Is anyone winging/phoning it in while waiting for changes?

[apl68]

What not to do.  We had one faculty member in his last semester before retirement ask to teach his class remote and then he just never showed up to work at all.  The junior colleagues that are also running that program suffered greatly because he wasn't there.  They took on his student advising and he rarely responded to emails, even when it was something important like students needing their grade input so they can graduate.  He sent his retirement notification three days before his retirement date and gave us just three weeks to find someone to teach his 65+ student class.  It was not a classy way to go out, especially for someone who had previously been highly invested in the program.

Is it possible that this person experienced a sudden health crisis and didn't want to admit it?

[AJ_Katz]

What not to do.  We had one faculty member in his last semester before retirement ask to teach his class remote and then he just never showed up to work at all.  The junior colleagues that are also running that program suffered greatly because he wasn't there.  They took on his student advising and he rarely responded to emails, even when it was something important like students needing their grade input so they can graduate.  He sent his retirement notification three days before his retirement date and gave us just three weeks to find someone to teach his 65+ student class.  It was not a classy way to go out, especially for someone who had previously been highly invested in the program.

Is it possible that this person experienced a sudden health crisis and didn't want to admit it?

While that could be the case and I would not have known, his prior behavior suggests otherwise.  He was generally oppositional to rules / administration, and often tried to manipulate the system to his benefit.  Evidentially, years prior, one of his colleagues did something similar.  The story goes that the two of them had a disagreement so the colleague retired just a couple of weeks before the Spring semester started.  In that case, the transition was able to be made at least a little more smoothly since the course they were to teach was already going to be co-taught with an adjunct, so it just meant that the adjunct took on the entire course on short notice.  The stuff people can do at the end is not always the most professional, I am always appreciative when a faculty member gives me the "heads up" on their plans to retire at least a year in advance so that we can get a position approval before the vacancy occurs.  But the amount of lead time needed on any given position varies, depending on how much need for their specific skill set will have in their absence.  For some retirements, there is minimal impact, in others, it could shut down an entire service center. 

[GuyRien]

Great feedback and I'll respond when I digest it. But I have to address:

"Once I complete 10 years, I will have the option to go back to the faculty, and in another five after that, would become fully vested in the state-sponsored retirement healthcare subsidy plan and retire. "

So you vest in the health care plan 15 years after beginning the chair position? Were you hired as the chair or something.

[AJ_Katz]

Great feedback and I'll respond when I digest it. But I have to address:

"Once I complete 10 years, I will have the option to go back to the faculty, and in another five after that, would become fully vested in the state-sponsored retirement healthcare subsidy plan and retire. "

So you vest in the health care plan 15 years after beginning the chair position? Were you hired as the chair or something.

I was hired as head, new to the institution.  It is a nice benefit, though still won't start to kick in until 58 and it increases up to 65.  If I leave or retire prior to 15 years, I would get the total amount that I've contributed over the years (equivalent to 3% of salary), but it would not be inflation adjusted.