Severance Package That Requires IT Workers To Be On Call For 2 Years

USMCGrunt said:
Read the article people, the author clearly cites lawyers saying the wording is too broad and would be difficult to enforce because it would violate the Fail Labor Standards Act.

Even if it was an "In acceptance of this agreement, Dickbags, Inc. will provide the employee with a lump sum equal to his/her previous year's salary. In return, said employee will provide assistance to Dickbags, Inc. for a period of two years." type of situation, after a few weeks, it would be pretty simple to say, "I'm sorry, I can't recall." or "I believe it was X, Y, and/or Z." You're not required to remember everything you did, its humanly impossible so it's not like they can hold you to it.
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This.

As long as it was a decent amount of severance, I'd take it and wouldn't worry about later.

If they ever called me, (and I actually answered the phone), I'd be suffering from some serious amnesia. If they kept pushing me and wanted too much, I'd file a complaint with the labor board as I doubt the legality of providing free help for 2 years.

I worked for a company years ago that went through a couple mergers, and I was given a severance package (5 months pay) if I stayed around for the merger. A few months after I was laid off, I got a call from someone needed help with their system, but I simply told them I wasn't an employee any more, and they would have to talk to their IT people.
 
Frankie said:
And that's the problem, if they don't accept the shitty terms they likely don't get any severance.

Company I used to work for had a big layoff and paid severance depending on how long you'd been there, and they certainly didn't have to. It was all for PR reasons. Which I would imagine is the case in the VAST majority of scenarios. I.e., all of them where you don't have a valid contract that specifies it, which is mostly just for the golden parachute types.
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It's not really for PR reasons. Most companies that provide severance, also require that you agree not to sue for wrongful termination, etc. The company I currently work for had a small downsizing recently that included some remote employees. Part of the requirement for them to receive their the severance package was for them to ship their equipment back. We can't withhold part of their pay, so the severance is the only leverage.
 
If I get trained to do something and then sat there for more than 6 months at home I would have forgotten everything by the time they called me back.

I used to forget my login password after just a week away on holiday.

Perhaps that's the plan, to make those staff unemployable to anyone else forever.
 
shabazkilla said:
What a horrible idea. Just think of the liability concerns alone. What if a laid off employee comes back to help resolve an issue and steals card holder data. Or shit, even just gets hurt in the office. That workers comp claim will be a mess. No way this goes through.
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Read up on "Independent Contractors". Liability would almost certainly be with the ex-employee, not the company.

Welcome to the future, my friend. For some of us, this became a reality a very long time ago, and is hardly news.
 
Geef said:
This might actually be awesome IF:
Once you got the severance package you got another job with the same company at some other position. That way you'd still be working for them and if they want help with something specific they can always call you during business hours. :p
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They not looking to hire stinky Americans.....
 
schizrade said:
Fire old workers, import HB1 slaves at 1/5th cost, make old workers slaves for 2 year or dont give them severence.

Brilliant plan.
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I work for a company that recently laid off five people in my department and replaced them with 2 contractors who work remotely from Kiev and get paid about $8.50/hour. This is for testing server level software. It worked out about as well as you probably think. Those who are left are working 12 hour days and still not able to make the deadlines. The stuff we get from the engineers (both software and hardware) has been complete crap that refuses to work right. They've gutted the company trying to turn a better profit (we were actually pulling a $1-2 million profit per year before, but that wasn't enough for the investors) and ended up crippling our engineering processes. If any of our latest products, which are already months late to market and still need months of bug fixing, actually turn a profit, I'll be incredibly surprised.
 
Obviously we understand why the company would want to retain help from experienced employee's, it's just disgraceful they dont think they should have to pay for it. After I quit my systems analyst gig my company tried to pull the same stunt. I told them my rate is $100/hr and never heard back from them so whatever. I was kinda surprised honestly because there was a lot of shit only I was privy too, but hey good luck.
 
I work for another company in the financial sector (not a bank) in software in Georgia. We have quite a few people from suntrust that talk about how terrible it was to work there. We were all talking this morning on how it doesn't seem legal at all for ST to enforce this, or even how anyone would agree to it. It's flat out stupid. I wouldn't be surprised if they get quite a lot of negative press over this.
 
