Fired her after 25 years yesterday made her 401K 400 stock shares worthless (1st Data)

[Omaha Steve]

Last edited Thu Oct 9, 2014, 07:14 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.omaha.com/money/first-data-s-job-cuts-called-an-ongoing-process/article_4b76c558-26ce-5a1e-a777-72c212414ac7.html

POSTED: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2014 1:00 AM
By Cole Epley / World-Herald staff writer

Snip: MaryAnn Gomez said she was terminated early Wednesday, just three weeks shy of her 25th anniversary. Officials informed Gomez she no longer had a job there, effective immediately, and that cuts were being initiated across the country, she said. No severance was offered because it was a termination.

Snip: Its employee headcount fell from 29,000 in 2006 to 23,000 at the end of 2013, and in 2014, the company stopped matching employee 401(k) contributions and instead gave out shares of First Data stock to be vested at a future public offering.

Suddenly jobless, Gomez said those shares offer no solace.

“I contacted the human resources solutions team office and they told me because I was terminated, those 400 shares are of no value to me,” she said. “That’s like Monopoly money to me.”


READ the FULL story at the link.

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. They're certainly robbing her of the last year (or 10 months) of matching contributions

But that's not really how 401ks work. Everything in the account before 2014 remains in the account. She lost approximately 10 months of a 401K match. The entire previous 24 years of the company match plus whatever she contributed remains in the 401K. That can't go away retroactively.

It's likely she can get the 400 shares value as well, if she fights for it.

[sabbat hunter]

2. your headline is a little deceptive

it was the 400 shares of stock that she considers worthless, but she still has her entire 401k still available (any that was vested). The company stopped matching her 401k contributions, but any contributions she made (and any matching the company did prior) still exist and are her's.

My old company didn't match one dime of my contributions the entire time I worked for them (9+ years)

[Omaha Steve]

6. Limited space at fault

I did edit it.

[DreamGypsy]

3. Not a particularly nice action, but not a complete disaster...

...as your post title suggests.

She worked for 24 years and 49 weeks before being terminated. Except for the lapse of a few months in 2000, she would have been received whatever matching 401(k) contributions First Data offered for the 24 years of prior employment. Yes, the 40 odd weeks of stock match evidently does is vested or exercisable.

[upaloopa]

4. "Find and maximize operational efficiencies"

"Addressing performance across the organization"
Who writes that kind of shit?
So if you are fired you were not part of maximized operational efficiency and as across the organization your performance was negatively addressed.

[lastlib]

10. The new corporate-speak.....

"...designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." --G. Orwell, Politics and the English Language, 1946

[sabbat hunter]

11. Who writes that shit

financial bigwigs in the company working hand in hand with lawyers.

[mrdmk]

5. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company or known as KKR

The king of junk bonds, KKR are definition of vulture capitalist.

The first thing KKR does after buying a company is to fire employees, lots of employees in the name of profit.

[Downwinder]

7. Doesn't Nebraska require two weeks notice?

[Omaha Steve]

9. Nope

We are right to work and at the will of the employer! They can hire and fire at will.

[Wellstone ruled]

8. First Data has issues..

If this person has a 401k even if it has First Data stock in it,it has a value and this employee has to capture it ASAP. First Data has been jacked up and down for years by insiders and their buds on Wall Street. First of all,Ms.Gomez needs to touch base with a labor attorney just to make sure her butt is covered. These Red States love to beat the crap out of citizens when it comes to employee rights and legal protections. Information is dangerous to any Wing Nut Politician.