Is anyone able to voluntarily exit with a package?
20 replies (most recent on top)
@k0 What is the sliding scale? 4 weeks per month, and then 3 weeks/month, 2 weeks/month?
Those lucky lucky guys at Microsoft.
We also recently had early to mid career engineers leaving voluntarily to work for someone else with higher pays than bp. Leaving your options open is always a sound advice.
Lots of 3-7 year engineers jumping ship to make $150k base at PE backed firms.
Job market has been rough for the integrated companies but there is still a lot of opportunity for early career folks to shop around.
@ye $300k to $90k is insane
@k0 I feel like we are saying THE EXACT same thing. It’s very rare to have 30 years and 16.5 months of pay as part of you severance. Most folks laid off will have half of that and will last for 6-12 months without pay. The rest is already yours no matter what. So a package does not buy you anything more than a year or no salary for 12 months. No one is going to hire you at 50+ age for the same salary. We had a manager making 300k plus svp in GoA that is now making 90k in salary as a completions engineer onshore just this year. So if you enjoy the perks of a BP job, just roll up your sleeves and work hard rather than judging the LT team day in and out and how you could do much better, you did not get up there in the first place.
There isn’t a formal way to do that anymore. You could talk to your manager and see how it goes.
This is stupid, a package is not a lump sum payment of your pension you are confusing two things. One is the severance package that is a month wage for every year of work with a sliding scale to half months, with a max of 16.5 months for 30 years. That is your severance package. You lose the SVP shares that are prorated. The medical is 12 months ath current rates after that is COBRA rates. Your Pension and 401k are yours if you are vested you can chose to take lump sump and rollover to IRAs or keep in the current plan. Interest rates do affect lump sum.
@gd details pls, what ranges do we need for retirement?
I did, got lucky thought with an awesome manager that "helped" the process for me to take the package but I'm in my 50's and many decades with BP, so it worked out well, pension payout was awesome (Lump Summed it) and 401k after 30 years and retiry medical as I was ready for reitement....so I was fortunate...
@es this is bs. Again it’s not a multi year payout. If you take out your pension you get about 6-12 million baths worth of pay. So BP is not going to penny pinch someone going out the door. If the senior folks make lot more than the junior folks that could be a reason. No matter whether you retire or get a package, it makes no difference except the additional months of pay based on service years.
@fa lump sum payouts is an oxymoron. Lump sum is a single payout and there is no pension annuity if you choose lump sum, so interest rate does not affect your lump sum. If you choose a monthly annuity they are based on bond rates, higher bonds rates get you a higher annuity monthly. If you had 500k and receive 4 k a month till you live, you just need 12 years of monthly payments plus a couple of years for inflation to get the equivalent of your lump sum today. If someone dies early in 5 years after retirement the balance on you account continues to pay your spouse at 50% for life. If you take lump sum and invest it yourself at greater than 7-10% a year, you can make a lot more than the annuity but you take on the risk
@fa Higher interest rates = lower lump sum value. They figure you make more on your invested lump sum when interest rates are higher.
@es I’m sure this is a d-mb question, but how do interest rates affect lump sum payouts?
It all depends on your manager. One team had 3 people raise their hand for packages. They laid off people that didn’t raise their hand. All in the age group that are ready for retirement. The manager’s position was why pay people to retire when they will leave on their own in the near future. if you are ready for retirement the timing is right. Interest rates are increasing so it will affect lump sum payout.
@ag I have a new manager and he is completely checked out and MIA. I don’t think he’ll make this round of cuts himself.
@c2 The package is really not all that it’s made out to be. Giving your lump sum payment is what you will get anyway. Outside of that, a years paycheck after extra taxes and additional health insurance that jumps from 4k to 40k for a USA family gives you barely 6 -8 months of breathing room. If you are an SLL, the svp is prorated to where you lose anywhere between 60-100k for next 2 years, so you could extend by another year. Most folks are thrilled about the package only due to the lump sum pension which is maybe another two years of living after taxes and only substantial if you have been around about 15-20 years. If you already are comfortable to retire and in your late 50s, a package with 4 -5 years to Medicare or Medicaid could be a good option. Otherwise, it just buys you a year to two and finding another similar paying job in the oil industry is very tough.
Why would they give packages when they can just fire the bottom 10% at no cost?
I asked mine but they said there’s no EOI. Probably worried too many people would leave if they offered it.
Just ask you manager