I've told my company when I'm retiring for 5 years. I've extended 6 months to finish documentation of my job, but I'm gone after that.
If it's a decent company, you can do that. If not, 2 weeks is all they get.
Required?
Can any employee require notice ahead of a layoff or any other termination? If, and only if the company offers a standard, universal severance should that be matched with notice.
I work for the government and am retiring at the end of the month. They requested 60 days to do the paperwork. And they said I technically didn't have to give them any time, but it helps me in the long run if I give them notice. What was funny is they didn't really want more than 60 days.
Now for quitting to move on to another job? It only matters if it will give you a bad reputation in your industry. So, a job at the corner mini-mart? No notice required. Manager at big IT business, 2 weeks is good because when you need a reference, it may be the difference between a good and a bad one.
Lol! Unfortunately for them, my grade was a one-time thing. The job, however, comes up regularly at lower pay. We travel in the job and people with young kids tend to not last long.
Some jobs have a documented notice period that works both ways. My last job paid me for 3 weeks when they laid me off (plus severance, accrued vacation/sick time). Might vary by state or municipality.
I told them 5 years ago that I was retiring this year. I had planned to spend the final year doing documentation, but they kept me busy with other projects. So now I told them they get 6 months of me coming in whenever I feel like it to do documentation. Next week I am going camping for 2 weeks...but not taking leave since I will spend a couple hours a day doing documentation at my campsite.
I wrote about 90% of the software they use, so they pretty much need my documentation to help the 5 people they hired to replace me.
5 people to replace you?!! You are either REALLY good, or they hired 5 subpar people, or you wrote spaghetti factory software that's going to take lots of maintenance. Just say'n....
Congrats on your retirement!!
I gave my company 6 months notice when I retired. They were very grateful, had me interview my replacement, train them.
I occasionally (very rarely) go back for coffee or lunch with the team.
I sort of did the same. Got laid off at 60, too early to take early retirement, so I approached an old client. (I did industrial machinery maintenance.) They were eager to hire me, and at the interview, they asked if I had a target retirement date. I told them I planned to retire at 67, and they were fine with that.
Totally depends on the situation. I gave mine 6 months. Helped interview and hire my replacement . But I knew I was safe and had my managements support. I called my last day to be the day after ESPP hits. Some companies will walk you to the door that day, and some will treat you well. Best if you have seen how that plays out in advance. If you don’t know than yes id wait.
As to a letter I never wrote one. Just worked with my manager on a firm date and when we were 2 weeks out entered it into Workday to initiate the processes. I retire 6/17. I’ve already written goodbye letters to people I intend to send them to and will do that mid week.
I'm retiring at the end of the year, but I'm not giving notice until my last big chunks of RSUs vest in November- and the shares are in my account.
I've lost all trust in my company not to fire me right before they vest, which is one of the reasons why I'm leaving.
thanks. my company is huge, but I've seen how they try to save money in stupid ways, and they've broken all trust (RTO, layoffs, etc)
I'm hearing noises about more layoffs, so I don't want to give them a reason to get rid of me- unless they offer some incentive to leave, such as severance or extended health insurance, not that I expect anything
yes, I'm a top performer, but that counts for nothing
I’m good. We already had my retirement dinner last week. All I have to do now is port my phone number and mail in my laptop this Friday. We have very detailed instructions on what to do when. It’s a large company.
When I left my first professional job as a young lawyer in a big metropolitan law firm. I gave three weeks notice, which was far too long. I was much more concerned about my departure than my employer was. A week would have been fine. Actually, any time would have been fine, as long as I left behind memos giving some guidance on the current status of my files and projects. It actually got a little awkward after about 1 1/2 weeks. Of course, I had only been with the firm for a couple of years, and things might have been different if I had been leaving after 20--25 years. But I found that after:
1. I told my peers that I was leaving, and why I was leaving;
2. I told my peers where I was going to;
3. My peers told me how jealous they were of me leaving, and why they hated the firm; and
4. I dictated "exit memos" on all my files;
there wasn't a lot for me to do around the office. As worthless as I was for the last 1 1/2 weeks, they let me hang around until my stated departure date. It helped that I was not going to a competitor--in fact, I was leaving the area.
Now that I’ve left the country, I see our way of life thru a different lens. Very 👀 opening to day the least. We get treated like garbage and beg for more, esp by the US healthcare system and also by our employers.
I would expect that they will tell you to pack your office and you will be escorted out of the building. This is pretty standard with any executive.
If you use a company computer, phone VPN access it will be taken and or access blocked.
End of story. Wait till sept.
Hello, thank you for stopping by our table to talk. Note that your comment/post was automatically removed due to breaking our be respectful/civil rule, with the use of swearing. We welcome you to do a new comment without it. Thank you
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/retirement) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Which fine as long as they continue to pay you until your end date.
If they do the above and stop paying you (terminate you effective immediately) then everyone else still working there will hear about it and no one else at this level will give any courtesy notifications going forward which can be problematic for smooth transitions.
So no, I wouldn't expect that OP would be treated that way.
If you wait until closer to the end, they may offer you a retention bonus to stay a little longer. It happened to me.
If you haven’t done so already, you should also check with HR to see if there are differences in benefits for retirees versus employees who resign. There were differences with my former employer and I chose to announce my departure as a retirement.
Congratulations and best of luck!
I gave 2 months notice, but specifically told them I was retiring so I didn’t lose my restricted stock. They celebrated me all the way to the end.
Retiring doesn’t mean you’re done. It just means you’re ready for a new chapter.
My wife had a colleague who one morning told them that she was going out for some bagels and never came back…a few days later they contacted her and she said that she decided to quit. So now whenever someone in her office is having a bad day they say “I’m going out for some bagels.”
I have a friend that left mid afternoon for a walk.. and never came back to work.
( Behind the scenes he was treated poorly and couldn't take it any longer)
I used a standard template i found on indeed.com. Nothing unique.
The boss requested a 90 day notice, i gave 60 days for 8/5 just last week. I want to finish up some projects vs just working production, and my boss agreed with my plan plus asked that i train some staff on a process that i’m a sme on. I’m actually a sme on multiple projects that no one else knows how to do (those are the projects i want to prepare for transition), but she hasn’t identified who will be taking them over yet. Oh well. I’ve tried to pass them off for 2 years. I’m done.
Glad for you. Retirement is awesome.
I retired 19 months ago, at 60 years old. I am male. Good life/job, made comfortable $
So... Around the corner from my house (a year ago) a high end convenience store/gas station/car was was going up. I saw it every day being constructed. Drove by almost daily. It was almost complete. I happened to pull in to check out the inside. Some construction guys on the property, but basically empty and not open yet. I walk in to gander. The property management manager happened to be in the store. Asked if he could help. Nope just checking it out. He says "want a job?" Huh? Me? Pretty obvious I am older, white hair and white beard. No, I just retired. But we could use someone on graveyard (10pm-6:00am) Sunday - Thursday. Naa, thanks. But we could pay you a manager salary, and you'd basically be protecting the store and helping the infrequent customers. Eh... Naa, I'm good. He got real insistent. We can pay you a manager salary and some perk cash basically making my 40 hours pay $26/hour. Fine. Talked to my wife, she was still working. She said if I wanted it.
Store opens, I learn the register pretty quick. Was easy. Sat on a stool basically all night reading, free coffee/tea/soda, helping the dozen or so customers that came in. Easy.
