VES winners

[Auntiejun]

Work have announced VES across the whole organisation. Some people will get huge payouts of almost 2yrs pay and are delighted. A lot seem to have downed tools in anticipation. I am new and wouldn’t get much so will be staying. It feels so weird at the moment - has anyone else been through this?

Can’t help at all, unfortunately.
No idea what VES is but Google tells me it’s to do with Visuals - is that right?

No bonuses in my job but there is for managers if I hit the target for them 🤨😂

What do you mean when you say ‘weird’?

Voluntary Early Severance, I imagine the OP means. As a civil servant I went through various rounds of it. Sometimes everyone who applies doesn't get it. Usually it is the 55 plus staff that go for it. Weird that a chunk of people leave at once.
Payment for ours is capped now. 2 years wouldn't be allowed. That's generous but after first chunk will be taxable.

Aaah! Thankyou for this explanation. I see it makes sense now 😊 (but still can’t help)

Yes, it's very unsettling whether you are staying or wanting to go. One company I worked for went through it or compulsory redundancy cycles fairly often and a lot of the longer-serving staff were basically sitting it out waiting their turn/payout/final salary pension. I took it myself in a subsequent job as I had 10+ years service and was getting burned out.

@PainfreePain sorry should have been clearer what I meant. Yes it is voluntary exit I was talking about. It just feels so weird, we are being restructured but around half of staff seem to be planning to take VES. So there is huge uncertainty about what the eventual structure will be and who will be left

Depending on your targets, not everyone who wants to go will be approved to leave. Often those who are less engaged, less productive and have high levels of absence get huge payouts while valuable, engaged staff are refused. So, in some ways it’s a reward for failure - of course you can’t say this openly. Also, those with friends in the right places often get approved when they don’t meet the criteria.

We went through it last year, losing a lot of very experienced and knowledgeable staff whose absence has been felt ever since. But most were nearing retirement and/or had been in the org for years so their offer was a year’s salary or more. Made sense for them but for those of us left behind it was quite odd.

We’ve been through it several times in the 20+ years I have worked for my Arm’s Length Body. I’ve never been old enough for had a long enough length of service to be interested. Now, my role is considered critical and not eligible, so I suspect I’ll be plodding along to retirement age.

It is weird when a whole load of people leave at once though. Like our whole Comms team.