Posted on 06/01/2024 10:29:23 AM PDT by Cronos
Steven Piluso, 52, has worked for many years as a marketing operations and strategy consultant.
He says the initial social contract that created loyalty to jobs was broken by the employers, not employees.
To fix the problem, companies should focus on giving Gen Z and millennials benefits that matter to them.
After college graduation at age 22, I got my first job at an advertising agency. At the orientation, sitting with mostly entry- or low-level employees, an HR rep went over a lot of confusing information — stuff about common stock, benefits, and a pension plan.
I thought to myself, "Well, I'm going to work here forever and I'll just figure it out later and retire at 65, maybe before that!"
After all, this was what I'd been told by my grandfather right before I left for college. He'd retired after working at the same bank branch for 45 years, working his way from sweeping the floors to branch president ... About three years into my tenure at that job, a memo informed us that the company was discontinuing its pension program; we could either be paid out or migrate the balance into a 401(k), the new retirement provision for employees.
....As I've gotten older, I'm sometimes jealous of friends who took jobs in public education or government. They haven't lived lavishly over the years, but with 30 years' experience can retire at full salary in perpetuity and sleep comfortably without the plague of questions like Will my 401(k) be enough to retire at 60? 70? Will the government move retirement from 65 to 70 and I'll have to work for nearly 20 more years?
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
This is a nice, gentle entreat for more socialism. I say this, sitting at my business on Saturday, taking a break from doing things that my employees decided not to do during the week. Because they make enough and have enough freedom to decide that the end customer can wait. YMMV
Having been an executive who had to lay off many people over a long career I can tell you that the process is not a “whim.” By the time we got to laying off staff, we had a choice between the survival of the company or the employment of everyone.
Anyone who thinks it’s about bonuses, doesn’t understand that if you are laying off your staff, no one is getting bonuses that year.
It’s easy to point to a single person as “the bad guy”. But, its also ignorant to think that anyone wants to make that decision .
80/20
No
90;10
I think a major “fix” to the system would be 2 fold.
First, employees should be give a transportable 401(k) [also known as a QRP]. Company match amounts would ALWAYS be 100% vested and contribution limits are much higher than traditional 401k along with a much wider variety of investment options.
Second, ALL Pension plans should be eliminated. Many companies that still have pensions are in financial peril because Pensions are not fully funded. Look at the cost of pensions for government employees! Switching everyone, especially government staff, to self-funded investments in QRPs with company match will do more to provide a financial education to citizens and stimulate the economy because investing in businesses (not stocks, but actual equity) is allowed with QRPs. So is investing in precious metals, and a lot of other “non-marketable” securities.
With a level playing field, companies would then be free to create a match plan based on tenure. The longer you stay, the more they contribute to your “match”.
I can see what you are saying. I guess I am an exception and it probably also depends on the career field or industry. I have had two employers, other than odd short term jobs in highschool. The Navy was my first employer (24 years) and my current company (a major aerospace company and defense contractor) was the second (now at 20 years). I will likely retire or move to part time in the next two years. I do see many younger people cross to other competitors for bumps in pay, but there is a down side to that as well. At my company, if we see a candidate who has a resume with several companies over a few years, it’s frowned upon as we don’t want to spend time and money to train people and watch them walk out the door with those skills.
Federal Govt jobs = white boys need not apply.
UH.. This is news? The last jobs that rewarded loyalty ended decades ago.
A secret well hidden in aerospace is the old white men are the ones who do the actual real engineering work. At least that’s been my experience doing contract work and consulting. The contractors are all about my age with the same experience who go in and correct all the mistakes from the younger ‘engineers’ and do the specialized design and engineering (FEA, GVT, Flutter, etc.).
For the companies that don’t like “boring old white men” how’d that work for the Titanic Sub??? DEI gets you to DIE quick when it matters.
>Shows the naivete and out of touch with reality attitude of the author.
My in-laws are in their 80s. My Father-in-law retired very comfortably with a nice pension and stock portfolio. And he is just as "naiive and out of touch". He has always criticized me for changing jobs every 5 years. At each job I have had, since the 1990s, I have excelled. Great reviews. Many awards. I am a star performer. But no real raises, no promotions. There's no budget, no place to move up. Also, no pension. So I change jobs every 5 years. I usually snag a 10% raise or so when I change. My current income is much higher than I think I deserve. But if I had been naive and trusting and stayed with one company I'd be making far less than I am. As I say, my Father-in-Law thinks I'm a bit of a fool. That guy is 83 and he still hasn't figured out that the world has changed. I caught on 30 years ago.
In the old days at one big Texas company, if you got drunk and thrown in jail, your boss would bail you out.
Many mergers later, no one cares.
And your boss is a BIPOC Tranny.
I was only laid off twice. But I have still worked for five different companies.
Even if you keep the same job there is no guarantee that you will be working for the same company. I once worked for three different companies and never once had to move my name plate in one job and two different companies in another job. When I started working full time in the late 80s I knew that likely I would work for several companies before I retired and that the best thing to plan for was to have a portable skill set and something that would allow me to work for myself some day.
Which was a plan I followed with any number of ups and downs but it is mostly successful. We have taught our children the same thing. If you get a nice job where you work for one company your entire life that is a major black swan so do not count on it.
I just find it very hard to believe that this man had this kind of mindset in the mid nineties.
You are so right. I started with my last employer in 1987, and worked my way into being virtually irreplaceable, by way of experience and hard work and long hours. In 2012, after 24.5 years, they decided to ditch me anyway.
My division of a large corp had been sold to a larger corp in 1999, and part of the sales agreement was that legacy employees would keep the same retirement benefits, which included half again pension after 25 years.
I had my revenge for the layoff when the TWO young women they hired to replace me both quit in less than 30 days, complaining about overwork.
No such thing as keeping up with the job market unless you move job to job. I see nurses who merry-go-round several facilities climbing the pay ladder
The first company I worked for out of college, they had a saying that it was a great First and Third Company to work for.
It’s filled with women and non-white women on the lower levels and the higher levels have all the arrogant idiots we’ve seen in recent years. Thry live very well.
Glad it worked out for you. I got advice like that early on in my 20's. An elderly worker told me that I should look at moving on after 5 years, especially if I feel stifled and not appreciated. Said it's a way to ensure getting promotions and more salary. And that's what I did, although often within the company to other departments. Bosses promised promotions that never happened, well bye. My wife and I did very well, and retired early.
Exactly. When accountants gain control of a company, it us the death of it from employees
Many many decades ago, my then FIL got let go from his job after 25 years. He was devastated.
I was talking with him one day and he said, There’s no such a thing as company loyalty. Follow the dollar sign.
And that’s what I did. Self funded my own pension. As soon as I started a new job, I was already looking for the next higher paying one.
I am now retired and living comfortable.
Take a class in financial planning. I did and the time spent is worth it’s weight in gold.
And the story is of a kid in ‘94 when everyone was still pushing the BS about staying at companies long enough to show loyalty because youll never get hired again once youre labeled a job hopper.
It was around that time that some stories started suggesting hopping around but only for IT professionals where leaving was effectively a promotion and even then there were those who said is was still a bad idea.
The advice of everyone for himself and man the life boats was still a few years off.
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