So, they give you severence.
You leave.
They call
You don't answer
They can't find you
They hire a team of lawyers to sue you? No. They wouldn't bother.
Take the money and run.
 
" hey Bill do you remember server 123 you issued 4 years ago, you know 2 years before you left, and can you help with the config?"

"Um ive switched laptops 3 times since then, i dont remember squat".
 
Looks like SunTrust wants to be a test case.

Good luck with that. After the lawyers get done bleeding them, they will have wished they just paid the severance and shut the heck up.
 
I'm somewhat educated on this topic, and I'm thinking this is perfectly legal. But also largely unenforceable. It's just a bad idea on the company's part. 1) all this negative press 2) people will probably just say FU anyway 3) those that accept will not be helpful when they get called and there really isn't anything the company can do to force the issue

The smart thing to do from the company's standpoint would have been to:
1) offer a crappy severance to most and save some bucks (or none if they wanted to do jerks)
2) offer a decent severance to those top performers / tribal knowledge, and set them up as contractors in their system. Ask for a support arrangement and pay them hundreds of dollars an hour when the company needs it. They keep their expertise available, and the released employee is happy because he's got a new job and he's making some big bucks on the side helping his old idiotic company. Company still saves money in the end.

Not that hard.

TLDR - The company is stupid - there was a better and more obvious way to retain talent while slashing costs.
 
You see this crap:
SunTrust has been working for a number of years with IT contractors -- including IBM and Infosys -- that have large operations in India and other foreign countries, said bank employees. Employees said the "knowledge transfer" -- the euphemism used to describe training contractors who are taking their jobs -- is well underway and is being done both over the Web and in person.
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Shit like this should be banned. I still see now way how cutting American jobs and outsourcing American wealth to pay some foreigners who can't even speak proper English and most likely took a 1 month online IT course helps any of us, Americans in any sort of way.
 
It really seems they DO NOT want them to agree to be on call for 2 years; so they don't have to pay them a severance package.

Banks are notorious for crap like this as well and treating employees poorly in general.
I worked with some IT guys at a huge bank with dozens of branches. They told me they had a opening an they would love to have me on their team. I thought to myself "Wooh Hoo! Better salary!" but when we started talking about salaries, they didn't come close to offering a descent salary. I couldn't believe their salaries were so low.

I remember one of the first banks I ever used; there was a teller I always took my pay check deposits to and was always chatty with her. She had been almost 20 years and was getting ready to retire. But soon after I never saw her there. I wondered about it until it hit the news. The bank just FIRED a dozen or so employees that had worked for them faithfully for 20 years so they would not have to pay them any kind of retirement. They replaced them with a bunch of 20 somethings. That group of people sued the bank for it and won the suit because it was blatantly obvious they fired them so they didn't have to pay them benefits.
 
What a bunch of scumbags. Zero loyalty to their employees and the country for that matter. Reminds me of the Disney story. Another bunch of dogs I'll never spend a dime on again.
 
Riptide_NVN said:
What a bunch of scumbags. Zero loyalty to their employees and the country for that matter. Reminds me of the Disney story. Another bunch of dogs I'll never spend a dime on again.
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Really Wal-Mart is the poster child for this.

When Sam Walden was a head of the company he was a champion of "Only american made good". Do you remember these banners flying in Walmart back in the 80s?
The bunch that superseded him couldn't wait for him to die. Down came all the banners and the "American goods first" policy went in the ash can and it was all low end Chinese made crap from then on.
Employees are all part time; nobody but management gets benefits.
 
Also, banks are universally inept when it comes to the people in charge of IT (not the grunts).

Seriously, in 2015 it is ridiculous that it should take 2-3 days to send money from one account to another. (Pro-tip : It's probably time to spend some of those billions in profits to upgrade those System/3 Mainframes to something a little less ancient).
 
Dr. Righteous said:
Really Wal-Mart is the poster child for this.

