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Microsoft laid me off after 15 years of service. Life after Microsoft?

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Re: Microsoft laid me off after 15 years of service. Life after Microsoft?

#21

Post by usefulcat »

kstrauser wrote: post #8
ajross wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These days you go to your state exchange (for the putative ex-MS person, that's likely to be https://www.wahealthplanfinder.org/ ), search for a plan, click on it and sign up. It used to be worse, of course. But even then it wasn't a disaster for the case at hand: the COBRA act allowed you to continue to buy your existing plan at the same premiums for a year and a half until you found a new job.

COBRA is impossibly expensive for many people. When you simultaneously have your salary drop to $0 and your portions of your insurance premiums triple (say, if you have a spouse and kids covered by the plan), that's a rough situation to be in. About the only good thing about COBRA is that it covers preexisting conditions.

It's impossibly expensive because US health insurance is impossibly expensive. It's not like there's a significant extra cost associated with going with COBRA versus an equivalent individual policy. And prior to the start of this year, you might not be able to get an equivalent individual policy at any price. If you had any pre-existing conditions at all, then you definitely would not be able to get equivalent coverage.

Re: Microsoft laid me off after 15 years of service. Life after Microsoft?

#22

Post by bmelton »

dataminded wrote: post #14
kstrauser wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

COBRA is impossibly expensive for many people. When you simultaneously have your salary drop to $0 and your portions of your insurance premiums triple (say, if you have a spouse and kids covered by the plan), that's a rough situation to be in. About the only good thing about COBRA is that it covers preexisting conditions.

I can cosign this. Cobra for my wife and I was ~$1000/month.

Not to contribute to the ACA vs. non-ACA arguments further, but ACA plans for my wife, daughter and myself are more than double that in Maryland.

I don't know what the differences would be if I were earning $0 per year, especially as the relevant question (on the form I filled out) was something like "How much do you anticipate earning this year?" which is a question I have no idea how I would answer if I were currently unemployed.

Re: Microsoft laid me off after 15 years of service. Life after Microsoft?

#23

Post by ianstallings »

It made me a little sad but ultimately when he said he wants to be his own boss it gave me hope. I believe we're in an age of personal empowerment for developers and others in the industry. The idea of a one man shop isn't so far fetched these days.

Re: Microsoft laid me off after 15 years of service. Life after Microsoft?

#24

Post by badman_ting »

badmadrad wrote: post #2

Naturally, he is very disappointed but he should keep things in perspective. It's not that bad of situation to be in. You have 15 years of software development experience at Microsoft and there are going to be a lot of open doors. This could really be blessing in disguise.

I hope this person is OK but that strikes me as unrealistic. Ageism is a real problem for software developers, but also that 15 years at MS could just as easily be viewed as a negative than a positive.

Re: Microsoft laid me off after 15 years of service. Life after Microsoft?

#25

Post by usefulcat »

mike_h wrote: post #17
smackfu wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that better than COBRA?

COBRA rates are 3-4x higher than individual plan insurance every time I've heard about them. In a rapid-churn economy like tech, where people often strike out on their own and companies cease to exist etc., the few $K a year it takes to maintain your own individual plan is something everyone should consider. As you age, starting a new private plan becomes frighteningly expensive, and if ACA doesn't stick, it may beco…

At various times, I've used COBRA, I've had individual plans, and I've had group plans for which I've paid the full premium. I've never seen a difference of anywhere remotely close to 3-4x for COBRA versus an equivalent individual plan.

Re: Microsoft laid me off after 15 years of service. Life after Microsoft?

#26

Post by nextstep »

fencepost wrote: post #19
acchow wrote: post #4

Honest question as a Canadian - what do you do about health insurance when you're 50 and get fired from your lifer job? Should you really have been paying for your own policy in parallel with your employer's so that you can continue with the low premiums post-employment?

