Personal Finance (Not Investing) • Resignation Letter

I'd just say I want to pursue other opportunities, I've enjoyed working there, blah blah. If they want to keep you, they'll offer a raise. If they don't do that, then you are correct to leave.

By the way, what kind of money are we talking about here? How much of an annual raise would you want, and can you get it somewhere else?

Like many companies, raises are within a very narrow margin. ~2% for average performers, ~3% for high achievers. This is why I asked for a mid-year raise, 3% in June, 3% in March the following year and I would have stayed on. Bonuses run between 7-10%.

On the raise side, this is very similar to what I saw my last few years before retiring (I worked in tech as well). Bonuses/RSU's were better than what you were quoting, however, but of course never guaranteed.

Regarding merit increases, I'd say in the last 10 years I was working, my base salary dropped relative to inflation. At this point, as retirees, based on how we're invested, we'll probably do better than that in the long term. It's almost as if retiring gave us a raise or something.

Cheers.

OP's information about raises is pointless without context (ie. compared to colleagues). My wife's fintech employer has frozen raises for the past 2yrs, my employer (health products megacorp) has frozen raises the last 3yrs. Fortunately wife got a promotion last year, otherwise our salaries have dropped significantly relative to inflation the last few years despite both of us being top performers. Either way, seems kind of odd that the impetus to retire is a lack of raises, when OP apparently has enough to retire, but it's their decision. If it were me, I wouldn't bother stating why it is I was retiring; nobody in the company is going to care and is the drama going to help you any?

There's also some other things at play here. From the OP.
"The lack of financial appreciation is not worth the stress." OP then goes on to discuss the number of people being mentored as well as overtime being put in.

Having worked in tech myself for multiple decades and now retired, I can tell you that I've seen plenty of tech-types working like this, putting in lots of time to get projects completed and helping others become successful. Lots of highly driven people, especially in the engineering community.
I've also seen many of those same people have great difficulty transitioning to retirement..

Having had plenty of raises in my career, I'm not at all sure that increased money made the stress somehow more bearable. For a lot of us, it was about fairness and, later on, the ability to meet longer term goals financially including retirement.

Cheers.

Statistics: Posted by dcabler — Thu Jan 18, 2024 6:58 am — Replies 18 — Views 982

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