I decided to make my own post versus adding on to the are you stressed post. Since I really don’t have anyone that I can talk to about this, I figured I’d post here. Not looking for anything other than getting this off of my chest.
I have been employed by the same company for 17 and a half years. When I joined this company, it was about 3 months after being told by my former employer that my services were no longer required. I was the IT Manager/System Administrator/etc for a local physician’s group. Unfortunately, due to HIPAA, I had to make some decisions that were not well received by ownership of the practice. So, moving on, I joined my current company, a systems VAR, first as a support engineer, but have my way up through the ranks doing implementations and now systems architecture.
One of the reasons I have stuck around so long was the way the ownership valued it’s employees. When for our health insurance we had no choice but to switch to a plan that required a deductible, the company entered into a contract with a company to either pay direct or reimburse us for the deductible. That’s a benefit hardly heard of nowadays. In addition, over the years, as our 401k as grown, it was moved to a couple of different investment firms where we were given flexibility in the funds offered, as well as someone to talk to so we could make sure we were investing the money properly, for our given scenario. Plus, the matching (with immediate vesting) was great.
Unfortunately, things changed about a year ago. Our former owner was ready to move on, so the two principals spent some time coming up with an exit strategy for him, which culminated in the company being sold to a private equity firm last year. We had been told that they had interviewed quite a few companies, and felt that the selected firm was the best option, that it felt like there would be a similar culture fit. Unfortunately, I don’t believe this last part to be true.
Now that we are under the parent company, our 401k has to be moved to their plan. Initial reaction is that we are going from a Cadillac to a Yugo. We had a great plan, plus a committee that reviewed the funds available to make sure they would work best for us. The new plan seems it just checks the box “offer a 401k plan”. In addition, the parent company doesn’t match. Though to be fair, the company has stated that for current employees, they will be giving us a one time salary bump commensurate with what our match had been.
Our health insurance was scheduled to change as well, but that got reversed at the last minute. However, we will be losing the deductible reimbursement when that does happen next year.
I’m at the point where I don’t feel valued anymore, as an employee. While I’m not sure what I’d move on to, if I were to do so, I’m not so sure it’s worth sticking around.
If you made it this far, thank you. Again, just looking for a place to vent.