This buyout offer is stirring up a lot of emotion on the choices we have to leave VZ. I have 30 years and in my late 50s. I’ll never forget waking up and tuning into cnbc to the announcement of the management pension freeze. I had been with the company for 18 years and was in my mid 40s. Ivan, Doreen and the Board along with the business round table corporations had figured out a sceam to freeze pensions in america for their managers. Of course they had ensured long term incentives for themselves and the directors, but not for the managers. 6 years away from points to retire early, people in my cohort were trapped with a significant but less than half a retirement pension. And, a real challenge to try to save our way back to whole. If we left for another job in mid 40’s we lost the less than half pension we would get if we stayed. Clearly a bad career choice to think fortune 20 companies would keep their benefits for their managers not to mention robbing their pension funds to line their executive pockets. Of course, it’s later in your tenure that the math of the pension builds, e.g., 1.35XyearsXsalary at the end of carreer. I know its a new world now of no pensions, but i still consider their actions at the time terrible (to be polite) as I sit evaluating their current offer. As my spouse says, VZ laedership has always been a ruthless organization since 2000, especially in the way they treat their managers, and many employees.
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I remember when Stephen Colbert parodied the pension freeze on his show-
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/l23e5t/the-colbert-report-the-word---backsies
Sorry that happened but in a way, not only were you earning a pension before then, you were also getting a pretty nice 401k match. Most workers in other companies were getting one OR the other. I knew when 401ks started that eventually the pension would fade away. I left Verizon after 10 years but the way I look at it is, I still get 10 years worth of pension which I look at as a little bonus at 65. You have to look at what you have, not what you could have had. You are still ahead of what most people will get. Management associates could have joined forces with the union but didn't. I think Verizon also kicked in a little extra at the time they discontinued the pension for mgmt.
Very good post
Retirement Heist - Pension Fraud Book - Ellen Schultz , How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers .
A good read for those that were affected. Op , many feel the same way as you. After setting up the raiding of the pension funds , companies took away the pensions from workers. To this day they don't have a clue they lost thousands of dollars in benefits compensation.
Frankly it was a robbery and they got away with it. The C-Level lounge ganged up and raided the pensions so they can channel more money for themselves. The transfer was not direct (manager to Executive) - they took our money which resulted in cost cutting, lower costs = higher profits, EPS increases and return on equity jumps - this meets and exceed exec targets and Exec bonuses and base pay goes through the roof.
And, yes, you can do this game for a while. Nobody asked the question: are our folks happy? We'll the answer is 'no' because you just f---ing robbed me - right... So, some people left and some remained while adjusting their contribution to reflect cuts in the comp. With time, tens of thousands of micro cuts in contribution morphed into a major 'competitive disadvantage' - so, when the shareholder asks 'how did vz lost it's mojo' they should be looking at the exec lineup and robberies that took place in the name of the shareholder.
VZ laedership has always been a ruthless organization since 2000, especially in the way they treat their managers, and many employees.
Good post.
Agree. But sadly this is corporate America now. No one has pensions anymore.
They can’t lay-off 44K employees. They might chip away at the jobs targeted over time. Of course they came up with this list somehow. Might be collapsing Wireline and Wireless engineering soon. Some functions are redundant I suppose.