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Boeing lost hundreds of experienced Seattle-area engineers last month
Last month, hundreds of very experienced Seattle-area Boeing engineers walked out the door. They chose to retire early with the realization they’d have a significant cut to their pension payouts if they delayed. (www.seattletimes.com) المزيد...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Classic, blaming the engineers for managements incompetence, greed and disregard for safety in lieu of bottom-line quarterly profits meant to prop up the stock price and appease wall street instead of customers. You do realize how difficult it is to design and build these machines...
Lots of entities went through this exercise in the past month... including Boeing, GM, CPD and a host of others.
The companies are reacting to inflation and interest rates - can't blame them too much for that. The losses are going to affect a multitude of companies and industries. With the utter lack of skilled trades coming up from the entitled youth - it is going to have a devastating effect on our nation in about another half-generation, and will make us more reliant upon certain foreign entities even moreso than we are now.
Industry, engineering and innovation as a whole are dying a much more rapid death than people realize.
The companies are reacting to inflation and interest rates - can't blame them too much for that. The losses are going to affect a multitude of companies and industries. With the utter lack of skilled trades coming up from the entitled youth - it is going to have a devastating effect on our nation in about another half-generation, and will make us more reliant upon certain foreign entities even moreso than we are now.
Industry, engineering and innovation as a whole are dying a much more rapid death than people realize.
My son works for Boeing in Chicago - one of the 18 people who manage Boeing's pension money. I sent him this article - here was his response:
"The lump sum discount rate is adjusted annually, so the 2022 discount rate is still using the low interest rates from 2021. As we flip the calendar to 2023, the rate will adjust higher as rates have risen materially in 2022. For most retirees this equates to nearly a 20% difference in the lump sum payout (and these are highly paid engineers, so it's not a small number). The union bosses all figured this out and encouraged any older engineers that were considering in the next few years to retire now. So that's been fun to manage since the lump sums come out of the pension with about 2 weeks notice."
"The lump sum discount rate is adjusted annually, so the 2022 discount rate is still using the low interest rates from 2021. As we flip the calendar to 2023, the rate will adjust higher as rates have risen materially in 2022. For most retirees this equates to nearly a 20% difference in the lump sum payout (and these are highly paid engineers, so it's not a small number). The union bosses all figured this out and encouraged any older engineers that were considering in the next few years to retire now. So that's been fun to manage since the lump sums come out of the pension with about 2 weeks notice."
Thanks for the inside info.
Many industries are facing the same situation. GM had a record number of early retirements last month for the exact same reason. Cheaper to take the early out losses than to stick it out with new higher rates. Can't blame the employees for that, also can't blame the company. Just another result of our out of control & tanking economy. Putting the screws to ourselves more and more.
Agree. Further conversation with my son - In a vast majority of cases, including Boeing, the numbers just don't work out to take the lump sum and come out ahead of an annuity. Many of the financial advisors that work with the Boeing employees recommend the lump sum so they can manage that money for the employee instead of the Boeing pension teams. A majority of the employees hate Boeing corporate and view taking the lump sum as "sticking it to the man". Pretty short sighted, IMO.
This as a side note: If these senior Boeing engineers are so gifted, then why all the “engineering” problems with the Boeing Max and Dreamliner? Just saying…