#hmmm I wonder if they maybe have a larger problem around not respecting people... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fromthewifecage · 4 years

Text

Muscly, strong Kombatants (aka: Bench press me Daddy!)

Anonymous asked a question can i request a strength kink with the mortal kombat kast? like, the reader has a strength kink if that makes sense! I have to admit that this stumped me. I hope that what I have written is ok, it has become about strength and muscles, and I managed 3 kombatants as it quickly became really long. I did initially come up with a very silly premise where Kitana hosts an ‘Outworld’s Strongest Kombatant’ kompetition instead of Mortal Kombat ( a parody of the World’s Strongest Man competition). Maybe once I have finished my Erron Black piece (and that should be up hopefully tomorrow!) and finish my Bi-Han Ask for the amazing @tomoka0013 (which may take a good while, sorry!!!) then I will attempt it. This Ask features Erron Black, Johnny Cage and Bi-Han (I know, no Kano?! I just couldn’t make anything work.) The Bi-Han portion is inspired by conversations with @tomoka0013 and her own work (which you really must read if you don’t already). Erron Black: You wouldn’t think a man like Erron would be quite as muscular as he is, but beneath those outfits he has thickly muscled arms that make your heart pound dangerously hard, and you find yourself shamefully wet/hard when he first strips off his shirt in your company. Outworld is hot and humid and Erron is has no problem losing his clothes. If his shirt gets sweaty then it’ll restrict his movement, so he has no qualms in stripping down to just a pair of jeans, his boots, and of course, his hat. He’s no idiot either and he knows what his physique does to those around him. Eyes widen as he tugs up his shirt to reveal washboard abs, a trim waist and hip bones that tug the gaze downward. Lips catch between teeth to stifle a moan as material slides over tanned skin and he arches his back before tossing his shirt aside. People lose their train of thought and end up babbling inanity, and when you’re a hunter like Erron, disarming your prey is always going to help you claim a bounty. More after the cut!!!!!!

Kotal Kohn has asked you to fetch Erron from his hut that lies deep into the secluded woods on the edges of the Palace grounds. Erron prefers to stay out of the way of others, he’s been around people for so long that he’s tired of inane chatter. Every so often he’ll invite someone back to the cabin and they’ll spend a long weekend indulging in each others pleasure, but he’s not a man for long relationships, or so you’ve told yourself. You pass through lush undergrowth, birds call to one another and insects of every colour dart from flower to flower collecting nectar. As you draw closer to the cabin you hear the rhythmic sound of what you hope is Erron hard at work at the wood block, rather than jungle inhabitants beheading wayward travellers on their way to pass messages to handsome bounty hunters. Pushing past a final clump of spiked fronds and branches, you are greeted by the wonderous (and almost overwhelmingly erotic) sight of a shirtless Erron (still wearing his hat of course), attacking a wood pile with a huge axe. “Hey, darlin’.” He calls out without turning towards you and brings his axe around in an arc to splice the log in front of him into halves. “Oh, hey.” You’re quite impressed you got out some words that weren’t ‘By the Elder Gods, you’re beautiful!.’ “Kotal sent ya?” Another log is cleaved in two but you don’t really notice. You can’t take your eyes off the way his back muscles ripple when he swings the axe, his biceps bulging and the roll of his hips as he swings the axe. “Mmmm hmmm”. Your eyes follow the curve of his beautiful ass as he bends to tug the axe from the tree stump. Erron chuckles at your open admiration for him and when you tear your eyes from his ass he gives you a wink and a filthy grin that makes all sorts of tingly feelings stir deep inside. “Now look at me distractin’ you from your errand, haven’t I been a bad boy? Come on, darlin’, gonna help me put these logs on the pile?” His voice is deep and teasing and wriggles a fiery trail through your insides like cheap booze. It takes a huge effort to swallow down the whimper that wants to escape your mouth when Erron nods you towards a large wood pile at the side of his cabin. You trot after him and pluck a few logs from the ground, but they’re heavy and you’re slightly worried that some Outworld earwigs have made the logs their home and might bite. Erron chuckles again and fills your arms with wood, then grabs you by the hips and gives you a gentle push in the direction of the stacked wood pile. You drop half the wood in surprise at his handling of you, and drop another few logs on your way to the pile, so it takes you both a while to transport all the wood to the pile. Erron grabs the larger hunks of wood, hefting them over his shoulder seemingly with no effort whatsoever, making sure he catches your eye every time he plucks another log from the ground, making sure to bend over a lot and flex his biceps. When the task is finally done you’re both laughing at each other. Erron laughing at how red you’ve gotten, your hair sticking to your forehead and your top molding to your chest and back. You laughing at him increasingly showing off just how strong he is whilst trying oh so very hard not to notice the beads of sweat that slide down his tanned skin, following over every muscle and being frustrated by his jeans being in the way from seeing everything you want. “Ugh, finished, tired, hot.” You puff out a long and exhausted breath. “Oh, we haven’t started yet, Sweetheart.” Erron grins then plucks you off your feet, tossing you over his shoulder, gives you a firm pat on the ass to make you squeal, and makes for the entrance of his cabin. Kotal will have to wait a good while for Erron’s reply. Johnny Cage: Younger!Johnny is perfectly aware of the affect his looks have on people, especially his muscular figure. During photoshoots he loves to hear the muffled gasps from the lighting technicians who had previously feigned nonchalance at being in a room with the biggest movie star in the world. He gives the make-up artist a wink when they can’t hold his gaze and their hands shake when applying the body oil to his amazing chest and thickly muscled arms. He chuckles when the wardrobe assistant doesn’t quite know where to put their hands when they’re adjusting the fit of his trousers so they hug his incredible asscheeks. He is shameless and he doesn’t care. It gets him a lot of sex and from those he doesn’t take to bed, they’re so desperate for him that they’ll do anything for him.

