28 replies to this topic

[TomL]

Thank you so much for your response. The company I worked for is a very large company. It is s a very old company, and prides itself that it has never laid off any employees, even during the Great Depression (the last one). They know every trick in the book for firing people. Instead of laying off people, the raised the bottom performers minimum  standard from the bottom 10% who automatically get fired for non-performance to the bottom 20%. They put their IT staff to work monitoring employees to find reasons to fire them. I would estimate that the company fired about 25% of its employees in each of the last two years while hiring about 10% in each of those years. They always try to fire before employees reach their second anniversiary and before Christmas bonus checks and bonuses. They know every trick in the book and to my knowledge no one, no lawyer or law firm, has ever been successful in any employment case against the company. It makes me sick when I see their ads on TV, especially college football games. The ads make them out to be such a caring company. Anyway, I appreciate your input, but they covered themselves quite well. I was fired 3 days before the already announced Christmas bonus checks were sent (they probably had to void mine), 33 days before my 401K vested, and 21 days before the big annual bonus check (13.5% of annual earnings). AND the group health insurance saved a lot on my Gleevec, although I did use my COBRA before I replaced it with VA health. No, they know every trick in the book and then some. I would have been much better off with a smaller company.

[CallMeLucky]

Wow, you really have to hope there is a special place in hell for people who run a business that way.

[TomL]

Having spent four decades in business going from a CPA to a business consultant to a financial advisor I have analyzed and worked with literally hundreds of companies, I hope I do not sound bitter when I say many businesses operate that way today; more than I saw decades ago. A company is really a personification of the CEO's personality. Larger, older companies evolve, obviously. Always a mirror for human nature, Shakespeare had it right in so many ways, esp. "The lady doth protest too much, methinks". When I see a company that over and over states and re-states something it stands for, that is more times than not what it is lacking. 

[CallMeLucky]

I tend to agree with your assessment of how they try to over compensate for the areas they lack in.  I always think of Geico who spends millions and millions of dollars trying to beat into our heads how much cheaper they are.  They're not cheaper, their service is lousy and they could probably lower their prices quite a bit if they dialed back the advertisements.

Corporations are like the internet, they allow people to do and say things they might not normally do or say as themselves.  The internet gives people some perceived anonymity and the corporation allows people to say "it's not me, it's the corporation, I'm just doing what the share holders want".

[TomL]

Many of those older companies actually were good and sincere years and decades ago. Many were actually founded to help a class or group who was unable to get that help other places, and they served them well for a long time. But companies must grow. Especially financial service companies, without growth, usually dramatic growth, they die. So they must expand the markets they service, then they become just like all the other companies they compete with and no longer provide any special benefit to those they were founded to serve. The only ones who benefit any longer are the board of directors and the senior managment. But the propaganda is decades old, and the market still believes it. And the company itself becomes corrupt. There are many examples.  

[TomL]

At the risk of sounding like a real cry baby, I have an update. Dx with Pulmonary Fibrosis after many tests -- doctors do not like to diagnose this one unless they are absolutely positive -- it is not to be diagnosed lightly. STILL trying to get my Social Security Disability approved -- IPF is on the list of "compassionate" diseases that are SUPPOSED to be approved with minimum delays -- since we have a rather limited life expectancy. The system is pretty irksome.

[Susan61]

Hi Tom:  I was trying to follow all the way back to your first post.  Maybe I missed something.  Did you file an appeal when you were denied?

I know you have to give them a list of everything thats wrong before they see you can not function on a job.  I know they very rarely approve first time you apply, and I think that stinks.  Sounds like you might need a good Disability Lawyer if they deny you again.  I cannot see how they could possibly refuse you now.  They cannot say what steps you will need to take for your health with this lung problem.  I do know that they go by what your Oncologist writes about your present health.  Get reports from every doctor you see, not just the Oncologist.

My thoughts and prayers are with you for something good to happen.

Susan 61

[TomL]

Hey, Susan, thanks for the help. Yes, I was denied the first time, as I understand it EVERYONE is. My appeal adjusted my original claim to include the Pulmonary Fibrosis which was being masked -- or maybe the correct word is mistaken for -- by the Gleevec side effects. So the combination of CML/Gleevec, Pulmonary Fibrosis, and severe sleep apnea have me pretty much unable to do much more than walk across a room without being totally out of breath. I am 64 years old, so the only two things the Disability Claim will add for me is my FULL SocSec retirement -- about $300 per month more than I am drawing -- and Medicare. I cannot see paying a Disability lawyer a substantial part of my benefits when the real difference is so relatively small. AND ESPECIALLY since I have paid so much into Social Security over almost 5 decades and it is really my money! I hope I am not being pennywise and pound foolish. When you deal with government beaurocrats, who knows.

[Susan61]

Hi Tom:  You do know that the lawyer only gets paid if he wins your case, and then they pay you everything retroactive to when you first applied.  I had to do that when I applied for Disability.  For me it was worth it, but everyone is different.  My husband has sleep apnea also. He was diagnosed years ago, and he has been so compliant with using the C-Pap machine.  He never goes to sleep without it.  So many people have not been able to get used to them, but he said his quality of sleep without the snoring has been so good.  I get a better nights sleep now too without his breathing stopping and the snoring was like a freight train coming through the bedroom.

     Just know your not alone fighting the system, and everything else that goes with it.  Fight for what you are entitled to if you have to.  If you going to be retiring soon anyhow, then maybe you can wait it out.  I know exactly how fed up you can get with all of this.  I hope you come out with good results in everything.  They are doing a lot of new things with Pulmonary Fibrosis also.  Stay as positive as you can, and try to beat it all.

Take Care and God Bless

Susan 61

I have been signing off with my username, because we have a new Susan on here who just signs off as Susan.  I do not want anyone to get confused.