Reason 692 Why I Am Thankful to be FIREd

[Nuiloa]

I didn't like our retirement parties either, Nuiloa, especially because they were generally at a restaurant and we had to pay a flat fee of $30 in advance just for the meal. I was LBYM'ing and would never have paid that much for a meal on my own.

So, when I retired and my supervisor pushed me to have a retirement party, I finally relented but said it had to be a potluck in one of the conference rooms, so that the attendees could save the money for their own retirement nestegg. That seemed to work out pretty well. I think I was the first one ever to do that.

Forcing someone to pay when something is mandatory is just plain wrong. YOU want, Mr. Company Exec, YOU pay for it.

I don't even want the conference room potluck. I have a feeling I will be suffering from a fairly intense virus that will keep me home for the month before my retirement date. I can feel it coming on as we speak.

 

[W2R]

Forcing someone to pay when something is mandatory is just plain wrong. YOU want, Mr. Company Exec, YOU pay for it.

Well, we didn't HAVE to go, but there was a lot of pressure to do so. After a while I just refused to go and made excuses ("I really have to finish writing this document and it has first priority!" etc). It wasn't looked upon kindly.

I don't even want the conference room potluck. I have a feeling I will be suffering from a fairly intense virus that will keep me home for the month before my retirement date. I can feel it coming on as we speak.

Good luck with that approach! I tried to get out of it, but was unsuccessful. It wasn't so bad. Not only was it potluck, it wasn't at lunchtime so it was just snacks (supposedly, though some seemed almost enough for a meal).

I am hoping that after breaking the tradition of having it at a restaurant, some future retiree can simplify it even further or not even have one.

 

[martyb]

My "outfit" is having a "team picnic" on Thursday. Since I'm located 200 miles from the "team", I won't be able to participate. At least, not with the rest of the team.

 

[Rustward]

Malcom Baldridge National Quality Award Competition

Quality is Free

Quality is Conformance to Specifications

 

[Nords]

(NeXT was a sort of growth experience for everyone. Someday we'd grow up to be a real live company, without magical shortcuts.)

It was never clear to me whether Pixar bought NeXT or whether it was the other way 'round...

 

[tangomonster]

It's reassuring that so many of you would despise this type of thing-----sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who does not "know how to have fun" (as my co-workers complained numerous times when I didn't want to take a break at 3 PM for an ice cream social and deal with all the calories of not-very-good-generic ice cream in one size fits all flavors).

But----this forum attracts some unique people. What percentage of the average workers out there (the ones who don't want or can't FIRE) do you think enjoy this sort of thing? My friend who is not a FIRE type (needs the structure of work as well as the pay and hence the employment at 62) wasn't completely dreading it.

 

[youbet]

Special events, celebrations, and the like at work went a long way towards making my ER possible. To this day, five+ years after retirement, I'm still wearing the caps, tee shirts, polo's, sweatshifts and jackets (a couple of really nice ones) that were passed out.

Thanks MegaCorp!

Edit: I forgot to mention the key chains, ball point pens, notebooks, scratch pads, paper weights, clocks, and miscellaneous little thingies.

 

[tangomonster]

Special events, celebrations, and the like at work went a long way towards making my ER possible. To this day, five+ years after retirement, I'm still wearing the caps, tee shirts, polo's, sweatshifts and jackets (a couple of really nice ones) that were passed out.

Thanks MegaCorp!

So you were able to retire early because you were given a closet full of clothes?

 

[youbet]

So you were able to retire early because you were given a closet full of clothes?

You betcha! I've got a tee shirt on that says Six Sigma on the front and MegaCorp on the back right now!

And these aren't just any ole clothes. These are "special" clothes appropriate to the "unique people" you say are attracted to this board.

 

[Rustward]

You betcha! I've got a tee shirt on that says Six Sigma on the front and MegaCorp on the back right now!

. . . flashbacks to the centurion place . . .

 

[harley]

I used to really enjoy the "morale building" activities. It was totally a coincidence that I had to quit attending just when they started requiring you to pay for your own drinks.

 

[M Paquette]

It was never clear to me whether Pixar bought NeXT or whether it was the other way 'round...

Yaar! When the navy captures a band of pirates, they'd best keep a close eye on them, or the pirates may just take the fleet.

There was a part of Apple that didn't know what hit 'em. That whole process made me nervous, but it worked out well in the end.

 

[Blackwoodt]

Wow, I thought I was the only one that detested ‘mandatory fun’ days! We had our normal outing this September, and I guestimated what day it would fall on early in the year and put in for vacation before it was ever published.

Next year, I will be retiring in September, I may go to the last meeting just so I can watch the faces when I walk out early.