When baby Cassie comes along his worldview does a 180*. He doesn’t have time to think about himself anymore, all he cares about is his child and making sure she is safe and happy. He becomes a greater person, less selfish, more humble, kind and caring. It’s when he picks little!Cassie up from school and hears the whispers and notices the admiring glances from the single parents, (and let’s face it, the not so single ones too) that he remembers his younger days and mentally face palms. Not that an admiring glance is a bad thing, it’s just who he was inside, and he’s glad he’s not him anymore. He notices you giving his physique some admiring glances, your cheeks darkening and the corners of your mouth curling despite your very best efforts to hide your smiles. He respects that you try your very best to hide your feelings for him, but he’s still a cheeky git and sometimes wears his most ass hugging trousers he owns around you just to get you to flush even brighter pink than you normally do. The night after an attack on the Special Forces base by some Black Dragon idiots, a portion of the housing huts lay in rubble and smoke. Johnny is the first out, safety gloves and goggles reluctantly on, but stripped to the waist. His muscles are bulging, biceps shining with beads of sweat as he picks up rebar and joists as if they were made of foam and carries them over to a large skip and tossing them in seemingly with no effort at all in. A quick wipe of his forehead with the back of his glove, a wink at you from behind his goggles, and he’s striding back to the devastation to heft more debris over his shoulder. There gets to be quite a crowd, all of you just gawking at the muscle-bound adonis. Each time he bends over to tug at a chunk of rebar, you sigh in unison at seeing his ass strain at his trousers. When he straightens and hefts the rebar over his shoulder (biceps bulging even more impressively) you each in unconscious unison lift a hand to your mouth as if a delicate Edwardian heroines seeing your brave husband help save poor orphans from a fire started by the cruel Reverend Kano. It’s Cassie who laughingly points out the crowd of “Dad’s groupies” to Johnny. Johnny has been so into the task at hand that he didn’t even notice after a while. He gives a sheepish wave and bows with a flourish, then gets back to clearing the rubble. A rush of heat flares in your cheeks at realising you’ve been doing nothing but staring, and pulls you back into reality. You quickly rush in to help with the effort, pulling on your own pair of gloves and grab at a far lighter chunk of rubble. Later that night a knock on your door rouses you from where you lay dozing on your sofa. You’d spent hours helping out, and tried so very hard not to stare at Johnny and imagine him in spandex and domino mask because, let’s face it, he’s practically a superhero, and only recently got back to your own quarters where you’d stumbled into the shower and flopped on the sofa to doze. Pulling open the door you’re greeted by a smiling Johnny. “Hope I’m not interrupting?” It takes a good few seconds of blinking and dry mouth before you shake your head and motion Johnny to enter. He smells of expensive soap, his hair is still wet from a shower, and fuuuuck, he’s so beautiful you almost whine. “Good.” He winks, then scoops you up in his arms and carries you inside, laughing when you squeak with delight. “Now, maybe I’ve noticed how you’ve been looking at me, and thought we could do something about that?” With ease and an even wider grin, he tosses you back onto the sofa and waits for you reply. You’re not going to turn him down, are you? Bi-Han: Bi-Han takes his rigorous and strenuous training very seriously. His has to live up to his Grandfather’s mantel and show these other arseholes just how fucking amazing he is. He could do it all in the sleep, but he wants to be perfect and that takes effort, so he will train until he knows he is unstoppable, and then he’ll train some more to make those biceps and pecs mesmerisingly perfect. He’s used to jealous looks from the rest of the Lin Kuei; even Sektor can’t hide his seething rage at being inferior to the beautiful cryomancer. After coming second to him in every contest, in every class, Sektor finally loses his fraying hold on his temper and attacks Bi-Han in a futile