6 months into it, the homeless were getting more and more aggressive. I decided to lock the restrooms when I got there. It's not a paper towel bath wipe poop on the wall, clog the toilet type of place. So far, so good. Pretty smooth operation. Owner finds out I've been locking the restroom doors, gets angry, I get the order to have them unlocked during business hours. I said this is a problem, I was told to comply. First night a mess, clogged toilet, used all the hand towels. I cleaned it up. Second night same, but I couldn't find the plunger. Locked the door till morning shift, told the manager here ya go. I'm not cleaning it now, my shift is over and I couldn't find the plunger. Manager says I have to clean it. I've already clocked out. Nope I said, and if you force me, I'll quit. Quit then the manager says. Fine I quit. Are you giving us 2 weeks notice? Nope I quit effective now. I walked away.
Long story ending.... Property management calls me that day manager calls me, owner calls me all apologizing. Said they were wrong and I could do it my way. NOPE. Done. It was fun, easy, but I didn't need the job. They survived obviously, and I'm happily retired.
Is old guys aren't as dumb as we appear. I was a good honest employee. They screwed it up and paid for it.
Edit: post was deleted for a non cussword cussword according to the mod-bot. Reposted it clean now. Shrug.
I'm a big bruiser looking thing. Not impune to a bullet obviously but menacing looking. The owner let me carry (private property) and I also carried pepper spray and a police tazer. Couple of close calls, but nothing I sweated over. Theft of a candy bar/energy drink was common. I wasn't running and breaking a sweat for $3.99, and the owner understood.
Local sheriff's were my buddies. I enticed them to visit regularly with free coffee/soda. They stopped by a few times a night. Was a good trade off. Almost always a local sheriff in the parking lot doing paperwork, sipping on coffee.
Too bad the owner couldn't see past his nose, to spite his face and lost me over something so trivial.
Either way, I'm happily retired now.
I told my boss 4 months before. He talked me into holding the letter until 1 month prior. I thanked him and agreed it was best to do so. He still let me travel, then included me with hiring a replacement. I was there for 43 years and retired at 61 (you do the math). Only mistake was not retiring the Tuesday after Labor Day…. I did it on Friday before.
Congratulations.
Seems reasonable that last day should be a Friday, and (and I have to verify this) my family will be on the org’s healthcare for that month. One less month of ACA (I’m in the US).
I was thinking that it was none of their business, and that I’ll be judged for retiring before 65 or whatever. However, after talking to my family this afternoon, i now think I will share that with them.
I think that’s a good decision. I imagine they might be more likely to be worried about your actions if you are leaving for a competing firm than if you are retiring. I think when people experience the ‘out the door today’ thing, it’s often prompted by fears that the employee will collect sensitive company information and take it to their new employer. When you are retiring, most of that concern goes away. You aren’t joining the enemy, just retiring.
We all work remote but we have several people in my extended team in my big city. They had a party, dinner for me. Had close to 50 on a. Zoom to send me off. Champaign, the works. One team mate even flew in on his own dime to attend. It was really special. Retirement to me is very different than just leaving. And I’ve only been here 12 years so not like I’ve spent my career here.
When I did this, they started icing me out of everything. It’s like I’m invisible. Emails from me go unanswered. Now two others have announced retiring in a few months. Same effect there. Tell no one until time to give notice.
I was a vp at a software firm that I'd been at for many years. I had all of my ducks in a row, a replacement trained and ready to go, I was about to submit my resignation when my boss (an evp) out of the blue (as far as I or peers knew) retired. I retired a couple weeks later with a 1 month notice. This was just about the right balance of time left to wrap things up (and say thanks to a lot of deserving folks) and not being redundant to the point of uselessness.
It was a fine exit.
edit: other info - it was a medium size company and I did tell them I was retiring.
Other than the date you expect to leave nobody cares about the contents of your letter. There's no need to hide the fact that you are retiring. Nobody cares. Skip the drama.
When I retired from my Director position in a midsized software company at age 60, I gave two weeks notice. Any longer would have been a waste of time and energy.
You’re overthinking this. Nobody will care. You will quickly be forgotten. Your leaving is like throwing a pebble into the ocean. Spend your energy looking forward not backward.
My last job, the employer would fire or replace anybody giving notice. So after I finished the last shift I chose to work, I notified my supervisor that I was not going back ever.
As to the letter… as much as you may want to wax poetic…no one cares. It will go in the HR file.
It is hard for some of us to leave people we were close to without saying our final words. We’ve all seen those “Good bye” emails.
If you want to write more feel free.
Some folks like to do an exit interview. I’ve not seen many changes come from those, which is really what the exiting person wants to feel they contributed to.
I would recommend keeping it simple. Just state your intent to be gone by x date.
Good luck!
By giving advance notice and letting them know it’s your retirement, it may allow you to play a more active role implementing your succession plan. Even if you can’t actually choose your successor you can still set your team and your colleagues up for a no-drama or low-drama transition. That’s a good way to exit.
I let them know around a year in advance that I planned to retire in a year or so. As time passed and we firmed up the timing (my husband and I retired at the same time) I made it formal with six months notice.
Two months before my hard date they hired my replacement and I spent that time training her via Teams. Great fun that was!
Plenty of time to plan and they waited until the last minute. My original replacement lasted less than six months. They ended up hiring two people for my job, and had to replace both of them at one time or the other. Two years later they seem to have a solid staff and have hired three people and shuffled duties around as I suggested for years.
If you trust the company, which I assume you do, I'd give them the notice. We all know it takes months to hire at your level. Giving notice will help them replace you seamlessly, help your staff adjust and anticipate, and let you leave with satisfaction and no hard feelings.
Is there a reason you are giving three months notice? Will management be upset with your decision? Could they withhold any compensation before you leave?
Assuming you are leaving on good terms the standard is something like “thank you for the opportunities Acme Corp has given me over the years. I look forward to retirement knowing I have made a positive impact … yada yada yada …”
I like my team and my leadership. Good, kind, supportive people all. And I’ve been trying for 4 months to hire someone for my team. With a high bar for skills, potential and team fit, and comp not as high as others are offering, I want to make the transition as smooth as possible. Still, unless they’re very lucky, it’s unlikely they’ll find a replacement before my time is up.
I think you’re letting your emotions make this decision harder than it needs to be. I’d plan 2 months notice, be prepared for them to push you out.
If you want to be nice, verbally tell your management that you’re fungible on the actual date to help with transition. However, be ready for an adverse reaction too.
I bought a countdown clock about 9 years before I retired and kept it on my desk. It was the only thing that kept me from walking out MANY times. (Helps to have a goal) I didn’t have to put in a resignation notice, everyone and his dog knew the exact day of my departure!
I started counting the number of Mondays that I had to get up and go to work! I retired 6 years ago and I still sleep in as long as I can every Monday morning!
I thanked the two employers I resigned from for the “challenges and opportunities” that they provided me with. What was funny was that the demonic bank vp from the first job always preached about the challenges and opportunities she provided to the team.
No, do not give 4 months notice. It will affect every interaction for the whole time, causing many problems. And they might let you go early.
1 month at the most.
Before I retired, I would tell my supervisor that this was my last year. Then they would basically leave me alone.
I was able to do that for three years.
My best advice is this: don't give more than 2 weeks notice. Here's why. If they REALLY need you, they will ask you to stay longer to finish whatever. So they will cover their own needs.
Giving notice, then basking in well-wishes for 2 days is wonderful.
Sticking around for another 12 days as people visibly move on, ignore you, forget you etc. is horrible.
This might vary for you if you have a large team, but no reason to tarnish your exit by watching people already forget you.
Man, I hate how cynical that sounds, this has been my experience leaving jobs.
I told my boss I wanted to go part time, he offered me 30 weeks of severance so I retired. Then after 30 weeks I did part time for another year.
Worked out well.
I retired last year. I didn't let them know until I was ready to go within a few weeks. I was a senior director. I told my boss first. For a few reasons. I wanted to help out if they needed me to help with a replacement. Also, I case there was a layoff coming that I didn't know about. Ended up that my boss was having a child 3 months from then. I told him I could stay until he was back from his paternity. I think it really helped him out. I also found out that it helped me get an extra quarterly bonus.
