Pre-retirement dream job

[fh2000]

Is there such a thing as pre-retirement dream job?

I work from home. I lone for the days I can completely separate myself from wo*k but I keep doing OMY on year 2 now. If we both quit now, our WR would be about 3.9% so that seem doable.

There are a couple of reasons why I keep on doing OMY. Reason number 1 is that DW still wants to keep going for another year. She is 53 1/2 and wants to wait till 55. She has very small benefit after reaching 55. Reason #2 is my job is actually fairly lightweight for 6 figure salary. I often do about 2 hours of real work, then it is all idle time so I work around the house; surf internet; listen to music; planning our upcoming trips to burn all our vacation time (2 more week long trips, and one month long trip for the rest of the year). This seems easy money, says DW.

I know I am not alone in Megacorp with long daily idle time. They keep very few key employees for the IT systems, and outsource all of the actual IT work. Employees hold most of the knowledge for business. Personally, I think this is not the proper way to manage IT, but they do it in the name of cutting cost.

This leaves me in a golden handcuff, pre-retirement dream job situation. I guess I will keep doing it until they either lay me off, or quit the same time when DW is 55.

 

[Big_Hitter]

Is there such a thing as pre-retirement dream job?

definitely

 

[FUEGO]

Sounds like a decent gig. My DW is in a sweet spot like you. Last year she negotiated an extra 5 weeks of paid vacation (11 weeks paid time off in total incl. holidays). This year, she applied for a 3 month paid sabbatical so she'll end up with 19 weeks paid time off.

Work from home when she wants, flexible schedule, not always 40 hrs/wk for 3 weeks out of each month. Unlimited sick leave, etc. She's basically delegated all her daily production work and just kind of oversees the staff (the bosses know she's a short timer and wants to leave so they agreed to hire a replacement or two).

There's no pension or big carrot dangling in front of her. Rather, some small carrots every month or two. 10 year longevity pay of $3000 if she stays to Nov 15 of this year. Another 1 month paid time off Jan 1. $2000-5000 bonus if she stays to Feb 15. That's pretty much the definition of OMY one month at a time lol. When she goes back in August, I think she'll be one crappy day away from resignation.

 

[hesperus]

six figure salary for two hours of work a day?
sheeesh. If you were a govt employee they'd have your head. Juts goes to show that $$ waste in private corporations is just as egregious.

Is there such a thing as pre-retirement dream job?

I work from home. I lone for the days I can completely separate myself from wo*k but I keep doing OMY on year 2 now. If we both quit now, our WR would be about 3.9% so that seem doable.

There are a couple of reasons why I keep on doing OMY. Reason number 1 is that DW still wants to keep going for another year. She is 53 1/2 and wants to wait till 55. She has very small benefit after reaching 55. Reason #2 is my job is actually fairly lightweight for 6 figure salary. I often do about 2 hours of real work, then it is all idle time so I work around the house; surf internet; listen to music; planning our upcoming trips to burn all our vacation time (2 more week long trips, and one month long trip for the rest of the year). This seems easy money, says DW.

I know I am not alone in Megacorp with long daily idle time. They keep very few key employees for the IT systems, and outsource all of the actual IT work. Employees hold most of the knowledge for business. Personally, I think this is not the proper way to manage IT, but they do it in the name of cutting cost.

This leaves me in a golden handcuff, pre-retirement dream job situation. I guess I will keep doing it until they either lay me off, or quit the same time when DW is 55.

 

[fh2000]

six figure salary for two hours of work a day?
sheeesh. If you were a govt employee they'd have your head. Juts goes to show that $$ waste in private corporations is just as egregious.

True. Though in IT, it is not always the number of hours worked or how many lines of code you wrote. Through decades of experience, I sometimes spend just 5 minutes of walk-though which can save days or weeks of effort for those junior offshore folks. Many tasks are handled by me hundreds of times in my lifetime so I can do them in my sleep. But if those young folks have never touched them before, they will struggle. Due to their culture and pecking order, they do not ask questions and just struggle in silence. So, are they more wasteful, or am I?