attempt to prove that he was the star pupil of the Lin Kuei, not this upstart orphan. Sektor ends up in the infirmary, (almost the morgue) with an enormous spike of ice through his chest and his ego wounded even more viciously. Bi-Han goes back to training after calmly placating the Grandmaster, who is quite understandably worried that his son Sektor may die. Bi-Han is not just physically gifted, he can charm his way out of almost any situation, and with a few words and some first class acting talent, he assures the Grandmaster that Sektor made a grave error and Bi-Han was simply doing what he had been trained, to defend himself and the honour of the Lin Kuei. Bi-Han calmly focuses and calls ice to form between his moving hands, ordering it to form wickedly sharp spikes. His biceps bulge with the effort, his teeth gritting and every muscle in his body quivers as he draws the ice into the form he demands. Targets spring into life around him and he leaps, turning not only himself through the air but also the ice spikes, fanning them out with incredible accuracy at the cloth and wood dummies. He lands on the balls of his feet then backflips when another target appears, his hands fanning out to direct a spray of ice to freeze the target solid. Targets appear from opposite directions, but Bi-Han calmly moves to brutally kick the head from one whilst plunging a conjured ice dagger into the throat of the other, then leaping forward to aim a powerful kick at the head of the frozen target. The target explodes in a spray of ice and sawdust innards and the graceful assassin lands behind the headless sagging dummy, ready for whatever is next. He never lets up, never pauses, never allows himself to be left open for even a single moment. He is magnificent and beautiful and your eyes can’t look anywhere else but at his heavily muscled frame. He wears but a thin layer of material, allowing you the gift of watching his muscles move and strain beneath the tunic. He is both graceful and yet so powerful. He lifts giant hunks of ice that likely weight more than he does, and toss them at targets with pin point precision. He forms frozen weapons and shields without even pausing to wipe the thin layer of sweat that forms on his brow and dampens the back of his tunic to emphasise his muscular frame. You take a breath and blink, suddenly aware the sun must have gone down hours ago and you’ve been watching Bi-Han training all that time. As you breathe out your breath fogs white into the night air, all the warmth from the earlier sunshine has gone. You’re wearing a similar and equally thin tunic to Bi-Han, and you’re absolutely fucking freezing. You look at the sky to try to gage the time and when you look back to the training arena, Bi-Han has disappeared. “Shouldn’t you be training rather than spending all your time staring at me?” Bi-Han’s imposingly tall form moves out from the shadows beside you, startling you. He smirks at having startled you. “You really should be training, a simple trick like that should never catch you off guard.” You nod, ashamed of being caught out so easily. “First, we’ll eat. I should celebrate my earlier victory over Sektor.” He cocks his head, waiting for your reaction, wondering if you would agree or take Sektor’s side. “Sektor was an arrogant fool, he got what was coming to him.” Although you were new to the Lin Kuei, Sektor had not impressed you like Bi-Han had. The Cryomancer laughs and flashes a wicked smile, then grasps your hand, turning you before pushing you against the stone wall behind you. “You are really quite desperate for me, aren’t you?” The night is cold enough but Bi-Han radiates a cold you hadn’t experienced before. When his breath touches your face, ice crystals form on your skin to feel like hundreds of faint kisses. You feel the chill in your lungs with every breath you take and every hair on your body stands on end. If you weren’t so utterly in love with this man you’d run, but you can’t, you don’t want to, all you want is here before you. He leans in closer and he’s such a tall and imposing man that when he bears down on you he’s all that you can see. “Yes.” Your admission delights Bi-Han and he uses your surprise at a sudden burst of laughter to grab you by the waist then heft you over his shoulder. “First we’ll eat, then we’ll fuck.”

