This August 15 marks 15 years to the day I started my first job with corporate giant P&G as 20-year old fresh graduate. It was a colorful 8-year & 10-month run to say the least, having my fair share of victories, failures, great mentors, and horrible bosses. In the same period of time, I've also transitioned from single adulthood to married motherhood. I experienced my passion shift from my career to my young family. I no longer enjoy overtime as a means to while my time away before going home to an empty apartment, but instead itched to come home, hoping to catch my babies still awake. Which was close to NEVER with the daily carmaggedon in the metro (*cue tears*).
Entrepreneurship gave me the chance to finally retire and escape the daily grind of corporate life at the ripe old age of 29. I do wish there was an employee EXIT seminar conducted to teach the working public how to maximize all the benefits that they have paid for during their employment, based on what I discovered after leaving employment. Mind you, the HR officers in MNCs are not infallible creatures, and they definitely won't be as helpful and accommodating when you're NOT an employee anymore. At least in my experience. So, drumroll, please! Here's a rundown of things I did (and wish I'd known to do) before I left my job 6 years ago:
1. Learn & Review the Exit Procedure of the Company. Find out if there is a required leadtime for resignation (2-4 weeks notice), clearances that need to be accomplished, reports and equipment to be turned over, funds to be liquidated, and other policies and procedures required to be settled before leaving the company. I never found out if Exit Interviews are mandated by the Labor Code, but the HR manager during my time just said, "Wag na tayo mag-interview. Alis ka naman na." I just decided not to bother with her lack of protocol. But a friend who was a former HR manager in the company told me that it was expected of them to conduct it.
2. Calculate What You OWN/OWE. Stock options, stock share awards, pension benefits, and employee cooperative deposits & savings are just a few examples of money OWNED that need to be sold, liquidated, and withdrawn. Money OWED the company include subsidized housing & auto loan amortizations, salary & emergency loans, etc. Check funding sufficiency to settle all of these loans before leaving employment. Remember to retrieve pertinent documents after settlement, such as real estate titles, original insurance policies used as collateral, etc.
3. Check & Verify Employee Contributions DIRECTLY at SSS, Pag-Ibig, Philhealth. This is a step that I should've done while I was still in employment. I requested for the current status of contributions and premiums and I also ensured that membership and dependent data on file are correct. All SSS & Philhealth contributions to my name were complete during my time in employment, while the issues with my Pag-Ibig contributions remain unresolved to this day. More on that later.
- Depositing contributions to SSS & Philhealth as a voluntary member just required checking a box and remitting the payments yourself, either through bank or directly at their branches. I continued my contributions and was able to avail of the full maternity benefits from SSS upon submission of the required documents. I was able to avail of hospitalization and medical procedure subsidies and newborn benefits from Philhealth as well. Qualifying for SSS pension benefits in the future also requires at least 120 monthly contributions (equivalent to 10 years) prior to retirement.
- My experience with Pag-Ibig was more complicated. First, I learned that I had to secure an affidavit if I wanted to continue my contributions as a voluntary member and SHOULD'VE DONE IT IN THE SAME MONTH I WENT ROGUE (a.k.a. became official Chief Domestic Goddess). I also found out that contributions and dividends may be withdrawn ONLY if one has made 120 CONSECUTIVE gap-less airtight monthly contributions (10-year equivalent) or 240 total monthly contributions (20-year equivalent). Now, here's where it gets weird. My account reflects only some gaps and totaled only to 7 years worth of contributions in my almost-9 years in employment. I went straight to the city branch where my company remits the contribution (because Pag-Ibig is not yet online and contributions are not consolidated, which spells trouble if you don't live in the same city or you switch companies that are based in different cities). There were a lot of gaps in my account, and with the help of one of the employees, we discovered that there were contributions in my Single name, separate from my Married name, and several in a different branch within the city (which was oddly within the same building also). There were a few months were ALL co-employees I knew did not reflect a remittance in their system. I had to go back to the employee services contact of my former company located in a different city for them to issue a certification for all the contributions that they have remitted to Pag-Ibig, with the corresponding document numbers. And I wrongly assumed that Pag-Ibig was like SSS and allowed quarterly contributions, so when I was remitting my payment during the last month of the quarter, it resulted in a gap because my status was still not Voluntary Member. And if I want to withdraw my contributions and dividends, all remittances to my name still need to be consolidated which still hasn't been done since I submitted my request 6 years ago.
- For the most updated policies and procedures, refer directly to their website or better yet, visit the branch nearest to you.
4. Maximize Health & Wellness Benefits. I have missed several Annual Physical Exams (APE) for the sake of fieldwork and dedication to my career. But truly, health is wealth, and now I see that a lot of people deplete their retirement savings to pay for costly hospital bills. I finally accomplished my APE in my last year with the company and diligently followed-through on all the further checks required by the doctors, which included an abdominal CT scan, all-expense paid courtesy of my corporate health card. This is when I found out that I had THREE KIDNEYS. Hahahaha. For real. But otherwise, a clean bill of health. Our company also had a Wellness Benefit that allowed us reimbursed the purchase of exercise equipment, or gym memberships. I purchased equipment, which I've used 5x in the last 6 years. Meh.
5. Use Up or Encash Leaves. Have a plan for using up all your mandatory leaves, and filing paperwork for the leaves that can be encashed. A good idea is to use some of the former to do #3. Or not. Haha.
6. Download All Electronic Data & Corporate Emails to a Personal External Drive. Before I turned over my work laptop computer and mobile phone, I made sure I made a backup copy in my external drive of all the files, contacts, calendars, etc. I also Googled how I can export my MS Outlook Email drive so I can have copy of ALL my work and personal emails connected to my corporate email address. Its quite fun to reminisce once in a while about my past life in corporate.
7. Apply & Get Approved for Travel Visas & Credit Cards. And everything else that requires an Employment Certificate. ;-)
I left a steady paycheck to take on the most challenging job I have ever had todate: being a mom to amazingly talented and intelligent kids. For whatever reason you're doing it, maximize all the experiences and benefits you can get out of being an employee. And good luck to all your future endeavors!
#DomesticGoddessMNL