Prior to the Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, you had up to 18 months of COBRA eligibility, meaning you could stay on your employer's plan but paid all premiums (expensive). During that time you frantically look for a job that includes healthcare coverage. Failing either of those, you might find junk insurance, or you simply go without and hope for good health. If your income is / remains low enough you might qualify…

This is a very thorough answer.

Re: Microsoft laid me off after 15 years of service. Life after Microsoft?

#27

Post by bhrgunatha »

huhtenberg wrote: post #20
badmadrad wrote: post #2

Naturally, he is very disappointed but he should keep things in perspective. It's not that bad of situation to be in. You have 15 years of software development experience at Microsoft and there are going to be a lot of open doors. This could really be blessing in disguise.

Except every interviewer will be wondering why did Microsoft let go someone with so much experience. What did Microsoft know that's not on the resume.

I don't know the details of the Microsoft case, but my job was made redundant a number of years ago and I definitely was able to bounce back.

There are lots of legal regulations around terminating employment and one of the easier legal ways is to remove a particular job or position. That's why generally people are not made redundant, their job, position or title is. It's a legal method of cutting costs by pruning the organisation.

It's nothing to do with whether you are a worthy employee. Redundancies don't work that way. They are a practical, legal way of reducing numbers - payroll and staff. In the video, he's wondering why they couldn't simply find another position for him where he could apply his expertise. It's probably because they had to state his job is no longer viable and so the job (and the person occupying those jobs) are let go. If the company were to find other positions for their favorite employees, it opens all kinds of legal problems for HR.

Re: Microsoft laid me off after 15 years of service. Life after Microsoft?

#28

Post by throwaway1dh9 »

acchow wrote: post #4

Honest question as a Canadian - what do you do about health insurance when you're 50 and get fired from your lifer job? Should you really have been paying for your own policy in parallel with your employer's so that you can continue with the low premiums post-employment?

I'm from Europe (Germany).

Worried about insurance for your kid? Can't happen here, the government will deal with that. Losing your job? Get paid for one or two years by your work insurance. After that you fall back to a free basic income (for as long as you need). And still this system is generally not exploited: People work hard here.

And it's not just unemployment. There are people begging for money on HN regularly, because they are dying (often of cancer) and are now worried about their families. This is just cruel and can't happen that easily on this side of the Atlantic.

But it seems US citizens want to live like that. Why?

Re: Microsoft laid me off after 15 years of service. Life after Microsoft?

#29

Post by spartango »

wyager wrote: post #7
acchow wrote: post #4

Honest question as a Canadian - what do you do about health insurance when you're 50 and get fired from your lifer job? Should you really have been paying for your own policy in parallel with your employer's so that you can continue with the low premiums post-employment?

A very reasonable thing to do is ask for a higher salary and no company insurance. You end up paying a premium (because the extra salary gets hit by income tax, while if the company had used it to buy insurance it would not have been subject to income tax), but you get to choose your own insurance and it doesn't stop when you leave.

In the US this doesn't make sense (for most people), unfortunately.

Employers offer group plans which tend to be much cheaper and offer substantially better benefits than individual plans. The larger the company, the better the arrangement tends to be.

COBRA is designed to fill in that coverage gap when you leave, but as others have noted in this thread, it is not always economical.

Re: Microsoft laid me off after 15 years of service. Life after Microsoft?

#30

Post by imgabe »

throwaway1dh9 wrote: post #28
acchow wrote: post #4

Honest question as a Canadian - what do you do about health insurance when you're 50 and get fired from your lifer job? Should you really have been paying for your own policy in parallel with your employer's so that you can continue with the low premiums post-employment?

I'm from Europe (Germany). Worried about insurance for your kid? Can't happen here, the government will deal with that. Losing your job? Get paid for one or two years by your work insurance. After that you fall back to a free basic income (for as long as you need). And still this system is generally not exploited: People work hard here. And it's not just unemployment. There are people begging for money on HN regularl…

Most people don't want to live like that, but health insurance companies profit from the current system and they have deep pockets to influence the government to keep it that way.
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