#Mortal Kombat #Mortal Kombat Ask #Mortal Kombat Headkanons #Mortal Kombat Headcanons #Erron Black #Johnny Cage #Bi-Han #OG Sub-Zero #AskFromTheWifeCage

109 notes · View notes

impvarjack60 · 7 years

Text

15 Welcome *ome, Anna

The shuttle clunked on the ground, and out stepped Anna, Princess Anna. Ugh,... I think I've created a monster in my own mind. She was wearing the same white dress as that first day. A wide strap sleeveless affair in cotton. I vaguely remember seeing her in it from some past memory, ah yes, it's from a story I wrote. She was in the Mediterranean on a trip........ She held out her arms as she approached me, almost as if she was displaying her new arm. We wrapped each other up, and kissed for what seemed like forever. Then something happened that I had totally forgot about, Rain Day. Yep, it rained on a schedule here. The clouds weren't heavy enough for any real precipitation, so they pumped water thru a gazillion nozzles to make it rain in the Habitat. So there we were, recreating the end of Breakfast at Tiffany's. All we needed was Cat. I just didn't care, it wasn't that cold, and I couldn't move, for fear of spoiling the moment. Even with all the time in the world, I kept having this gnawing feeling that it would all get ripped away at any time. She'd be gone, the Habitat would disappear, and my flabby old carcass would come back, like Cinderella at midnight. But that's what life is, it doesn't last forever, and you have to make the most of it. Even though I would turn out to be one of the oldest humans ever to live. At the time, it just didn't seem like enough.

_________________________________________________________

As we walked back to the house she seen it, and started giggling in the cutest way possible. I had made a sign just like the one in Frozen Fever and hung it in the trees, 'cept this one said; 'Welcome Home Anna'. I had specified to Olaf several days ago I wanted water color paint and a brush on paper to recreate what Kristoff had done. Now that it was raining the paint was running down the paper, making it a complete mess, as the 'H' fell to the ground. "Well, I bet the stuff inside the house survived." "I still love it." Then she kissed me on the cheek. Inside the house it was wall to wall flowers, Minoo gave me a hand with this yesterday. I'm glad Abzari turned her loose with me, I needed the help, and it was a sign that he was letting go of the past, this would have never occurred on Earth. She is very attractive, but my days of chasing tail were decades behind me, and all I can see is Anna in my life now. I'm so glad I can look at a woman like Minoo, and see only beauty, instead of desire.

"Oh my God, they're sooo beautiful!, she walked up to every arrangement to give it a sniff. "We should probably get into some dry clothes." "Stellar idea." She went to the replicator and got something comfortable. As she started up the steps, she gave me a long look. I knew what it was, this where I would help her. "Go ahead, I'll get dressed in the Cave." She slowly turned and walked up the stairs. It's amazing to me how these little things that come in and out of our lives can have such a profound effect. But every Sun-day I would button her buttons, or put on and tie her shoes, and she would smile. It would be our tiny little ritual. And this one was pretty harmless.

So we had dinner, and I finally noticed it, she had a perfectly circular scar around her shoulder. They cut off the remains of her arm and popped in the new one at the socket. Probably trimming off the excess like a vinyl record fresh out of the stamper. She seen me starring at it. "Pretty ugly scar, eh?" "I honestly don't care. you're in one piece, and you have your independence back, that is all that matters. You are just as beautiful as the day I met you." "Still, I wouldn't mind doing a cover-up. Whatcha' think, flowers, Celtic, or maybe a dragon?" "And ruin your beautiful freckles?" She gave me a puzzled look. "You think my freckles are beautiful?" "Of course, do you think you'd have them if I didn't?" It took her a second to realize what I was saying. "Oh, yea." "Anna, your beauty lies in these tiny little flaws." I started to touch them. "I never subscribed to the typical beauty that so many American males were attracted to, I'm sure you've noticed your breasts aren't gigantic, right? I think they're actually a touch smaller than in the movie." "Wait, WHAT?" "As it turned out, you were kinda' built to specs, and I'm into the dancers body, the Gamine. They obviously seen this and made you this way. You are my ultimate beauty, and anything you do to degrade that is going to sadden me, but I must be fair. Even if they created the image I wanted, it's your body, and you can do what you want. Just know the scar doesn't bother me, and if it bothers you, then fix it. I don't want to ever reduce your happiness." "When I first met you, you were scared of me, and I thought it was a mistake to love you. I will never believe that again." More hugs, more kisses, more love. She understood what I meant, and she would never feel the touch of the artist's needle. She respected my thoughts, the one's I had while I lied in stasis, waiting for my fountain of youth, dreaming of twirling in the ballroom with the strawberry blonde princess.