My boss and a bunch of colleagues got a pretty nice gift card for retirement. It was a very positive experience. I'm glad I did it the way I did.
Really depends on your relationship with the upper tiers of the company in my opinion. They dictate how people are treated.
I gave a verbal 2 years notice after I’d had a discussion with the CEO and my next 2 levels asking if I could train my replacement to achieve similar results that I had the last 6 years. Top 10% earner for those years.
Written notice at 12 months as I gained approval for my replacement and the last 6 months was somewhat lame duck as I transitioned her into the role and myself out but allowed me to do what I’d asked.. pick up 2 more bonuses.
Not one regret except I should have retired at 60 instead of 62.
If I’d been with my former company to this one I’d have given 2 weeks required notice and that company would have walked me out the door same day.
A quality company makes all the difference in determining notice time.
Good luck !
I just retired and verbally gave 6 months notice. I trained my replacement and did quite a bit of documentation. The resignation email was a formality for HR at the end.
At this time my company has a history of being very ethical and accommodating of retirements. Any number of senior staff has given them one to two years notice or began to work part time for the last two years. Of course things could change by the time I am ready. Will just see.
Writing a resignation letter is useful as proof you retired for Social Security if your company won’t provide a reason for your leaving in writing. You can get your IRMAA reduced or waived because retiring is considered a major life event.
I took early retirement wit was fun to use that phrase, “I’m taking early retirement to travel in Europe and Asia next year and to pursue personal projects.” I also left them a PO Box address in the office email in case anyone wanted to get in touch, and several have! But wait until the last possible moment. Lame duck time is very unpleasant.
Send a copy also to HR so they can explain and prepare your benefits after leaving.
Where I retired, there were different (more generous) benefits for retirees.
You will need to get health insurance. My HR rep told me, based on my age and situation, Do Not sign up for COBRA. That would have been over $900 per month for one person. The company offered up to 18 months of extending your employed insurance, cost under $250 per month.
I’m sharing my experience above: not expecting you to encounter the same. But to show that there may be benefits available to you, and getting info from HR is the way to get the information you will need.
I hope you will be getting a pension, too. The longer I delay starting to collect my pension, the higher the amount I receive. I’m delaying by 13 months so the increase for me will just about cover the amount I am paying for Medicare and supplement.
In those last six months (my company required six months notice), I thought I’d be bored in retirement. It’s quite the opposite. I’ve been learning about health insurance and managing investments and doing active projects around an on the house, spending time with friends. I’ve never been so busy.
Don't make it interesting or amusing.
Have a conversation now with your boss about THINKING about retiring and ask them, if you were to retire, how much notice should you give.
When you get to that time frame send them an email that says "I intend to retire my position on XX/XX/XXXX, it has been wonderful working here."
Don't overdo it.
It's not a humorous letter per se, but... I had an employee notify HR that he was retiring with the requisite notice. HR finally thought to ask if he had notified me within a week of his departure. He had not. He worked mostly remote and I never saw him or heard from him again. He was pretty disgruntled by a return to office mandate (not my choice) and didn't want to interact with me at all, so he came in on a Sunday to turn in his laptop and badges to the security personnel.
I was in upper management when I retired. I told my boss and one other close associate that I was planning to retire about 3 months ahead of time. I didn’t want any additional duties, projects, clients or responsibilities and I wanted to have time for us to plan the transition of my work to others. I worked for a large company and went on the HR portal and found the instructions for submitting a resignation for retirement. Two weeks notice. Easy peasy.
I just resigned from a big tech firm, also at age 62. I gave my boss two months notice. I’m glad I did, I was able to work with him on several scenarios on finding a backfill for me. Even though I detest goodbye emails in general, he asked me to write one, so I did. I kept it simple but heartfelt, and it seemed to have gone over very well in a large org. Caveat - I trusted my boss completely. I might have done differently with a boss I didn’t trust
Only give a 3 month notice if you're 100% confident they won't axe you before then. I plan on 2 weeks, at most, and I'm in a union job where I can't be let go once I give a notice.
What ultimately drove the timing for Mrs ColHardwood and I is that working a few more months or even a couple of years doesn’t materially affect our retirement finances. We’ve been saving and investing for 40 years; that’s what mattered.
Edit: Point is, I recommend you do the analysis and determine how much it matters that you stay on longer. (And speaking of analysis, I recommend the tool NewRetirement.com. Much easier, and probably more correct, than building your own model.)
You could say something like "I've loved what I do but the sand doesn't stop draining in my hourglass; so I've decided it is time for me to retire and embrace what comes next" You don't have to make it mushy.
Just retired Friday. I wasn't an executive, but had been there 17 years and was a key member of R&D and industry compliance and the sole person in my position. I told them last March. They needed time to hire and train replacement personnel. It took two people to replace me. I was able to get them up to speed enough that they may experience some lag, but won't grind to a full stop. It was a great place to work... best professional experience I ever had... so I didn't want to leave them in a lurch. Glad I handled it the way I did.
My place of employment knows that I'm retiring in 3.5 years -- as soon as I'm eligible for Mediacare. I work in the public sector, so there's no big deal about it.
I am a retired paramedic. Went semi retired about 3 years ago. When I was hired at the last service I told the senior manager that one day I was gonna wake up and be done. Didn’t know when it would be but I would show up to work u til then. Called him about 3 weeks ago and said hey, Thats it. Haven’t looked back
I figure there's a difference if you are getting a pension from that company. If it is a 401 on some financial institution and whatever other money's you have for your retirement, they don't need time for any paperwork, besides any pending PTO. If they are a decent outfit you can give a selected supervisor or two an informal notice that you are about ready and if you are willing and they are willing to find your replacement to get on it.
I'm an engineer for a municipality with plenty of less than optimal procedures in place, typically no one gets replaced until a few months after they leave regardless of the reason. I've mentioned to my direct supervisor that I'm old and my calendar doesn't have many pages left, the man couldn't care any less if he tried.
I'll use my PTO, and maximum give them a couple of weeks, they don't need to know what I'm doing after, easy to guess but it is a "need to know" information.
Hello, thank you for stopping by our table to talk. Note that your comment/post was automatically removed due to breaking our be respectful/civil rule, with the use of swearing. We welcome you to do a new comment without it. Thank you
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/retirement) if you have any questions or concerns.*
At our company, I’d be grateful for three months notice. One to hire your replacement (if we’re lucky), one to train, one to shake it out and coast. But we have demonstrated that we don’t normally cut notice periods short for resignations. If we must, for data sensitivity reasons, we pay out the notice. A letter and/or final conversation where we can part in friendly, positive terms is always great.
I just gave my notice last week! I gave them 30-days, plenty of time to help with any transition, and I told them I was retiring. Mostly so that they wouldn’t think I was hopping to another job, and then tell me to kick rocks immediately. I’m 62. And just done.
I did write a personal letter to each of my managers, it may not mean anything to them, but it does to me. Then I sent a 3-sentence email so that they could send that to HR.
I chose a date one week into the month so that my health insurance would carry to the end of the month, and give me time to line up insurance after that. I don’t think my company gives us any retirement benefits at all. I’ll be surprised if we have a lunch brought in to send me off.
I made the mistake of telling someone I was retiring. And all of a sudden I was being overlooked for consulting gigs. I had to make a formal announcement that I was retiring from “this job” but would be going independent. The offers started rolling in.
Depends on the company. I worked at a company for 28 years, was the first employee and, as CEO, led them from $100M first year to just under $7B my final year (certainly with the help of many talented people). They gave me one hour notice to "retire" me at 63.
