e86s54,
I definitely see the trap.
1) I need to stay 8 years to get healthcare.
2) I need to stay 8 years so I can get colas in 12 years.
3) I need to kiss this person butt or that persons butt never really minding whether I am good at what I do as that is way down on the bottom of the list. Cause after all us government folks are not in the business of being efficient just stroking the top guys ego.
4) I need to stay so I can keep putting 16K into my 401K that who knows that the stock market is going to do to anyway.
etc etc.
I try real hard to not let all of this bother me and I am kind of good at it. But in the end I also believe that you are only as happy as the people that you surround yourself with. The people that I work with are miserable. Even the ones that are doing well in the chain. Maybe deep down inside they know that they are just full of it. Sometimes I think they would like me to be as miserable as them.
Over the years I have had the opportunity to meet and mingle with a huge variety of people. Some of the happiest people that I have met have sometimes been the poorest with the least opportunity.
Others have told me to look for another Government job and it is probably good advice for most. Given my local that to me means relocating. I would love to relocate and have lived in many places across this country. However, I believe that my part time job is calling me to stay where I am at since I have a system that I have developed over 7 years that works.
I am torn between:
Plan A: Stay at the current job a continue to not play the games (Mainly because it is not me) and do my best. Work the part time business with the time left over.
Plan B: Quit Main Job that is holding me back and dragging me down (even though I say I making the best of it) and give my part time business my full time attention. If I fail to keep the nest egg growing then go back into a hopefully better Government Job at 51 and carry on until 56 for full benefits and retirement. Again I am 47 now.
As for the quit and decompress. I think I have the means to do that and I believe it would do me good. But knowing me I can see myself dying to get into the Part Time business full throttle on the day after I quit just to prove to myself that I can make it happen.