_________________________________________________________

I got a hold of the Doc and had him come by to give Anna a thorough going over, and I mean thorough. He was a little nervous about this, as we were trying to be friends, and the idea of seeing all of her before I did concerned him. "It's OK, Doc. I really don't have a problem with this. Besides, if her vagina has razor sharp teeth in it, I'd rather you lose some fingers vs. my junk." "Very funny, Michael. But I suspect that wouldn't be the case." "Either way, we need to know what's going on here, and any clue is a good clue. I for one am sick of all this secrecy." "Very well, shall we proceed?" "Anna, can you come upstairs please?, the Doc is ready for you." She came up the stairs with light, unsure steps. While she said she was OK with this, she may be having second thoughts. "It'll be OK, Anna. He's done this many times before." Which was an absolute lie, he's never examined an alien before. "OK, Anna remove all your clothes and lie on the bed." "That is my cue to go downstairs, make sure you buy her dinner first!" "Good one, Michael, thanks for being so helpful, while I'm so nervous." I knew I'd be in for it later.

After a while I heard the snap of the glove. Then I heard Anna give a loud 'RAHHHH!' as the Doc immediately gasped. I was rolling on the floor at that point. I wonder if she heard the razor sharp teeth bit. Doc came down the steps first, while Anna got dressed, he was still breathing a little heavy. "Well one things for sure, she has my sense of humor, you OK Doc?" "I've been better. Can we talk privately?" "This way, Doc." I took him to the cave. "Other than her strange facial appearance, unusual skull shape, and somewhat disproportionately small feet she seems perfectly normal." He paused for a moment, this is never good. "Her birth canal does seem somewhat larger than I'd expect for a virgin. She is a virgin, right?" "As far as I know, I don't know if someone took 'er for a test drive before I got her." "You seem rather flippant about that, Michael." "I've never had a taste for virginity, they usually don't know what they're doing. But she has my memories in there, so I think she'll be well versed in that department."

I suspected the birth canal thing, that's the reason for my own personal upgrade, parts with a matching fit, plus birthing would be easier. A desirable trait when you want to make as many babies as possible. This has been the curse of women for ever. Hopefully we'll help to breed that awful trait out, it seems so illogical to me that creatures of nature have little trouble giving birth, while human females try to squeeze a bowling ball thru a garden hose. But the clue that provided was the scariest of them all. When we got to the new world, we would be on our own. The technology would leave with the Masters. We are currently ill prepared for a life without technology. Somebody will have to have a plan. There are some other possibilities here. We're both big headed people. Those big eyes need a big skull to fit into, and would need a larger passage to fit through. Or is a bigger passage needed for some hideous monster to make it's way thru? I keep having images of a Xenomorph ripping it's way thru her belly just before it consumes us both. I really hope the Masters reveal themselves before we start having children.

"Still, she's quite healthy, you said they wanted to have her wait a few weeks before she uses her arm fully?" "Yea, that's the message I got from Olaf. I'm not taking any chances with her, I'd hate for her new arm to pop out." "The speed at which that graft healed is amazing, I hope they share that technology with us some day." "Me too, Doc. But we should assume that once we reach the home world, we're on our own." "Agreed,... OK Michael, I'm on my way home, It has been a pleasure, although Anna could use some restraint, I nearly broke my fingers." "Sorry about that Doc, there's still some child in there." "Tell me about it,... good day, and peace be with you." "See ya, Doc. And thanks again." Hmmm, no surprises here, and only one ominous clue. It was time to meet with the other Hybrides and whatever name the Earthling women came up with for their men. I'm really not looking forward to this.

