The senior execs could argue that this doesn’t matter. This woman was retiring–they’d never see her again, so they didn’t need to recognize her upon her retirement.
But everyone else saw that they weren’t there. Everyone else saw that you put in 21 years with a company, and the bigwigs don’t give a flying fig.
My bet, unless this was a family-owned company, is that this employee was there longer than anyone in the corner offices.
The message that the whole staff gets when execs are too busy to show up to such an event is that the staff is expendable.
Now, I will say that the bigger the company, the fewer retirements the CEO can show up to. But the senior person from that location should be there for such an event.
Or am I off my rocker, and this is no different than someone who just quit? We don’t throw a party when you quit to go work a different job.
I think you are right, not off your rocker. I retired recently after 30 years and my grandboss couldn’t be bothered to show up because he was working from his vacation home. He was the one who insisted we all come back to the office full-time, too. That sends a message.