How do avoid pre-FIRE w*rk apathy

[fishndad42]

I've seen it in others, and now I seem to be heading into the same trap. Now that I'm gaining confidence in ER in the near future, I'm finding it harder to fight the political battles ore even care about the outcomes. I'm still 1-1/2 years away, so I can't (or at least shouldn't) mentally check out of w*rk now, but it seems to be happening anyways.

Has anyone else gone through this? Is there a coping mechanism to help me stay on task (and avoid getting the other kind of fired)?

 

[Philliefan33]

So far I haven't been able to avoid it. But I only have a few months left so I'll probably get away with it.

 

[Which Roger]

It was a balancing act for me. Semi-withdrawal. Stay engaged enough to complete my day-to-day tasks so nobody would be breathing down my neck, but avoid getting pulled into office drama, highly-visible assignments, career development, etc.

 

[ImThinkin2019]

I need some advice regarding this also. DW is having a hard time maintaining passion for work (she works till 10 every night since she's in IT) and I have my ups and downs. Less tolerance for BS.

I've seen discussion about it before but it's always good to get refreshers.

 

[Davis65]

I have 15 months to go. I could go now, but feel that I want to follow through on a commitment to the organization. I enjoy my job, but do fall into thinking "why do I give a carp?" from time to time. I am taking every opportunity I can to teach and mentor before I go, which I think is a good way of giving back, and it's fun. Reminding myself that I won't have to deal with the BS for much longer is helping me get through it.

 

[pb4uski]

I guess to me it was situational. I always thought it helpful to think like an owner. If a decision that was being made was bad for or imperiled the firm, then once I was FI I found it easier to speak up (assertively but diplomatically) and if the decisionmaker wanted to ignore my advice then I respected that they were the decisionmaker and that they would have to live with the result.

For the other stuff... whatever.

 

[heeyy_joe]

I guess to me it was situational. I always thought it helpful to think like an owner. If a decision that was being made was bad for or imperiled the firm, then once I was FI I found it easier to speak up (assertively but diplomatically) and if the decisionmaker wanted to ignore my advice then I respected that they were the decisionmaker and that they would have to live with the result.

For the other stuff... whatever.

+1 FI is empowering - embrace it!

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

All I can say is, "good luck". It was VERY difficult for me. The politics of the j*b were getting worse by the day and due to how military retirement works, you can't just give a "two week notice", it's more along the lines of 4-6 months. Towards the end, I got much more vocal about the buffoonery that I was seeing and I *really* didn't care what others thought about my opinion. I did my best to avoid situations (and people) that had a tendency to *really* push mu buttons and that helped somewhat.


I did fully adopt being "ROAD" mentality though...and that is an acronym for "Retired on Active Duty".

 

[jjquantz]

Strangely, for me, the same thing that caused so much stress in the long run is what kept me (somewhat) motivated during the end game. I was engaged in providing professional development for teachers during my last few years. For an INTP, working with people was a high stress occupation and definitely moved my interest in ER up a few years. However, once I knew that I was on the way out I could focus on the commitments that I had made to the people outside our organization. Because I knew when the end was going to be I was much more motivated to perform at a high level during my last year than during my previous couple of years. I seem to remember that some other members of this ER forum have also described using the ability to focus on the commitments that they had to individuals they work with, rather than a seemingly no longer relevant commitment to the organization.

Worked for me, anyway.

 

[Which Roger]

The upside of withdrawing during the last year or two is that, if you are anything like I was, you will find non-w*rk replacements for the things that you once got from the j*b. For example, I worked in software and enjoyed being creative. As the company struggled, opportunities to be creative became fewer and fewer, and I found myself designing and building more things at home, and getting a lot of satisfaction from them. Although I didn't realize it at the time, in retrospect this withdrawal was a perfect way to gradually transition to ER. It would have been much more of an adjustment if I had been fully engaged in my career until the very end.

 

[nuke_diver]

Can be difficult. I think I will struggle with it but only 49 more days to go...not like I'm counting or anything ;P

 

[Amethyst]

I had other people depending on me. Some were in danger zones. I wasn't about to let them down. However, I started really "telling truth to power" (mgmt chain) in the final months. Surprisingly, "power" listened politely. Turned out some of them were getting ready to retire, themselves

Amethyst

 

[RetireAge50]

Historically I was always clearly exceeds I'm down to meets expectations. I keep getting raises and bonuses but they are less deserved IMHO.

 

[Fermion]

The only way we could cope was to move up the ER date...twice.


Was supposed to be October 2015 but the wait became unbearable around Jan 2015 and we moved the date to April 2015. We then realized some important vesting date was mid March and moved the date up to this coming Monday

I guess that doesn't help...but I don't think much will.

 

[Fermion]

Can be difficult. I think I will struggle with it but only 49 more days to go...not like I'm counting or anything ;P

I don't count either. But there are 4334 minutes to go.

 

[FUEGO]

I had other people depending on me. Some were in danger zones. I wasn't about to let them down. However, I started really "telling truth to power" (mgmt chain) in the final months. Surprisingly, "power" listened politely. Turned out some of them were getting ready to retire, themselves

This. I didn't let anybody die or get placed in risky situations (beyond the normal risk associated with the activities I was in charge of where people occasionally get seriously injured or killed). That would be a total as$hat move.

As far as fighting over what to naming conventions on our server folder structure or the color scheme for a logo or some letterhead, my answer was usually "okay looks good". So much stuff just doesn't really matter or could be decided just as easily by a coin flip and there's no point in fighting it.

Take my advice with a grain of salt, as I got fired a little prematurely (though not for my work efforts I don't think). But it all worked out pretty well so far.