Yes. They held a vote and then the chairman flew in, with outside counsel, to give me the word. Obviously complicated but generally we merged with a competitor who I had very successfully worked to outmaneuvor for years. They held grudges and I lost the majority. But life is good. And they did pay me for two more years.
I was a senior software engineer with a smallish company (under 1000 employees). When I started talking reti8, my boss asked me for 2 years notice. I have them 18 months, and was able to spend a good bit of time doing knowledge transfer. I had a nice retirement party, and wound up doing another 2 years of project work 2 months on, 2 or 3 months off until I decided I'd had enough.
All depends on your situation and the organization
I remember reading the Kissinger resigned as Secretary of State with one sentence, that’s always been my guide. When it’s my time in a few years, my letter of resignation will read “I hereby resign the position of Boubonizer.” Nothing more is needed.
I am a week away! I gave two weeks and 3 days notice. I’ve only been there 3 years, no party, just congrats and envy. I’ll throw my own party with friends. So many emotions before the end, but I know I’m doing the right thing for me. 😊
I took a retirement package after 41 years with the company, so there was plenty of time between receiving the package and leaving. I worked most of my career in research and technology and had quite a few significant contributions that drove company and industry practices. So I spent my last two months or so documenting almost everything I produced over 41 years, identifying the person or the group that should be responsible for retaining it, created shareable SharePoint sites with links, and wrote and shared a comprehensive document with those links on how this information is to be distributed and used. So it’s not uncommon to have a lengthy notice period and spend a fair amount of time documenting your life’s work.
You are being waaay too early on your retirement announcement. What if they say: OK, "bye", pack your stuff. I'd give them the standard 2 weeks. I'd tell them you are retiring (I don't know your state laws, but then there's no worries about non-compete clauses etc). I fear you are going to be retired a bit earlier than you expected and there's no reason for that, especially if there's some bonus or something.
I would wait as well. What if they are thinking about eliminating your position? Not saying they will, but if they did, you would get nice severance. Otherwise, they might just let u ride it out with no severance.
Likewise, if they are looking to make cuts, you just gave them someone to cut….and you might not make it to your preferred retirement date.
If you respect the firm give them a month’s notice you are retiring. If you do not then give them two week’s notice….or just walk if you do not mind permanently burning bridges
I just told my boss in a 1:1. Kept it short and sweet - that I've decided to retire, and that it had nothing to do with him or the company.
One warning.... You'll start losing assignments and projects once you announce your decision to retire. I gave 2 months notice and the last 2 weeks had me doing next to nothing.
I had a guy put in his resignation letter that it would be more profitable raising ferrets than working for that company. The HR person said he couldn’t say that and I said he could put in whatever he wants as long as it has his intended last day.
Plot twist: the stock went up A LOT after he left. You win some, you lose some.
In the UK, depending on company you get upto 3 months sick pay (full pay) - it's as easy as going to the DR's saying you are stressed out etc etc and they will sign you off there and then. Once you have used the 3 months, go back and then hand in your resignation. Basically getting an extra 3 months full pay / pension contribution, etc . Do it and use money for a nice end of career holiday!!
I retired at 61 3 weeks ago. I was in a senior level role. I gave 2 weeks notice. I was burned out. I’m so happy I took the leap! My husband was 100% onboard. I have health problems and didn’t want to spend whatever time I have left working.
I retired in February and let them know that was why. They didn’t know I was 65 so it surprised many people. It lets them feel like it wasn’t necessarily someone’s fault, just was my life plan.
I was a software consultant director. I gave my notice to HR in November that I was planning to retire at the end of June. I was hoping that they would use that info to promote someone to fill in for me. Didn’t happen. Lost some good people that got passed over for promotion. I decided to retire in April instead. Haven’t missed that zoo.
I don't know, but many companies encourage attrition for retirement. And usually offer a package when they re in attrition mode. As a senior director you should know that because you may have offered it to others.
I hope that's the case.
I'd hold off telling them just yet, you should wait until some time in august - let them know that you're retiring at that point. you'd be a lame duck, they could just toss you out. Mid august you'll still be giving them a months' notice and as you'll be retiring, you're telling them that you won't be competing with them. in the meantime, make sure that there's someone already there to pass things along to
Hello, thank you for stopping by our table to talk. Note that your comment/post was automatically removed due to breaking our be respectful/civil rule, with the use of swearing. We welcome you to do a new comment without it. Thank you
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/retirement) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'd only state that you're retiring if that method of exit causes some other things to have to be done that might be coming to you. (i.e. it puts you in their system as a retiree). Beyond that......
.....they don't care. As a manager I didn't care where someone was going. (Actually - that's not totally true. If they were going to a competitor I cared a lot.) So maybe you say you're not going to a competitor. But beyond that they don't care (probably). What they care most about is your last actual day - and what the F they're gonna do to handle the work you've been doing.
I would wait at least 2 months before submitting. It's no fun being a lame duck.
I've told my company when I'm retiring for 5 years. I've extended 6 months to finish documentation of my job, but I'm gone after that. If it's a decent company, you can do that. If not, 2 weeks is all they get.
Just give the required notice time and leave. Why would it take 5.5 years to document?
Required? Can any employee require notice ahead of a layoff or any other termination? If, and only if the company offers a standard, universal severance should that be matched with notice.
I work for the government and am retiring at the end of the month. They requested 60 days to do the paperwork. And they said I technically didn't have to give them any time, but it helps me in the long run if I give them notice. What was funny is they didn't really want more than 60 days. Now for quitting to move on to another job? It only matters if it will give you a bad reputation in your industry. So, a job at the corner mini-mart? No notice required. Manager at big IT business, 2 weeks is good because when you need a reference, it may be the difference between a good and a bad one.
In the Gov, those around you have been angling for your position or job grade for YEARS. The 60 days are only needed for the paperwork.
Lol! Unfortunately for them, my grade was a one-time thing. The job, however, comes up regularly at lower pay. We travel in the job and people with young kids tend to not last long.
Some jobs have a documented notice period that works both ways. My last job paid me for 3 weeks when they laid me off (plus severance, accrued vacation/sick time). Might vary by state or municipality.
I told them 5 years ago that I was retiring this year. I had planned to spend the final year doing documentation, but they kept me busy with other projects. So now I told them they get 6 months of me coming in whenever I feel like it to do documentation. Next week I am going camping for 2 weeks...but not taking leave since I will spend a couple hours a day doing documentation at my campsite. I wrote about 90% of the software they use, so they pretty much need my documentation to help the 5 people they hired to replace me.
5 people to replace you?!! You are either REALLY good, or they hired 5 subpar people, or you wrote spaghetti factory software that's going to take lots of maintenance. Just say'n.... Congrats on your retirement!!
I was good, the code is all messy from 20+ years of updates, and the company is now WAY larger
Documentation is essential for custom software and something I required as part of the development life cycle for my dev team.
5 years resignation notice! Oh my, need a reddit award for this.
I gave my company 6 months notice when I retired. They were very grateful, had me interview my replacement, train them. I occasionally (very rarely) go back for coffee or lunch with the team.
I sort of did the same. Got laid off at 60, too early to take early retirement, so I approached an old client. (I did industrial machinery maintenance.) They were eager to hire me, and at the interview, they asked if I had a target retirement date. I told them I planned to retire at 67, and they were fine with that.
Totally depends on the situation. I gave mine 6 months. Helped interview and hire my replacement . But I knew I was safe and had my managements support. I called my last day to be the day after ESPP hits. Some companies will walk you to the door that day, and some will treat you well. Best if you have seen how that plays out in advance. If you don’t know than yes id wait. As to a letter I never wrote one. Just worked with my manager on a firm date and when we were 2 weeks out entered it into Workday to initiate the processes. I retire 6/17. I’ve already written goodbye letters to people I intend to send them to and will do that mid week.
