Sounds bad.
One of my 1st good jobs offered profit sharing, 10% of annual salary if the co showed a profit.
Vested in 10% increments for every year of employment, fully vested in 10 years.
I ended up staying a little longer as I was getting close.
Owner announces a "New and Improved" retirement policy which was funded by the profit sharing account.
He was the oldest one in the company.
So eventually we get our statements and I flip out, almost all my money was gone.
I go talk to my buddy Bobby who started same month as me, held the same position, made the same base BUT was 12 years older. He's got 10x's what I got.
Company Finance officer explains our "retirement" accounts were funded pro rated by age so the closer you are to 65 the more you got but at age 65 we would all end up with the same amount.
I asked her if she really thought I'd be here another 40+ years much less the business.
Did I mention the owner turned 65 that year?
I quit right then and there. Insult to injury, I forgot to claim it on my taxes that year and the penalties and fines were in excess of the amount I received.
Next company I worked for rolled out a 401k. I declined to contribute and my co-workers wondered why. Said if there is a way to get f'd by the company trust me, it will happen.
So even though I did not contribute I used to get statements for like $0.18. When I questioned it was told that everyone in the company needed an account whether or not we actually contributed so I used to just throw them away unopened whenever they came in.
Business goes bankrupt and all the 401k's get locked by the administrator.
The companies CFO, on advice of his attorneys, refused to sign any paperwork that would allow Oppenheimer, the financial institution, to release the accounts.
Eventually he did but the next step was that everyone in the plan needed to sign and return paperwork before they could release any funds. Remember those statements I (and a ton of co-workers) used to get that we just threw away? Yup, none of us paid attention to subsequent mailings form Oppenheimer because we had no funds there.
Result was that for 5 years no one could touch their money or manage their accounts. If you had aggressive investments that were taking a hit there was nothing you could do but watch it vanish.