 

[Fireup2020]

Yup, DH 'runs' our business...managing inventory, dealing w/ show promoters, shipping mail orders (we sell jerky at wine & beer festivals)...he does not consider this work at all

P.s, the $$$ is more than he made at MEGACORP


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[Spanky]

True. Though in IT, it is not always the number of hours worked or how many lines of code you wrote. Through decades of experience, I sometimes spend just 5 minutes of walk-though which can save days or weeks of effort for those junior offshore folks. Many tasks are handled by me hundreds of times in my lifetime so I can do them in my sleep. But if those young folks have never touched them before, they will struggle. Due to their culture and pecking order, they do not ask questions and just struggle in silence. So, are they more wasteful, or am I?

Umm .. You are writing spaghetti code and creating a badly documented design? Just Kidding.

 

[Spanky]

six figure salary for two hours of work a day?
sheeesh. If you were a govt employee they'd have your head. Juts goes to show that $$ waste in private corporations is just as egregious.

According to this research paper (Government Employees Work Less than Private Sector Employees)


the conclusion is "According to a detailed “time diary” dataset that measures work wherever and whenever it takes place, government employees work around three fewer hours per week and roughly one less month per year than private-sector workers. "

 

[shortstop14]

It's nice getting paid for what you know, rather than what you do. And difficult to give it up, especially if you like it to some extent. Even better if you can work from home or anywhere with a good internet connection. Sometimes you get rewarded for developing robust systems that don't need a lot of maintenance, so it's not hard to keep your span of control in control.

But it's still a restriction, still have to keep your head into the technical details and the management stuff. Ties you down a lot, tough to get out on a nice day and do what you'd rather be doing. I eventually decided that I didn't want to learn a yet another new set of development tools, and that pushed me over the edge.

Still miss working with a smart team, some good people and work friends. But I haven't waken up a single day wanting to review another set of specifications or a requirements document.

 

[ziggy29]

I'd say if it existed, it would be:

* Something you generally enjoy doing
* working at home or very close to home
* let you mostly set your own hours
* Bonus points if it provides you with medical benefits

There are a few j*bs like this, but not a lot.

According to this research paper (Government Employees Work Less than Private Sector Employees)

the conclusion is "According to a detailed “time diary” dataset that measures work wherever and whenever it takes place, government employees work around three fewer hours per week and roughly one less month per year than private-sector workers. "

I don't doubt it, but let's not turn this into a "lazy government worker" thread. Private sector employment and public sector employment are different animals in many cases. Private sector tends to be higher risk, higher reward. Yes, you can work longer hours, you job may be more at risk, but those who excel can rise a lot higher, a lot faster, than many in government work can.

In addition, while it's important that the public sector be as efficient as reasonably possible, it doesn't exist for profit; it exists to serve the public. The private sector, especially the publicly traded private sector, exists to maximize operating profits. Neither of these goals are wrong but they **are** substantially different.

 

[hesperus]

I don't doubt it, but let's not turn this into a "lazy government worker" thread. Private sector employment and public sector employment are different animals in many cases. Private sector tends to be higher risk, higher reward. Yes, you can work longer hours, you job may be more at risk, but those who excel can rise a lot higher, a lot faster, than many in government work can.

In addition, while it's important that the public sector be as efficient as reasonably possible, it doesn't exist for profit; it exists to serve the public. The private sector, especially the publicly traded private sector, exists to maximize operating profits. Neither of these goals are wrong but they **are** substantially different.

excellent points. I've worked in both the private and govt, and have seen both incredibly hard working public employees who really care about what they do, and some pretty lazy private sector workers as well.

I would like to add to the OP that it's not always the hours worked, it's also the skills and knowledge set that one brings to the task. In IT, that certainly rings true.

 

[Andre1969]

six figure salary for two hours of work a day?
sheeesh. If you were a govt employee they'd have your head. Juts goes to show that $$ waste in private corporations is just as egregious.

Nah, if you're a gov't employee, you're like the Pope, the mailman, that overweight employee at the DMV who's fat rolls are spilling over her chair, and the bad teacher who's three days older than God. You got a job for LIFE!


And yeah, as a gov't contractor, I've seen good and bad in both the gov't and private industry, so don't take what I'm saying as the gospel. It's actually a combination of something Archie Bunker and Thelma Harper once said.


As for the original poster yeah, I'd say that's pretty much a dream job. I'm trying to picture how I'd act if I were in that position. On one hand, as a single guy, I figure that once I have enough saved up and I'm financially independent, no amount of money would be able to keep me around. But, if I was waiting until my significant other retired and we had a lot of plans to travel and do other things together, I'd probably keep working until they hit their retirement date.