When Sam Walden was a head of the company he was a champion of "Only american made good". Do you remember these banners flying in Walmart back in the 80s?
The bunch that superseded him couldn't wait for him to die. Down came all the banners and the "American goods first" policy went in the ash can and it was all low end Chinese made crap from then on.
Employees are all part time; nobody but management gets benefits.
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Lies. Wal-Mart's benefits are just as good or better than the benefits I get form the small company I work for.

From the Wal-Mart web site:
•Matching contributions to your 401(k) up to 6% of your salary
•Associate Stock Purchase Plan with a company match
•Associate Discount Card for Walmart and Home Office associates and Sam’s Club Home Office associates, spouses and dependents
•Consumer-directed health plans, including Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRA) plans and a high deductible plan with a Health Savings Account (HSA). Highlights include: ◦100 percent coverage for eligible in-network preventive care
◦$4 co-pay on eligible generic drugs at Walmart or Sam’s Club pharmacies
•HMO plans (available in certain areas)
•Vision plan
•Dental plan
•Company-paid life insurance
•Accidental death & dismemberment insurance (AD&D)
•Critical illness insurance
•Short- and long-term disability insurance
•Business Travel Accident Insurance
•Illness Protection (Sick Time)


As for buy "Made in America" that would be tough as we don't seem to make anything in this country any more.
 
Isn't Walmart the one that takes out life insurance polices on their employees and when they die they (Walmart) get paid?

It would have to be a pretty big F ing severance for me to be available for two years.

How do you even expect that? What if I get a job that takes me to hong kong or dubai for two years?
 
damicatz said:
Also, banks are universally inept when it comes to the people in charge of IT (not the grunts).

Seriously, in 2015 it is ridiculous that it should take 2-3 days to send money from one account to another. (Pro-tip : It's probably time to spend some of those billions in profits to upgrade those System/3 Mainframes to something a little less ancient).
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You really think its ancient hardware?!

Banks are just earning interest on your money during the "time" it takes to move that money around. Call it temp investment earnings :D
 
damicatz said:
Also, banks are universally inept when it comes to the people in charge of IT (not the grunts).
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I endorse this statement. I work in a bank IT department. I've also worked in a hospital IT department and their management was a disappointment too. A very well paid disappointment. Wasting huge amounts of money. Increasing the workload by a factor of 4 while refusing to hire more help. Having everybody else do each other's job in order to be more "efficient". Bunch of cheapskate money wasters.
Seriously, in 2015 it is ridiculous that it should take 2-3 days to send money from one account to another.
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Completely agree. ACH transfers shouldn't take days to complete. I have an account with mycbb and they take 5 business days to post a transfer. Seriously?
 
I thought the whole point of a severance was for the company to maintain good relations with those that it had to let go. I'd be much more inclined to help a former employer if I were offered a severance package than if I were just kicked to the curb. Just don't try making my help mandatory and without any further compensation.
 
HardUp4HardWare said:
So, they give you severence.
You leave.
They call
You don't answer
They can't find you
They hire a team of lawyers to sue you? No. They wouldn't bother.
Take the money and run.
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If they made such a retarded move as this, they will surely spend the money to come after you if they can't "reach" you. Even worse, they may decide to go the legal route if you don't/can't satisfy them when they DO reach you.
 
Bullshit like this combined with states giving corporations the power to opt-out of providing worker's comp means, going forward, that if you're not a business owner or an executive you're up shit creek, and it smells like the 1800s.
 
Riptide_NVN said:
I endorse this statement. I work in a bank IT department. I've also worked in a hospital IT department and their management was a disappointment too. A very well paid disappointment. Wasting huge amounts of money. Increasing the workload by a factor of 4 while refusing to hire more help. Having everybody else do each other's job in order to be more "efficient". Bunch of cheapskate money wasters.
Completely agree. ACH transfers shouldn't take days to complete. I have an account with mycbb and they take 5 business days to post a transfer. Seriously?
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5 days, yep! It's also about not posting timely in order to get the maximum overdraft amounts, seeing as most american's are now living paycheck to paycheck.
 
DeadSkull said:
You really think its ancient hardware?!

Banks are just earning interest on your money during the "time" it takes to move that money around. Call it temp investment earnings :D
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I know they probably still have System/360s in operation. Just look at the number of COBOL jobs they have available.
 
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