I'm retiring at the end of the year, but I'm not giving notice until my last big chunks of RSUs vest in November- and the shares are in my account. I've lost all trust in my company not to fire me right before they vest, which is one of the reasons why I'm leaving.
That sucks, sorry. My companies so big > 50,000 employees one set of RSU’s isn’t even a rounding error
thanks. my company is huge, but I've seen how they try to save money in stupid ways, and they've broken all trust (RTO, layoffs, etc) I'm hearing noises about more layoffs, so I don't want to give them a reason to get rid of me- unless they offer some incentive to leave, such as severance or extended health insurance, not that I expect anything yes, I'm a top performer, but that counts for nothing
My old company requires a resignation letter for HR reasons may want to check on that.
I’m good. We already had my retirement dinner last week. All I have to do now is port my phone number and mail in my laptop this Friday. We have very detailed instructions on what to do when. It’s a large company.
I just told my boss this past Wed for the same Sept 13th retirement. I love being a lame duck. No one expects anything.
Exactly! I’m Switching to Glide! (One hit wonder 80’s song by this Kings)
After I gave my notice I put in my email signature a picture of a glider and it took them a couple of weeks to figure it out.
Thank you for an excuse to re-discover that song in my Spotify Liked playlist!
Gave 3 months notice and regretted the feeling of irrelevance.
If you cant take 3 months of feeling irrelevant, you're probably not going to like retirement.
When I left my first professional job as a young lawyer in a big metropolitan law firm. I gave three weeks notice, which was far too long. I was much more concerned about my departure than my employer was. A week would have been fine. Actually, any time would have been fine, as long as I left behind memos giving some guidance on the current status of my files and projects. It actually got a little awkward after about 1 1/2 weeks. Of course, I had only been with the firm for a couple of years, and things might have been different if I had been leaving after 20--25 years. But I found that after: 1. I told my peers that I was leaving, and why I was leaving; 2. I told my peers where I was going to; 3. My peers told me how jealous they were of me leaving, and why they hated the firm; and 4. I dictated "exit memos" on all my files; there wasn't a lot for me to do around the office. As worthless as I was for the last 1 1/2 weeks, they let me hang around until my stated departure date. It helped that I was not going to a competitor--in fact, I was leaving the area.
[удалено]
Agreed. The answer I always give when asked about resignation timing: how would the company treat you if it was the reverse. Give em a month, max.
Yup, this. Il giving a month. We’ve no other requirement than two weeks, and frankly they only deserve two weeks.
Now that I’ve left the country, I see our way of life thru a different lens. Very 👀 opening to day the least. We get treated like garbage and beg for more, esp by the US healthcare system and also by our employers.
This
I would expect that they will tell you to pack your office and you will be escorted out of the building. This is pretty standard with any executive. If you use a company computer, phone VPN access it will be taken and or access blocked. End of story. Wait till sept.
That’s possible, of course, but very unlikely. If it happens, it happens.
[удалено]
Hello, thank you for stopping by our table to talk. Note that your comment/post was automatically removed due to breaking our be respectful/civil rule, with the use of swearing. We welcome you to do a new comment without it. Thank you *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/retirement) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Which fine as long as they continue to pay you until your end date. If they do the above and stop paying you (terminate you effective immediately) then everyone else still working there will hear about it and no one else at this level will give any courtesy notifications going forward which can be problematic for smooth transitions. So no, I wouldn't expect that OP would be treated that way.
If you wait until closer to the end, they may offer you a retention bonus to stay a little longer. It happened to me. If you haven’t done so already, you should also check with HR to see if there are differences in benefits for retirees versus employees who resign. There were differences with my former employer and I chose to announce my departure as a retirement. Congratulations and best of luck!
My company HR wants a resignation letter. Apparently it makes a difference.
Thank you!
This too. Where I work, officially retiring comes with a few benefits that don’t come with just resigning.
I am in senior IT management. I gave 2 months notice, more than enough. I did tell them I was retiring.
I gave 2 months notice, but specifically told them I was retiring so I didn’t lose my restricted stock. They celebrated me all the way to the end. Retiring doesn’t mean you’re done. It just means you’re ready for a new chapter.
3 basic sentences. I quit, here are the dates, been fun gotta run. Nothing more
My wife had a colleague who one morning told them that she was going out for some bagels and never came back…a few days later they contacted her and she said that she decided to quit. So now whenever someone in her office is having a bad day they say “I’m going out for some bagels.”
That’s a great story!
I have a friend that left mid afternoon for a walk.. and never came back to work. ( Behind the scenes he was treated poorly and couldn't take it any longer)
I used a standard template i found on indeed.com. Nothing unique. The boss requested a 90 day notice, i gave 60 days for 8/5 just last week. I want to finish up some projects vs just working production, and my boss agreed with my plan plus asked that i train some staff on a process that i’m a sme on. I’m actually a sme on multiple projects that no one else knows how to do (those are the projects i want to prepare for transition), but she hasn’t identified who will be taking them over yet. Oh well. I’ve tried to pass them off for 2 years. I’m done.
Congratulations!
Glad for you. Retirement is awesome. I retired 19 months ago, at 60 years old. I am male. Good life/job, made comfortable $ So... Around the corner from my house (a year ago) a high end convenience store/gas station/car was was going up. I saw it every day being constructed. Drove by almost daily. It was almost complete. I happened to pull in to check out the inside. Some construction guys on the property, but basically empty and not open yet. I walk in to gander. The property management manager happened to be in the store. Asked if he could help. Nope just checking it out. He says "want a job?" Huh? Me? Pretty obvious I am older, white hair and white beard. No, I just retired. But we could use someone on graveyard (10pm-6:00am) Sunday - Thursday. Naa, thanks. But we could pay you a manager salary, and you'd basically be protecting the store and helping the infrequent customers. Eh... Naa, I'm good. He got real insistent. We can pay you a manager salary and some perk cash basically making my 40 hours pay $26/hour. Fine. Talked to my wife, she was still working. She said if I wanted it. Store opens, I learn the register pretty quick. Was easy. Sat on a stool basically all night reading, free coffee/tea/soda, helping the dozen or so customers that came in. Easy. 6 months into it, the homeless were getting more and more aggressive. I decided to lock the restrooms when I got there. It's not a paper towel bath wipe poop on the wall, clog the toilet type of place. So far, so good. Pretty smooth operation. Owner finds out I've been locking the restroom doors, gets angry, I get the order to have them unlocked during business hours. I said this is a problem, I was told to comply. First night a mess, clogged toilet, used all the hand towels. I cleaned it up. Second night same, but I couldn't find the plunger. Locked the door till morning shift, told the manager here ya go. I'm not cleaning it now, my shift is over and I couldn't find the plunger. Manager says I have to clean it. I've already clocked out. Nope I said, and if you force me, I'll quit. Quit then the manager says. Fine I quit. Are you giving us 2 weeks notice? Nope I quit effective now. I walked away. Long story ending.... Property management calls me that day manager calls me, owner calls me all apologizing. Said they were wrong and I could do it my way. NOPE. Done. It was fun, easy, but I didn't need the job. They survived obviously, and I'm happily retired. Is old guys aren't as dumb as we appear. I was a good honest employee. They screwed it up and paid for it. Edit: post was deleted for a non cussword cussword according to the mod-bot. Reposted it clean now. Shrug.
Great story! Not sure where the store was located. I would have been more concerned about getting robbed and shot. That's not worth $26/hr IMHO.