0 notes

ronaldmrashid · 7 years

Text

A Severance Negotiation Success Story: An Inside Look At How One Man Negotiated His Freedom

The following is a guest post by Steve, a reader and a consulting client who is currently traveling the world with his family after a 20 year career in mass media. So many times we’re just too paralyzed to make a change because we just can’t see a path forward. It’s these stories that keep me so motivated!

As I write this, I’m sitting on a balcony sheltered by lush tropical leaves. I close my eyes to savor a gentle breeze that has just kicked up, caressing the trees and taking the sting out of another cloudless 95-degree day. I flick over to the Times to check out the latest on a monster winter storm that is shutting down the East Coast. Hmmm, maybe I should extend my time in Costa Rica to a third month.

Just a few months ago, I was one of those East Coast worker bees bracing for another winter of long commutes and office frustrations. But then something wonderful happened — I lost my job. Not in a careless or unfortunate way, but as the result of a deliberate, carefully considered strategy that took months to bear fruit in the shape of a six-figure redundancy package.

Two months on — as I spend my days here doing little more than reading, learning to surf, and exploring rock pools with my four-year-old daughter — I still have to pinch myself every time I see that another full paycheck has thumped into my bank account. And it horrifies me to think that I was on the verge of simply quitting.

My achievement owes a lot to Sam through his book How To Engineer Your Layoff and a subsequent phone session of one-on-one coaching. He suggested I write an account of how I did it – not to plug his services, but as a reminder to all you financially astute FS readers that you should NEVER, EVER quit a job and always try to negotiate a redundancy package, no matter how far-fetched it may seem to you.

My Why

It certainly seemed unlikely to me. Before I get into the nitty-gritty of how I did it, here’s a little background on my circumstances. I had been with my employer for close to 20 years, and overall it had been a very happy relationship. The job was high-profile, frequently stimulating and rewarding, and in a field of work that I loved and respected. It took me around the world, and the benefits were pretty good – by the end I had five weeks’ paid vacation a year, a salary north of $150,000, and was established as a senior employee whose work was highly valued.

But, increasingly, I couldn’t escape the reality that it just wasn’t capturing my imagination or making me as happy as it did in my 20s and 30s. In recent years I started to resent being tied to a desk in stuffy offices, ever more conscious that my time on this planet was finite and thus increasingly valuable — a feeling that was magnified by the birth of my daughter. Sam’s post on freedom vs. wealth sums up this tension that I and many others feel as we look to the second half of our lives.

I was harboring ambitions to take back control of my time and go freelance, even though I knew that – at least initially – I would probably only make about half my current salary and would lose valuable benefits like healthcare and 401k contributions. I seriously considered quitting but that seemed wasteful after putting in two decades of work, not to mention risky.

I knew that my employer – a big, multinational company – did periodically give out redundancy packages. Every 5-10 years there would be a big purge of employees when the company was going through a tough time or a restructuring. But in normal times, they were usually only offered to “underperformers” – a category that I was not in, despite my waning enthusiam for the work.

What I needed was the confidence to broach the subject with my managers and the know-how to make the most of any opportunity for a lay-off that emerged. Enter Sam. After devouring his book and having an hour-long follow-up with him, I finally had the confidence and a clear strategy.

Here’s How It Played Out

– First, I reached out to a few former colleagues who I knew had got redundancy deals to get a feel for how the process had worked for them. This gave me some insights into what was possible. A conversation I had with a former manager who himself had overseen many redundancies was particularly valuable, as he gave me the tip that there was usually some money left over at the end of the year to pay for packages.

– I had an initial conversation with a manager – not my immediate boss but someone who I knew was a bridge between HR and upper management and with whom I was on friendly terms. I immediately played my main card — that I wanted to have time off to spend time with a close relative who was in failing health. I asked this in an open, curious way, seeking to draw out what my options could be from the company’s point of view. A months-long leave of absence or working remotely were the main options we discussed. But since the conversation was going well, I decided to bring up redundancy at the end as an outcome that I could be “open to.” I put forth one idea for how that could benefit the company, by allowing them to move my headcount to a higher-priority business area. We agreed to talk again after she had discussed it with the higher ups.

