Q: I recently received an early retirement survey. I filled it out and said I would accept it. Some of my co-workers also said they would accept it. But everyone I talked to said they really wouldn’t take it. One guy said his wife wouldn’t let him. One said, “I just said yes so it would help others get it.” One said yes to the survey, but he really couldn’t leave this early as he is only 49 years old. How will this affect the offer? They should know that everyone that said yes will not do it, right?
A: I’m gazing into my crystal ball. An image is emerging of an agency that is as innocent as a new born baby. It believes what its employees tell it. But wait. There’s another image emerging. It’s of an agency that’s been to this rodeo before. It knows that what employees say and what they eventually do are two different things. What the crystal ball doesn’t tell me in either case is if the employees saying yes are greater than or less than what is needed to hit their target attrition rate. So there’s no way to tell how this will affect the offer of early outs. You’ll just have to wait and see.