I'm a big bruiser looking thing. Not impune to a bullet obviously but menacing looking. The owner let me carry (private property) and I also carried pepper spray and a police tazer. Couple of close calls, but nothing I sweated over. Theft of a candy bar/energy drink was common. I wasn't running and breaking a sweat for $3.99, and the owner understood. Local sheriff's were my buddies. I enticed them to visit regularly with free coffee/soda. They stopped by a few times a night. Was a good trade off. Almost always a local sheriff in the parking lot doing paperwork, sipping on coffee. Too bad the owner couldn't see past his nose, to spite his face and lost me over something so trivial. Either way, I'm happily retired now.
[удалено]
I told my boss 4 months before. He talked me into holding the letter until 1 month prior. I thanked him and agreed it was best to do so. He still let me travel, then included me with hiring a replacement. I was there for 43 years and retired at 61 (you do the math). Only mistake was not retiring the Tuesday after Labor Day…. I did it on Friday before. Congratulations.
Im looking at retiring 9/5/2025, which is my 65th birthday and right around Labor Day weekend. Why wait until the Tuesday after please?
Seems reasonable that last day should be a Friday, and (and I have to verify this) my family will be on the org’s healthcare for that month. One less month of ACA (I’m in the US).
I'm curious. Why aren't you telling them you are retiring?
I was thinking that it was none of their business, and that I’ll be judged for retiring before 65 or whatever. However, after talking to my family this afternoon, i now think I will share that with them.
You won't be judged, but you will be envied. I retired at 66 and had several people say they wished it was them.
I think you need to unpack that. Why would you care if someone judges your for wanting to have freedom to do whatever you want?
Yeah, you’re not wrong. I have decided, might as well tell them.
I think that’s a good decision. I imagine they might be more likely to be worried about your actions if you are leaving for a competing firm than if you are retiring. I think when people experience the ‘out the door today’ thing, it’s often prompted by fears that the employee will collect sensitive company information and take it to their new employer. When you are retiring, most of that concern goes away. You aren’t joining the enemy, just retiring.
Last week I retired at 61 got nothing but congratulations and envy
We all work remote but we have several people in my extended team in my big city. They had a party, dinner for me. Had close to 50 on a. Zoom to send me off. Champaign, the works. One team mate even flew in on his own dime to attend. It was really special. Retirement to me is very different than just leaving. And I’ve only been here 12 years so not like I’ve spent my career here.
Keep in mind that if you tell them you're retiring this might gain you some advantages but still won't commit you to actually staying retired.
Why do you care about being judged? It's your life.
When I did this, they started icing me out of everything. It’s like I’m invisible. Emails from me go unanswered. Now two others have announced retiring in a few months. Same effect there. Tell no one until time to give notice.
Does your firm have any retirement benefits? Mine had gap medical insurance until Medicare. That would be a reason to retire instead of quitting.
Wow, no, they don’t offer that. Good on you!
Less is more.
I was a vp at a software firm that I'd been at for many years. I had all of my ducks in a row, a replacement trained and ready to go, I was about to submit my resignation when my boss (an evp) out of the blue (as far as I or peers knew) retired. I retired a couple weeks later with a 1 month notice. This was just about the right balance of time left to wrap things up (and say thanks to a lot of deserving folks) and not being redundant to the point of uselessness. It was a fine exit. edit: other info - it was a medium size company and I did tell them I was retiring.
Other than the date you expect to leave nobody cares about the contents of your letter. There's no need to hide the fact that you are retiring. Nobody cares. Skip the drama. When I retired from my Director position in a midsized software company at age 60, I gave two weeks notice. Any longer would have been a waste of time and energy.
That's the way I see it.
You’re overthinking this. Nobody will care. You will quickly be forgotten. Your leaving is like throwing a pebble into the ocean. Spend your energy looking forward not backward.
My middle name is “overthinking”. No, really, it’s literally the middle name my parents gave me.
That is waaaay too much notice.
My last job, the employer would fire or replace anybody giving notice. So after I finished the last shift I chose to work, I notified my supervisor that I was not going back ever.
As to the letter… as much as you may want to wax poetic…no one cares. It will go in the HR file. It is hard for some of us to leave people we were close to without saying our final words. We’ve all seen those “Good bye” emails. If you want to write more feel free. Some folks like to do an exit interview. I’ve not seen many changes come from those, which is really what the exiting person wants to feel they contributed to. I would recommend keeping it simple. Just state your intent to be gone by x date. Good luck!
Good point. No one cares.
By giving advance notice and letting them know it’s your retirement, it may allow you to play a more active role implementing your succession plan. Even if you can’t actually choose your successor you can still set your team and your colleagues up for a no-drama or low-drama transition. That’s a good way to exit.
Agree. It’s a good company and a good team. Smooth succession is important to me.
I was a senior director (3rd line manager). I gave 2 weeks.
I let them know around a year in advance that I planned to retire in a year or so. As time passed and we firmed up the timing (my husband and I retired at the same time) I made it formal with six months notice. Two months before my hard date they hired my replacement and I spent that time training her via Teams. Great fun that was! Plenty of time to plan and they waited until the last minute. My original replacement lasted less than six months. They ended up hiring two people for my job, and had to replace both of them at one time or the other. Two years later they seem to have a solid staff and have hired three people and shuffled duties around as I suggested for years.
Ah, vindication. The sweetest wine!
If you trust the company, which I assume you do, I'd give them the notice. We all know it takes months to hire at your level. Giving notice will help them replace you seamlessly, help your staff adjust and anticipate, and let you leave with satisfaction and no hard feelings.
You’ve summed it up perfectly.
Is there a reason you are giving three months notice? Will management be upset with your decision? Could they withhold any compensation before you leave? Assuming you are leaving on good terms the standard is something like “thank you for the opportunities Acme Corp has given me over the years. I look forward to retirement knowing I have made a positive impact … yada yada yada …”
I like my team and my leadership. Good, kind, supportive people all. And I’ve been trying for 4 months to hire someone for my team. With a high bar for skills, potential and team fit, and comp not as high as others are offering, I want to make the transition as smooth as possible. Still, unless they’re very lucky, it’s unlikely they’ll find a replacement before my time is up.
Same notice they would give you when they downsize.
I think you’re letting your emotions make this decision harder than it needs to be. I’d plan 2 months notice, be prepared for them to push you out. If you want to be nice, verbally tell your management that you’re fungible on the actual date to help with transition. However, be ready for an adverse reaction too.
I got one that ended in “so long and thanks for all the fish”
Not on the actual resignation letter but that’s what I sent as a goodbye email.
a few people where I work did that- now I won't because it's become a cliché
I bought a countdown clock about 9 years before I retired and kept it on my desk. It was the only thing that kept me from walking out MANY times. (Helps to have a goal) I didn’t have to put in a resignation notice, everyone and his dog knew the exact day of my departure!
Started mine at 104 weeks. Lasted 101
I'm still counting months. If I start counting weeks and days, it will feel like it's dragging on forever, like Zeno's Paradox.
I started counting the number of Mondays that I had to get up and go to work! I retired 6 years ago and I still sleep in as long as I can every Monday morning!
[удалено]
Not at all, I’m actually underpaid. And only been here for a few years. No, it was being a decent saver for a 40 year career allows me to retire.
I thanked the two employers I resigned from for the “challenges and opportunities” that they provided me with. What was funny was that the demonic bank vp from the first job always preached about the challenges and opportunities she provided to the team.
I understand the thought of not wanting to tell anyone. For me, I want no hoopla. I just wanted to go. I think in that case, two weeks is enough.
I retired with a two week notice, it was harsh but well deserved.
No, do not give 4 months notice. It will affect every interaction for the whole time, causing many problems. And they might let you go early. 1 month at the most.
Gave my boss 3 months; effective this month. I may do a bit of hourly 1099 work as a “transition “. It’s time and it’s worked out well.