 

[Nuiloa]

I used to call them "forced fun days." We had many "employee appreciation days" back when I worked for the Army. I always said if you want to appreciate me give me a raise or time off.

My sentiments exactly!

 

[sinjin]

I was dinged on my performance evaluation last year for not going to the "voluntary" Christmas potluck while I was on vacation.

Mrsin started boycotting his company's annual meeting years ago because it's always held the week of the 4th of July. A couple of years ago they coerced him into going by telling him he was getting an award. At the time we were camping out west coast and the meeting was on the east coast. He flew out for the meeting* and subsequently found out that "they changed their mind" about giving him an award at some point but neglected to tell him or his immediate supervisor, bastards. He hasn't gone to one since.

*leaving me alone in a campground with a BMW with a blown clutch and no one to fix it for a week. But that's another story.

It is good to be retired

 

[Khan]

"We're gonna keep having these meetings until you can stop making excuses and explain why you're not getting any work done!!"

MAD Magazine: "We're having these meeting twice a day until we find out why productivity is down."

 

[scrabbler1]

I very rarely went to any of those farewell luncheons, especially after the first few years I worked (late 1980s). When I was approached to select a place for my own farewell luncheon 3 years ago, I told them I did not want to have one. They seemed surprised but not totaly shocked. I think they were more disappointed because they could have an extended lunch for themselves LOL!

Instead, however, they took the money they would have spent for my luncheon and gave it to me in cash, a most pleasant surprise. It was about $160 which was nice. My best friend/coworker at the office treated me to a lunch at a nearby diner we often went to and that was nice, too.

 

[FUEGO]

I kind of like these things. Fun to screw around and BS with the buds from the office sometimes. Just went to a self funded celebratory lunch today with our team of 20 or so (coworkers, consultants, etc). Good way to spend $8.63, get a good lunch and establish rapport with and suck up to people that could potentially make my working situation much more lucrative.

This weekend we have DW's annual Appreciation day picnic - tons of fun for the kids. And it is a huge thing so we can remain fairly anonymous if we want. Great food too!

I guess it depends on how much you like your coworkers. I like mine, which is an immense help in making the job tolerable.

I do find the passing of the envelope for every little event to be tedious. My boss finally said "know what I'm tired of this bull$hit, I'm not throwing in money for every little thing, screw it". This is why I like my coworkers so much!

 

[TromboneAl]

Although I'd say that I'd hate that stuff, in the 80s I worked in a small software development company, and we did a lot of fun stuff together. Sailing, skiing, happy hours, parties.

 

[donheff]

Special events, celebrations, and the like at work went a long way towards making my ER possible. To this day, five+ years after retirement, I'm still wearing the caps, tee shirts, polo's, sweatshifts and jackets (a couple of really nice ones) that were passed out.

Thanks MegaCorp!

Edit: I forgot to mention the key chains, ball point pens, notebooks, scratch pads, paper weights, clocks, and miscellaneous little thingies.

Ha. +1 I'm still wearing some of those T shirts and just yesterday I tossed some goofy trinkets I found sitting in a drawer. But more of it came from IT expos at conferences (and contractor booths at our own agency expo) than bonding exercises.

 

[donheff]

I kind of like these things. Fun to screw around and BS with the buds from the office sometimes...
I guess it depends on how much you like your coworkers. I like mine, which is an immense help in making the job tolerable.

I do find the passing of the envelope for every little event to be tedious.

This is about where I came down. I like the people I worked with and worked for me so I enjoyed social events. I still go to retirement parties and occasionally have lunch with former coworkers. A big part of it is personality. Some people simply don't like those things and they were not under pressure to come - at least not in my organization. I would not like to work at an outfit where people had to come to such events.

A related practice I would hate would be being expected to "have the boss over for dinner" or vice versus and I never did. It was still going on at my agency when I first started (and was too low level to be effected) My take is that was a vestige of the Ad Men era of the 50s/60s but I suppose there are some outfits that still expect it. Ugh.

 

[MichaelB]

Malcom Baldridge National Quality Award Competition

Ahhh...Baldrige award. Such fond memories.

We did it once. We can do it again. Every division will submit an application this year.

Lets do a separate Baldrige application just for the headquarters function. That can help us identify pockets of unnecessary work that we can eliminate.

 

[REWahoo]

Ahhh...Baldrige award. Such fond memories.

We did it once.

We won it and I still have the scars...but I will confess going to the presentation ceremony in DC was fun.

 

[MichaelB]

We won it and I still have the scars...but I will confess going to the presentation ceremony in DC was fun.

Well done...

 

[HFWR]

Baldridge, Six Sigma, JIT, ISO9000, ISO9001...

Diversity training, balancing work and life training (as if), compliance training, training training...

Ack...