REAL CONVERSATION: Male manager speaking to Male subordinate

The text below consists of a conversation between two individuals recorded surreptitiously. This recording took place in an office between a male manager and his male subordinate.

Manager: [subordinate's name]! I gave to [second female subordinate's name] ...(pause)... Just [third party] requested new connection

Subordinate: yes.

Manager: so good example for you. Training example.

Subordinate: Fine. I'll take it!

Manager: I know! (pause) So... uh... so, [third male subordinate's name] told me he wants to retire at the end of June.

Subordinate: What?

Manager: Yes Sir! So we'll ... I will be back from vacation we will probably sit with [third male subordinate's name] and... and we'll think ... uh ... how we will move -

Subordinate: - Is he OK?

Manager: I think so. I think he decided to take his pension ... and, it's a big cut but, you know. Uh, it is not a thing which I can prevent or stop or -

Subordinate: - right -

Manager: whatever. So, I think, I think, I told him that the biggest priority is now to to shut down all the unix I mean all the unix boxes or transition to Linux.

Subordinate: I think we're going to have to figure out what to do about ... uh ... uh, really the macs.

Manager: The macs I can do it. Uh, it's not a problem. I can do that. It's not a big deal. 'Cause we have fairly stable pool of users ... the number of requests is not huge ... you know, I can run the server.

Subordinate: - OK -

Manager: In fact I was defacto, you know, co-managing with him. Perhaps it won't be also ... not so sophisticated with all this IDs he was, you know, changing, but in fact it turned out -

Subordinate: I'm actually really surprised; I would have thought he would have gone for another year or two.

Manager: Welllllll

Subordinate: Oh well!

Manager: Rational people take, uh, Excel file ... calculate everything ... they got the bottom line number ... they say YES! or NO! or MAYBE, I dunno.

Subordinate: I'm so irrational.

Manager: Well, you know, you did your calculation with your home.

Subordinate: I'm just joking.

Manager: You are very rational. In fact you are simply far away from retirement so you don't think about it because ... it's not an option for you, basically. Let's say it: not an option.

Subordinate: You know I think about retirement an awful lot, that's why I bought the house.

Manager: Yeah, but it's still... you know... few years ahead -

Subordinate: (garbled) any time soon.

Manager: I know! ... But in his situation he doesn't really need to be ten years 'cause it's academic year so at the end of academic year which is end of June, I think -

Subordinate: - ahhhhhh -

Manager: This option this ... that five years is not really five years, ten years is not really ten years, if you read carefully they have those statements because most professors -

Subordinate: Oh, he knows... he knows exactly what he's doing I'm just going to -

Manager: Oh, he probably knows! I mean... I am surprised he is drawing pension, I would rather first draw from 401K ... because you have to draw anyhow ... (laughter) ... you live on 401k and start as soon as possible drawing both Social Security and pension because you get much more. Anyhow, unless you plan to live short.

Subordinate: Yeah, I don't know....

Manager: I don't know what is now the average age in US, it is probably something like 74 -

Subordinate: - Uh, I think it's about 78.

Manager: For men?

Subordinate: Yeah.

Manager: I don't know. Well, OK... it's 78. So, if you start - you can calculate, but if you are good health you probably will live longer, so it's better to live, you know - I did this calculation some time ago. Uhhhh -

Subordinate: (Laugh!) It's always better to live longer!

Manager: Well, no. I did the calculation because I'm thinking ... both I and my wife will have 401Ks. And we HAVE to draw from them.

Subordinate: Yeah. Oh wait a minute, you're you're not old enough to.

Manager: I'm not talking that I will retire tomorrow. So even if I were to move to San Diego my wife would probably work for another ten years.

Subordinate: But you're not old enough though.

Manager: I am Not old enough. I am 53, or 54. So I should probably go up to 60, but even then ... it doesn't make sense to start lets say 65 drawing, uhhh, Social Security or the Pension ... I would rather start drawing from 401K and pay taxes on that -

Subordinate: Is... is the pension fixed in the amount it gives out? Or is it uh -

Manager: It's roughly because ... they figure out, you know, the average age -

Subordinate: like 3% or 5% of your annual salary.

Manager: Yes! But if you start earlier. No! They total everything you earned at [institution].

Subordinate: Right.

(crosstalk)

Manager: 1.65% ... and this is your yearly pension. So if you worked for 20 years earning $50 grand you had million you will get 16 and a half thousand.

Subordinate: Right.

Manager: OK. Easy calculation. But the problem is if you start drawing before the age ... I don't know 65 or 66 -

Subordinate: - oh, I see -

Manager: - they give you less, if you go over ... you get eventually more. It's like, it's like Social Security. Social Security I think is age is 66 now. Start at 66 you get, lets say, 100 percent. And if you go, for example, to 70 - I recently did this calculation - you get suddenly like 50 percent more! So it's worth because I will have to pay anyhow taxes on my 401K and we have considerable among already accumulated. So it's better to draw this first, pay taxes, and then increase your payments and you know, I can probably live to 89, I mean ...

Subordinate: uh

Manager: No! No! There is a rule of grand-parents. Which is well ... I also some other, there are some general rules, you know. Science had once, you know, a table and, you know, they asked you number questions and I got like 89. My grand parents average was about 89.

Subordinate: Uh huh.

Manager: So you know it's ... it's plenty of time. If you start drawing at 70 -

Subordinate: - I'll take more! -

Manager: That's 20 years. No! No! No! I think my family, I would say after 85, it's ... it goes down.

Subordinate: I'll take more! Give me those life extension drugs. Keep me alive! Hook me up to the tubes!

Manager: Nooooo [Subordinate's name] we'll talk in few years when when you will be older and you will be waking up with pain, etc. Anyhow! But we should be prepared.

Subordinate: yeah

[Further conversation on this recording redacted to preserve anonymity]