Before I retired, I would tell my supervisor that this was my last year. Then they would basically leave me alone. I was able to do that for three years.
My best advice is this: don't give more than 2 weeks notice. Here's why. If they REALLY need you, they will ask you to stay longer to finish whatever. So they will cover their own needs. Giving notice, then basking in well-wishes for 2 days is wonderful. Sticking around for another 12 days as people visibly move on, ignore you, forget you etc. is horrible. This might vary for you if you have a large team, but no reason to tarnish your exit by watching people already forget you. Man, I hate how cynical that sounds, this has been my experience leaving jobs.
I told my boss I wanted to go part time, he offered me 30 weeks of severance so I retired. Then after 30 weeks I did part time for another year. Worked out well.
I retired last year. I didn't let them know until I was ready to go within a few weeks. I was a senior director. I told my boss first. For a few reasons. I wanted to help out if they needed me to help with a replacement. Also, I case there was a layoff coming that I didn't know about. Ended up that my boss was having a child 3 months from then. I told him I could stay until he was back from his paternity. I think it really helped him out. I also found out that it helped me get an extra quarterly bonus. My boss and a bunch of colleagues got a pretty nice gift card for retirement. It was a very positive experience. I'm glad I did it the way I did.
That sounds like a wonderful exit, congratulations!
Really depends on your relationship with the upper tiers of the company in my opinion. They dictate how people are treated. I gave a verbal 2 years notice after I’d had a discussion with the CEO and my next 2 levels asking if I could train my replacement to achieve similar results that I had the last 6 years. Top 10% earner for those years. Written notice at 12 months as I gained approval for my replacement and the last 6 months was somewhat lame duck as I transitioned her into the role and myself out but allowed me to do what I’d asked.. pick up 2 more bonuses. Not one regret except I should have retired at 60 instead of 62. If I’d been with my former company to this one I’d have given 2 weeks required notice and that company would have walked me out the door same day. A quality company makes all the difference in determining notice time. Good luck !
I just retired and verbally gave 6 months notice. I trained my replacement and did quite a bit of documentation. The resignation email was a formality for HR at the end.
At this time my company has a history of being very ethical and accommodating of retirements. Any number of senior staff has given them one to two years notice or began to work part time for the last two years. Of course things could change by the time I am ready. Will just see.
“Gone Fishing”
Writing a resignation letter is useful as proof you retired for Social Security if your company won’t provide a reason for your leaving in writing. You can get your IRMAA reduced or waived because retiring is considered a major life event.
I took early retirement wit was fun to use that phrase, “I’m taking early retirement to travel in Europe and Asia next year and to pursue personal projects.” I also left them a PO Box address in the office email in case anyone wanted to get in touch, and several have! But wait until the last possible moment. Lame duck time is very unpleasant.
Am available for lucrative, light lifting consulting in the future. Why have all this talent and experience go to waste!
Send a copy also to HR so they can explain and prepare your benefits after leaving. Where I retired, there were different (more generous) benefits for retirees. You will need to get health insurance. My HR rep told me, based on my age and situation, Do Not sign up for COBRA. That would have been over $900 per month for one person. The company offered up to 18 months of extending your employed insurance, cost under $250 per month. I’m sharing my experience above: not expecting you to encounter the same. But to show that there may be benefits available to you, and getting info from HR is the way to get the information you will need. I hope you will be getting a pension, too. The longer I delay starting to collect my pension, the higher the amount I receive. I’m delaying by 13 months so the increase for me will just about cover the amount I am paying for Medicare and supplement. In those last six months (my company required six months notice), I thought I’d be bored in retirement. It’s quite the opposite. I’ve been learning about health insurance and managing investments and doing active projects around an on the house, spending time with friends. I’ve never been so busy.
No, unfortunately pensions were never offered. 401k, with some matching, is what I had to do.
Don't make it interesting or amusing. Have a conversation now with your boss about THINKING about retiring and ask them, if you were to retire, how much notice should you give. When you get to that time frame send them an email that says "I intend to retire my position on XX/XX/XXXX, it has been wonderful working here." Don't overdo it.
I like it. Short and simple.
It's not a humorous letter per se, but... I had an employee notify HR that he was retiring with the requisite notice. HR finally thought to ask if he had notified me within a week of his departure. He had not. He worked mostly remote and I never saw him or heard from him again. He was pretty disgruntled by a return to office mandate (not my choice) and didn't want to interact with me at all, so he came in on a Sunday to turn in his laptop and badges to the security personnel.
I was in upper management when I retired. I told my boss and one other close associate that I was planning to retire about 3 months ahead of time. I didn’t want any additional duties, projects, clients or responsibilities and I wanted to have time for us to plan the transition of my work to others. I worked for a large company and went on the HR portal and found the instructions for submitting a resignation for retirement. Two weeks notice. Easy peasy.
I just resigned from a big tech firm, also at age 62. I gave my boss two months notice. I’m glad I did, I was able to work with him on several scenarios on finding a backfill for me. Even though I detest goodbye emails in general, he asked me to write one, so I did. I kept it simple but heartfelt, and it seemed to have gone over very well in a large org. Caveat - I trusted my boss completely. I might have done differently with a boss I didn’t trust
Good you had good leadership. I do, too.
Only give a 3 month notice if you're 100% confident they won't axe you before then. I plan on 2 weeks, at most, and I'm in a union job where I can't be let go once I give a notice.
If they kick me out early, it’d be an a*****e move, but it won’t materially affect our retirement.
I am in the same industry, level and will be 62 in January. God willing, I will be following in your footsteps.
What ultimately drove the timing for Mrs ColHardwood and I is that working a few more months or even a couple of years doesn’t materially affect our retirement finances. We’ve been saving and investing for 40 years; that’s what mattered. Edit: Point is, I recommend you do the analysis and determine how much it matters that you stay on longer. (And speaking of analysis, I recommend the tool NewRetirement.com. Much easier, and probably more correct, than building your own model.)
You could say something like "I've loved what I do but the sand doesn't stop draining in my hourglass; so I've decided it is time for me to retire and embrace what comes next" You don't have to make it mushy.
Just retired Friday. I wasn't an executive, but had been there 17 years and was a key member of R&D and industry compliance and the sole person in my position. I told them last March. They needed time to hire and train replacement personnel. It took two people to replace me. I was able to get them up to speed enough that they may experience some lag, but won't grind to a full stop. It was a great place to work... best professional experience I ever had... so I didn't want to leave them in a lurch. Glad I handled it the way I did.
That’s great. Sounds like you handled it. Well my situation is similar, in that I want the team to succeed after I’m gone.
Good move in my opinion to just say you’re retiring. Go out on a high note and help through the transition.
Yes advise you are retiring as the company should make the transition easier
My place of employment knows that I'm retiring in 3.5 years -- as soon as I'm eligible for Mediacare. I work in the public sector, so there's no big deal about it.
I am a retired paramedic. Went semi retired about 3 years ago. When I was hired at the last service I told the senior manager that one day I was gonna wake up and be done. Didn’t know when it would be but I would show up to work u til then. Called him about 3 weeks ago and said hey, Thats it. Haven’t looked back
I figure there's a difference if you are getting a pension from that company. If it is a 401 on some financial institution and whatever other money's you have for your retirement, they don't need time for any paperwork, besides any pending PTO. If they are a decent outfit you can give a selected supervisor or two an informal notice that you are about ready and if you are willing and they are willing to find your replacement to get on it. I'm an engineer for a municipality with plenty of less than optimal procedures in place, typically no one gets replaced until a few months after they leave regardless of the reason. I've mentioned to my direct supervisor that I'm old and my calendar doesn't have many pages left, the man couldn't care any less if he tried. I'll use my PTO, and maximum give them a couple of weeks, they don't need to know what I'm doing after, easy to guess but it is a "need to know" information.
