[af_vet_1981]

Today I find myself in the position of praying that I can last 7 more years until I reach retirement age. After 31 years in a highly skilled field a person should not feel threatened by the loss of their career. Yet this is where I find myself, clinging to my current position, accepting cuts in benefits and no salary increases by my current employer, thankful that I still have a job.

Sounds like someone is overpaid for what they actually produce and anxious about a downgrade. It happens all the time as people age and is normal. Thirty one years was quite a run and if one saved up during those fat years there should be more than enough for the lean years.

No one is entitled to a highly compensated career for 38 years. Adapt.

[NobleFree]

No one is entitled to a highly compensated career for 38 years.

Nor is anyone entitled to pay less than the American market price for labor by getting foreign-labor welfare. As our President said, "Hire American!"

[libh8er]

Indeed. There are plenty of jobs available in IT if you have the right skillset. In fact there were far more jobs available (pre Covid) than there were candidates to fill them and many with salaries comfortably in the 120k to 130k plus range and beyond. But companies are looking for dynamic motivated people with current/ 2020s skills ( Data science, cloud, devops, AI, modern programming languages..etc), not unmotivated people with 1980s/1990s skills who bolt from the office at 5.

[grey_whiskers]

Stuff it, troll.

[RetiredScientist]

You understand reality. Highly compensated employees are always scrutinized, especially when the corporate executives need to cut costs to make the quarterly reports satisfy share holders. I dealt with budget cuts by moving the software I needed to Open Source packages. My management appreciated the cost savings and it also let me make customized image analysis pipelines. Training budgets were very low, so I used Coursera and similar platforms to gain the skills I needed.

Our company had many rounds of job cuts, sometimes two rounds in a calendar year. Fallout from those usually impacts productivity of those who remain and need to step up and assume additional responsibility. I made it 37 years, finally laid off along with most of my highly-compensated coworkers when senior management cut 70% of the Research Laboratory staff. Getting laid off wasn't fun, but I was happy to walk away with a severance package. I talk occasionally with a few friends who are still there. Things are worse for them and all are building their nest eggs so they can retire and live on their pensions, savings, and investment.

My family always lived below our means. We followed the approach of financial writers like Dave Ramsey and Larry Burkett before him. We started by saving an emergency fund that would support us for 6 months. We saved for retirement. We generally went camping for a vacation. We managed to save enough to help get our two children through state universities.

The key to processing such a situation is to be thankful for what you have, work together as a family to control expenses, and find whatever joy you can in the work you do.