I swear to god people are complete idiots! WTF?

[TwixVoy]

A few months back the company does a survey to find out what everyone thinks of the company benefits programs including the pension plan. Asking general questions like "Do you value the plan?" "Do you want the plan?" etc. This survey is done every year.

So today our company (major nation wide ratailer) announces effective next year the pension plan is DONE WITH for everyone because apparently enough idiots said it "wasn't valuable to them". WHO THE HELL SAYS FREE RETIREMENT MONEY ISN'T VALUABLE TO THEM???

Part of me thinks the company is full of sh**, but knowing how many idiots simply REFUSE to sign up for the 401K plan (which provides dollar for dollar matching, but is bad because it "takes their money") I can believe enough fools probably did say they didn't want it.

Seriously. Most of the people that took this survey make $8/hour and they said they didn't want the pension plan? I mean WTF? What are you going to do when you retire you fools? The pension plan costs you NOTHING. The company pays in to it 100% for you.

I am just so pissed because this effects me too and I actually valued the pension plan. What makes people go against their own interests like this? I mean is it just plain stupidity? I mean I can just not understand. This is another one of those WTF? moments.

[MrsBrady]

1. the questions were probably just a cover

they probably had every intention of canceling it.
you think they "care" what their employees think....or their future?

[sharp_stick]

2. I think I agree

with your assessment of bullshit, it sounds like they were hunting for an excuse to ditch the plan. It's become a new way to screw employees in order to boost the bottom line. Now watch for your CEO to get a nice fat bonus because of all the money he saved.

This kind of thing is not only becoming all too common it's become sickening.

[BR_Parkway]

3. If they were mostly part time and didn't qualify for the plan, then I can

see why they marked "No value to them".

But like the other's said, the survey was probably done as cover so they could get rid of it anyhow, just make it look like they were only thinking of the employees.

[TwixVoy]

4. That's what pisses me off

they DID qualify for it. You didn't even have to be working full time. If you had been with the company just 2 years - even if you worked 10 hours a week - you still got the full pension benefit.

[Mnemosyne]

5. Are you still entitled to the money already paid on your behalf?

I do not blame you for feeling betrayed and enraged. :hug:

[hfojvt]

6. the plan is not valuable to them if they don't feel they can afford to contribute

It's only a free dollar if I put a dollar in, and then the free dollar, along with the dollar I put in, cannot be spent until I am 65 or something. So a plan would probably be more valuable to employees if it put in 10 cents an hour without them having to contribute a dime. It would be a mere $208 a year for a full-time employee, but that's probably more than most people are getting from it now.

[TwixVoy]

8. They didn't have to contribute a dime

the pension plan was 100% company funded.

The 401K plan requires a contribution, and that's all that is left now.

[hfojvt]

10. okay I misunderstood

I have never worked at a place that had a pension plan, but many of the places where I work I do not intend to stay at. How many of your fellow employees have been there less than two years?

[TwixVoy]

11. A great many

however there are also a great many that have been.... including some for over 20 years and provides a great help during retirement. If you are at the company 20+ years the value of the pension plan starts to get in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[sarcasmo]

7. What will happen with your already invested Pension money?

[Dorian Gray]

9. Stupidity....

Stupidity! Stupidity!

Ugh! I have three friends who refuse to put any money into a 401(k) or IRA, and they live pretty much paycheck to paycheck. They are the same people who would answer that way. I'm sorry, Twix. That sucks for you and all those others who wanted to save for retirement.