So in USA you can get a company buyout and then claim Corona bux unemployment of like $1k a week + (all in)? For real? I'd Def take it if I was working in corporate and was able to objectively assess whether my role was "essential to survival" of company.
I'm not an expert in unemployment law, but typically if you leave a job willingly you're not eligible. I would imagine taking this buyout would count as leaving willingly.
Another suggestion...get a mailing address in Massachusetts (ideally, just use a friend or relatives address if you can).
Then, file a claim for CARES Act PUA unemployment in Massachusetts here:
https://www.masslegalhelp.org/covid-19/pua
Mass pays the highest unemployment benefit in the country (NY pays half what MA pays) $868/.week state for 39 weeks + $600/week federal thru July (and probably extended thru December) = $1468/week.
Not how it works. Whichever state you paid into, pays out the unemployment. Can't make a last minute switch to a different state to get a higher claim amount.
This is the second time you've suggested changing your mailing address to a different state to reap benefits of that state. You literally can't do this, and it takes 5 seconds to figure out what you're doing.
Please don't make a mistake that you could cost you your entire career. Think about it. If you got away with it, you save a couple thousand but if you get caught, you lose a whole lot more.
I’m not looking to commit fraud right now
I would take it and use 25% of that shorting the company
there are a lot of fluffy reasons not to take it but if shit hits the fan in ANY capacity you will have regretted not taking it 1) ThAts actually an insane number of guarantees, wtf? like it’s more than generous... 2) you absolve yourself from a ton of stress
look, you’re still relatively post MBA, etc. etc. etc. have a bunch of things going for you. Sure, you might not be able to get employment in a year but that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything productive. tons of comments on relaxing, which you absolutely don’t have to do BEFORE you get another offer. which is all to say you will be able to get a job if not one you like.
take it, work your ass off for other employment, if you get it then chill TF out or do things that you want.
on the other hand, you open yourself to the stress of getting another job. great comments on if there’s any risk of furlough or firing to take the offer 100%.
There are about 5-8 possible scenarios you need to consider and about 3 have been discussed in the thread so far. Map out the possible situations beyond the obvious. Either way, it’s not stated seriously enough that if you were to get fired in the future it would be much harder to get a job in a market like that plus the benefits would be minimal.
You’re getting a free year lease on life. You can do anything with your time- do you believe your time is more valuable when you have agency, or do you think you are better served with the structure of habits and life that are set by others? No wrong answer there.
I am normally inclined toward structure and habits, but I’m now leaning toward using this as a pivot to a lower COL and less stressful lifestyle, so maybe it would be useful to have time on my hands
Why wouldn't you take this? The package is plush as hell, and like some other posters mentioned above, it's unlikely that your company is going to increase what they are offering down the line if things get worse.
Basically, if we do go into a depression/recession and your company start culling, the next rounds will likely be less generous. So might as well take this now.
On the other hand, if 'rona dissapears and the economy picks up...then you can easily find a new job since the economy is crushing. But now you have an extra stash of cash.
My 2 cents: take the years worth of guaranteed pay, use your free time to supplement your income with some consulting gigs, etc, and then start applying for other jobs. Shit, you could even boomerang back to your company a year from now.
I would absolutely take it. Especially if you're confident you can land something else in a few months. If your MBA is a top 25, Id say your odds are even more likely.
I guess it depends on if / when you think you'll be laid-off. If it's imminent (next 2-4 months), I'd take consider taking the package, will potentially double your severance. I'd also reach out to a couple recruiters you know first, just to see what's out there for you. If you get some positive feedback, I'd say go for it.
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