 

[Which Roger]

I would like to add to the OP that it's not always the hours worked, it's also the skills and knowledge set that one brings to the task. In IT, that certainly rings true.

When I was w*rking (software industry) I spent about 90% of my time on fairly routine tasks, but provided the most added value in the other 10% of my time. That 10% was spent helping others by answering questions, pointing them to the info they needed, etc. I would often be able to answer a question instantly, whereas if I wasn't there, the questioner might have spent a day or more trying to figure it out. Specialized knowledge == productivity and value added.

 

[Walt34]

When I was w*rking (software industry) I spent about 90% of my time on fairly routine tasks, but provided the most added value in the other 10% of my time. That 10% was spent helping others by answering questions, pointing them to the info they needed, etc. I would often be able to answer a question instantly, whereas if I wasn't there, the questioner might have spent a day or more trying to figure it out. Specialized knowledge == productivity and value added.

Similarly, in the very early years when I was a police patrol officer I sometimes felt a bit guilty about the paychecks I was receiving - I'd sometimes go weeks without touching pen to paper when things were very slow. (That later changed, and dramatically. Suffice it to say I wasn't bored much.)

Finally it dawned on me that they weren't paying me for what I did. They were paying me for what I could do, and would do, if needed. And indeed about once a year I'd have to stick my neck way out there and earn every nickel of those paychecks.

 

[ziggy29]

Finally it dawned on me that they weren't paying me for what I did. They were paying me for what I could do, and would do, if needed. And indeed about once a year I'd have to stick my neck way out there and earn every nickel of those paychecks.

I spent a couple years in the late '90s as a system administrator for a couple dozen Unix workstations at an aerospace company which was developing software for controlling satellites. It was sometimes a hectic job and sometimes required being on call and for a lot of hours, but mostly I liked doing it. In the last few days before we were required to deliver the main software release to our client, the engineers and programmers were hitting our system hard. They didn't want me to be doing a lot of maintenance or network reporting. That would take needed CPU cycles from the programmers and engineers!

But at the same time, they were in the last few weeks trying to hit the deadline to earn a bonus for the company, working 60-80 hours a week in many cases (one guy logged 101 hours in the last week). Megacorp was catering rather fancy and expensive dinners (and very good!) 6 days a week. They wanted me to "be there" for it all. They didn't want me to DO anything unless they needed me. I was "on call" in the office. My bosses told me to do *anything* -- read a book, surf the net, do crossword puzzles -- as long as I was in the office and ready to respond immediately to a system or network problem. And the kicker was, even though we were technically salaried employees, we were paid time and half for OT. I logged a couple of 80 hour weeks (earning 2.5x my usual weekly pay) doing almost NO useful work!

Great work if you can get it.....

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I had a burst of appreciation for being able to work from home at a leisurely pace after I started to watch Downton Abbey. It made me realize I am fortunate to not have to be a household serf in a uniform and scrub fireplaces from dawn to dusk or iron the newspaper for an upper class twit.

 

[fh2000]

Similarly, in the very early years when I was a police patrol officer I sometimes felt a bit guilty about the paychecks I was receiving - I'd sometimes go weeks without touching pen to paper when things were very slow. (That later changed, and dramatically. Suffice it to say I wasn't bored much.)

Finally it dawned on me that they weren't paying me for what I did. They were paying me for what I could do, and would do, if needed. And indeed about once a year I'd have to stick my neck way out there and earn every nickel of those paychecks.

There is an old Chinese saying for this:

"Train An Army For 1000 Days Use It For One Hour"
Train An Army For 1000 Days Use It For One Hour - Chinese Calligraphy Wall Scroll

 

[hnzw_rui]

According to this research paper (Government Employees Work Less than Private Sector Employees)

the conclusion is "According to a detailed “time diary” dataset that measures work wherever and whenever it takes place, government employees work around three fewer hours per week and roughly one less month per year than private-sector workers. "

I was expecting some egregious shortfall on the part of govt workers but looking at those numbers, I think it just looks like private workers are overworked. If private workers average 41.4 hours in a work-week, then there are probably quite a number surveyed working overtime and not taking any vacation or sick time (FLSA rule is over 40 hours is overtime for non-salaried employees). If so, it's really no wonder people want to FIRE.

Also, government salaries can be considerably lower than private sector. As has been mentioned by ziggy29, private sector offers higher reward but is also higher risk.

Here's an interesting list:
List of statutory minimum employment leave by country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia