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    58-year-old employee gets let go, the rest of the department leaves, HR begs for employee to come back 4 months later: 'That's not going to work for me'

    Author image for Ben Weiss
    Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
    Oct 8, 2025 8:00 AM EDT

    Letting go of a beloved employee has its consequences, and this company was certainly not prepared for them.

    This 58-year-old had been working for what they describe as a "multi-billion dollar global company" for nearly a decade when a sudden and unexpected layoff season came into full swing this past week. To everyone's surprise in the department, this employee was on the chopping block. 

    The thought process from human resources was that it was relatively well-known at the company that the 58-year-old corporate employee was planning on retiring in the near future. Still, for someone who has reshaped the entire workflow of a team and given such a large company so much of their time and energy, the employee deserved to have a say in how they would ultimately retire. 

    Part of their hope was to spend their final year at the company documenting all their changes for the next person taking over their role. Since they had virtually zero time to document those changes, no one understood just how much work went into the now former employee's day-to-day. In short, their team was completely doomed…

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    • A man in a white sweater carries a box of belongings out of a modern office.
      via Vitaly Gariev

      Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    • When it became clear that no one understood how to perform the author's old tasks, human resources reached out and practically begged for the author to come back. When they revealed the paltry amount of money they were offering for the author's return, the 58-year-old turned them down. The company ended up getting so desperate that they promised to give the author whatever they desired. That's when the author decided to "go for it."

    • "They [let me go] and the rest of the department quit."

      I was a buyer for a multi billion dollar global company that owns many a tool brand among other things. Corporate sent out an edict that all locations needed to
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    • cut salary $ by 10%. Our location decided to lay off 3 of us salaried employees to achieve this. I had been there 8 years and it was well known that I planned to
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    • retire in a little over a year at 59- 1/2. I had planned to spend my final year documenting processes and procedures that until then had only been verbally passed on
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    • to me by my former boss (who had been there 37 years before retiring). There were 2 other buyers who each had less than 1 year with the company. So I was the go to for all the questions.
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    • Our boss (65M- Purchasing Manager) was not hands on. Didn't even know how to issue a purchase order. I assume I was chosen for layoff because my
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    • salary was the highest in the dept. Since I was laid off at 58 I couldn't access 401k funds to live. But my dad stepped in and said he'd cover me for the year. (
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    • only child and he said why wait till he's de d) So i retired. 4 months in, collecting unemployment( also had 8 weeks severence) and I hear thru the grapevine that the other 2 buyers
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    • gave their notice within 2 weeks of each other. ( right before Christmas). 1st week of the new year, my phone rings and its the HR manager. Asking if id be willing to come back. So i ask,
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    • what's it paying? She gives me a #that's only $3/hrs more than I had been making. (NOTE: they're planning to hire me thru a temp agency with no benefits) I said,
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    • that's not going to work for me She said, let me know what you need and we'll go from there. So i talked to my husband and decided to go for it.
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    • A businessman man on the phone works on his laptop in a modern office.
      via Vitaly Gariev

      Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

    • I email: I'll come back for 13 weeks. Work 4 days a week. I want 5 paid vacation days to take in those 13 weeks. And I want $ per hour. (almost twice what I had been making) I went high
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    • assuming they'd counter. She called immediately and said great can you start Monday.? So i worked that winter (what else is there to do?) Made a ton of $. 1 did spend my time documenting,
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    • I trained a woman to do the job. But she was asking the same questions the day I left as she was the first day of her 9 weeks of training!! I told them if your
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    • want to call me and ask questions we need to set up a consulting agreement. They wouldn't do it. And never called. Thank goodness.
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    • Side note. During my time back everytime my boss asked me a question about how something was done (yes I had to train him too as he realized how lacking he
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    • was in knowledge) ... I would preface my answer with "well before I was fired, we did... " it was hilarious to see the look on his face.
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    • Another man in a white sweater carries a box of belongings out of a modern office.
      via Vitaly Gariev

      Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    employment issues workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace job work human resources Horrible Bosses company employment toxic-work-environment
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