– When we reconvened a week or so later, she laid out the options: the company was open to giving me a leave of absence of up to three months or to allow me to work remotely, but redundancy was off the table as that was usually reserved for underperformers and they “didn’t want to lose me.” I hid my disappointment and said I’d consider the other options.

– A month later, I’d heard nothing more and was becoming resigned to the failure of my plot. How stupid of me to have thought anyone would hand me a small fortune to walk away! Then, out of the blue, my contact called me into a conference room. “Would you still be interested in that third option we discussed?” she asked. “Umm, yeah I think so,” I replied, struggling to hide my excitement.

– The rest was pretty easy. I talked through the package with the head of HR – it was a standard, but relatively generous deal that gave me nearly a year’s salary plus continued healthcare for the whole period. Before I knew it I was heading for my farewell drinks, feeling very bitter-sweet about leaving great colleagues and an employer that I still felt a lot of loyalty toward.

Keys To Swinging A Severance Package

Based on my experience, here are some of the keys to swinging a redundancy package. Sam goes into these points – and many more – in much greater detail in his book.

Confidence. The first step is to really believe it’s possible. I really struggled to believe my company would do this for me and had long worried that it might adversely affect my standing with management if I tried and failed. But the truth is that in most cases you really have nothing to lose, and the chances of getting a deal are probably higher than you think once you start planting seeds of doubt in management’s mind about your commitment to the job.

It’s not personal. Again, this was a blockage for me. I’d been with my company for such a long time and generally been treated so well that it felt almost like an act of betrayal to angle for a “golden parachute” while I was still in my prime working years. Despite that emotional attachment, the cold truth is that my company – like all others – is overwhelmingly concerned with the bottom line and its reputation. It wouldn’t have hesitated to kick me to the curb in an instant if either of those were under threat. Also bear in mind that companies, especially larger ones, have a keen interest in making sure that employees leave on good terms and don’t start griping about its problems on social media or in the press. In the end, my departure was a win-win for my employer and me because it helped the company meet a budget and personnel goal without having to force redundancy on someone else.

Leverage the law, but don’t push it. By international standards, the U.S. is a very employer-friendly place when it comes to workers’ rights. But there are still some effective legal buttons that the canny redundancy seeker can push. In my negotiations, I steered clear of raising my right to family-related unpaid leave to avoid coming across as antagonistic. Just hinting that I knew my rights and being inquisitive about a leave of absence was enough. Few employers really like letting a worker take a prolonged leave as it tends to throw their plans into uncertainty.

Have a solid post-redundancy plan in place. Leaving a long-term job can be disorientating, even if it’s done on your own initiative. Taking a big vacation is, quite rightly, the first thing on many people’s mind. There are few things better – as I can now attest – than being paid to play on a gorgeous beach for weeks on end. But my experience is that after a while vacations can start to feel like work, especially when caring for a 4-year old is part of the package. And it isn’t long before some anxiety starts to creep in about the income cliff you are facing at the end of the redundancy period.

That’s why it’s important to have thought past your well-deserved break to your next move from a professional and financial perspective. In my case, I had amassed a solid amount of savings and established a passive income stream of over $35,000 a year (nearly half of my annual expenses), which gave me confidence that even in a worst-case scenario my family and I wouldn’t end up on the streets.

I’d also sounded out several contacts about freelance work, giving me confidence that I could at least get paid enough on a part-time basis to pay the bills. Between Costa Rica and Europe, I’m taking a three-month vacation — about a third of my total redundancy period — before returning home to seek new work prospects.

It’s early days and there are certainly some lingering fears I have about giving up a chunky salary and trying to reinvent myself. What if the stock market crashes and damages my nest egg? What if my family healthcare costs shoot up? What if my skills are not as marketable as I hope? But I firmly believe that our fears about financial failure tend to be overblown. Hell, if it comes to it I can always drive an Uber — or just move to Costa Rica!

We plan to work on trimming our expenses over the next year and investing more in real estate platforms to further narrow the income gap. If I can make just half my previous income and gain the flexibility to spend more time with family and friends by working remotely, I will consider the redundancy move a roaring success.

– Steve

from http://www.financialsamurai.com/a-severance-negotiation-success-story/

#Financial Samurai

0 notes