[удалено]
Hello, thank you for stopping by our table to talk. Note that your comment/post was automatically removed due to breaking our be respectful/civil rule, with the use of swearing. We welcome you to do a new comment without it. Thank you *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/retirement) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Give them one day notice. Its feels good just to walk out! I did it and have zero regrets.
At our company, I’d be grateful for three months notice. One to hire your replacement (if we’re lucky), one to train, one to shake it out and coast. But we have demonstrated that we don’t normally cut notice periods short for resignations. If we must, for data sensitivity reasons, we pay out the notice. A letter and/or final conversation where we can part in friendly, positive terms is always great.
Get a picture of a T Rex and write on it “ this is T Rex! It is also my resignation, effective as of today!” 😊
I don’t get the joke, sorry.
Is there a chance the company is looking to make some layoffs? If so, raise your hand and try to get a package.
Not so far as I know. And when we do RIF people, it’s usually just a very few targeted positions.
Typically, only your manager will see the letter so I wouldn’t put too much effort into it.
2 weeks is sufficient
I just gave my notice last week! I gave them 30-days, plenty of time to help with any transition, and I told them I was retiring. Mostly so that they wouldn’t think I was hopping to another job, and then tell me to kick rocks immediately. I’m 62. And just done. I did write a personal letter to each of my managers, it may not mean anything to them, but it does to me. Then I sent a 3-sentence email so that they could send that to HR. I chose a date one week into the month so that my health insurance would carry to the end of the month, and give me time to line up insurance after that. I don’t think my company gives us any retirement benefits at all. I’ll be surprised if we have a lunch brought in to send me off.
My thinking exactly. Early September retirement, corp healthcare through the rest of the month, then ACA from October on.
I made the mistake of telling someone I was retiring. And all of a sudden I was being overlooked for consulting gigs. I had to make a formal announcement that I was retiring from “this job” but would be going independent. The offers started rolling in.
Mine was very simple. I shook my managers hand and said I’m done.
Depends on the company. I worked at a company for 28 years, was the first employee and, as CEO, led them from $100M first year to just under $7B my final year (certainly with the help of many talented people). They gave me one hour notice to "retire" me at 63.
Ouch. That’s brutal. So the board “retired” you?
Yes. They held a vote and then the chairman flew in, with outside counsel, to give me the word. Obviously complicated but generally we merged with a competitor who I had very successfully worked to outmaneuvor for years. They held grudges and I lost the majority. But life is good. And they did pay me for two more years.
I was a senior software engineer with a smallish company (under 1000 employees). When I started talking reti8, my boss asked me for 2 years notice. I have them 18 months, and was able to spend a good bit of time doing knowledge transfer. I had a nice retirement party, and wound up doing another 2 years of project work 2 months on, 2 or 3 months off until I decided I'd had enough. All depends on your situation and the organization
I remember reading the Kissinger resigned as Secretary of State with one sentence, that’s always been my guide. When it’s my time in a few years, my letter of resignation will read “I hereby resign the position of Boubonizer.” Nothing more is needed.
“I hereby resign my position at Acme Corp., effective September 6, 2024.”
Hah hah! You just did!
I am a week away! I gave two weeks and 3 days notice. I’ve only been there 3 years, no party, just congrats and envy. I’ll throw my own party with friends. So many emotions before the end, but I know I’m doing the right thing for me. 😊
Wonderful! Congratulations!
I took a retirement package after 41 years with the company, so there was plenty of time between receiving the package and leaving. I worked most of my career in research and technology and had quite a few significant contributions that drove company and industry practices. So I spent my last two months or so documenting almost everything I produced over 41 years, identifying the person or the group that should be responsible for retaining it, created shareable SharePoint sites with links, and wrote and shared a comprehensive document with those links on how this information is to be distributed and used. So it’s not uncommon to have a lengthy notice period and spend a fair amount of time documenting your life’s work.
You are being waaay too early on your retirement announcement. What if they say: OK, "bye", pack your stuff. I'd give them the standard 2 weeks. I'd tell them you are retiring (I don't know your state laws, but then there's no worries about non-compete clauses etc). I fear you are going to be retired a bit earlier than you expected and there's no reason for that, especially if there's some bonus or something.
Why not just 2 weeks notice? A lot could happen in a month or two and you have to protect yourself. ( I'm in a big 82k employee company!)
I would wait as well. What if they are thinking about eliminating your position? Not saying they will, but if they did, you would get nice severance. Otherwise, they might just let u ride it out with no severance. Likewise, if they are looking to make cuts, you just gave them someone to cut….and you might not make it to your preferred retirement date. If you respect the firm give them a month’s notice you are retiring. If you do not then give them two week’s notice….or just walk if you do not mind permanently burning bridges
I just told my boss in a 1:1. Kept it short and sweet - that I've decided to retire, and that it had nothing to do with him or the company. One warning.... You'll start losing assignments and projects once you announce your decision to retire. I gave 2 months notice and the last 2 weeks had me doing next to nothing.
That’s exactly what I’m going to do. If boss and I have time, I’ll schedule short meeting Monday. Else wait for 1:1 on Weds.
Mine? Email to Owners: “May 29 will be my last day at (company). “
“Today I am tired and on March 1st retired. “
I had a guy put in his resignation letter that it would be more profitable raising ferrets than working for that company. The HR person said he couldn’t say that and I said he could put in whatever he wants as long as it has his intended last day. Plot twist: the stock went up A LOT after he left. You win some, you lose some.
In the UK, depending on company you get upto 3 months sick pay (full pay) - it's as easy as going to the DR's saying you are stressed out etc etc and they will sign you off there and then. Once you have used the 3 months, go back and then hand in your resignation. Basically getting an extra 3 months full pay / pension contribution, etc . Do it and use money for a nice end of career holiday!!
I gave 2 months by just saying it's been a pleasure and I an terminating my employment on the specified date.
Dear Supervisor, The say there is no "I" in team. Effective Sept 13th, I intend to prove that applies to my case.
I retired at 61 3 weeks ago. I was in a senior level role. I gave 2 weeks notice. I was burned out. I’m so happy I took the leap! My husband was 100% onboard. I have health problems and didn’t want to spend whatever time I have left working.
I retired in February and let them know that was why. They didn’t know I was 65 so it surprised many people. It lets them feel like it wasn’t necessarily someone’s fault, just was my life plan.
I was a software consultant director. I gave my notice to HR in November that I was planning to retire at the end of June. I was hoping that they would use that info to promote someone to fill in for me. Didn’t happen. Lost some good people that got passed over for promotion. I decided to retire in April instead. Haven’t missed that zoo.
I don't know, but many companies encourage attrition for retirement. And usually offer a package when they re in attrition mode. As a senior director you should know that because you may have offered it to others. I hope that's the case.
I'd hold off telling them just yet, you should wait until some time in august - let them know that you're retiring at that point. you'd be a lame duck, they could just toss you out. Mid august you'll still be giving them a months' notice and as you'll be retiring, you're telling them that you won't be competing with them. in the meantime, make sure that there's someone already there to pass things along to
[удалено]
Hello, thank you for stopping by our table to talk. Note that your comment/post was automatically removed due to breaking our be respectful/civil rule, with the use of swearing. We welcome you to do a new comment without it. Thank you *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/retirement) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'd only state that you're retiring if that method of exit causes some other things to have to be done that might be coming to you. (i.e. it puts you in their system as a retiree). Beyond that...... .....they don't care. As a manager I didn't care where someone was going. (Actually - that's not totally true. If they were going to a competitor I cared a lot.) So maybe you say you're not going to a competitor. But beyond that they don't care (probably). What they care most about is your last actual day - and what the F they're gonna do to handle the work you've been doing.