One of the things I always try to remember about working toward financial independence is that we’re all potentially on the path to early retirement. It’s just that some of us may not know it (a good article that sparked this line of thinking for me years ago is here). The gist is that you may be planning to work until your target retirement age, but you’re unlikely to be able to because of changes at work, or health issues. During the Great Recession (according to this, and many other, articles) more than half of people intending to retire at full retirement age were forced to stop working early.
More importantly: it’s not just about retirement! We’ve all heard the phrase “due to the needs of the business.” Some use it to describe flexibility in hiring, managers use it to redirect your efforts to leadership’s current priority, but mostly it’s a useful shorthand for “bend over.”
At all of my employers, there has been some action taken which doesn’t pass the smell test. Someone(s) got laid off, downsized, demoted, or whatever. We can all think of something that happened that just doesn’t seem fair. But, it was (maybe, probably, from a middle manager’s perspective) the best thing for the business entity. A business is composed of people – but all of us are replaceable at any time! That’s what your employers all want you to forget, and what I want you to remember.
Enron is a great example of this. Imagine that one day you wake up and your job (and retirement savings) are just gone. I actually want you to imagine that…Close your eyes and say to yourself “I have no job and my retirement savings are gone” three times. Live in that moment, really feel what it’s like to be in that position…I’ll wait for the panic breathing to subside. Better? Ok, let’s move on.
Now, before you get all “extreme example, harumph harumph” on me, I want you to think about something else. Not a world-shattering calamity, but you wake up tomorrow, go to work, and your job is gone. Maybe you get laid off, or downsized, or fired for cause (or just be-cause – ain’t I hilarious?). Because it can happen to you. I know – I’ve been through four various layoffs of greater or lesser scope. And guess what: not once has the impact on the employee been the primary, secondary, or even tertiary consideration. You’re not even on the list, people. Individuals at your employer may care about you (some of them) but the business is a sociopath and doesn’t care about you at all. Like a terrible lover, all the business cares about is its needs. So ‘due to the needs of the business’ you can be gone at any time. Better get yourself into as close to a self-supporting lifestyle as you can.
Don’t forget – update at the end of the week! Check back!
