What Were Your Final Months of W*rk Like?

[rayvt]

I had a lot of visitors in my last month. Every single one of them wanted to know how I could afford to retire at 58, and what they needed to do to be able to do the same.
Including my boss.

 

[akck]

I plan to give 2 weeks notice, but someone in HR will get about a month's notice because the retirement office verify employment at some point. In any case, it would take them months to get a replacement and even if I give them more notice, they still won't start looking until I'm almost out the door (they like to leave positions vacant for awhile). I'm sure my final time will be documenting my duties, but it won't do them much good because much of what I do is fixing problems. I'm not so good that I can anticipate issues that come up and know how to fix them in a document.

 

[T-bird]

I'm currently living through this experience as I am gone as of the 27th. The one thing that appears to me is that I am not being included in some of the changes for me and another manager who is leaving at the same time. Bothers me a bit now, as I want to see the organization do good but I should get over it around April Fool's Day my first official day of retirement. Has a nice ring to it. My boss has not been around the difficult times we have had over the last 5 or 6 years so her perspective is different than if she experienced things first hand.

19 w*rking days to go.

T-bird
Class of 2013
DW Class of 2012

 

[ERhoosier]

A new worldwide standard for announcing a retirement has been set. If the pope can give two weeks, then certainly anyone else can also.

+1

 

[MBAustin]

My situation was a little different in that I only decided to ER about 2 months before my last day of w*rk.

After we finished renovating our "empty nest" home and sold our former house and I bought a new car (cash), I was looking at our financial status at the end of the 2nd quarter and realized for the first time that we were good to ER even though I had always planned to w*rk until 58 (5 years longer). My BS bucket was overflowing, so DH and I talked it over for a month or so and in August I decided to go for it. It made a huge difference in pension and retiree medical to stay until 10/1 instead of leaving earlier, so the date was a no brainer.

I gave my boss 6 weeks notice assuming she would want to keep it just between us for a couple of weeks, but she started telling people right away. After she and her boss both gave a couple of tries to talk me out of it, they got the message and we started working on transition. It went very smoothly - day to day was pretty normal up to the last week - after I ran my last Monday staff meeting I started turning things over to my successor and cleaning out files, etc. Finished up about 3pm on Friday and since I w*rked in a different office from my management chain, I dropped my badge off with the local HR person and asked her to figure out what to do with it. Very strange feeling to walk out of the office that day and into the rest of my life. Still keeps getting better!

 

[TOOLMAN]

I gave my boss 6 weeks notice assuming she would want to keep it just between us for a couple of weeks, but she started telling people right away.

How much notice to give is a question I need to answer. I have 30+ years at a mega corp in a "C" level job. If I leave on "good terms" - I get around 150k/ yr for 10 yrs. I was thinking about 6 months notice, but perhaps it should be more like 12 months or more?

 

[rayvt]

Ask them if there is a layoff coming, and if so that you volunteer to get laid off.

 

[pb4uski]

How much notice to give is a question I need to answer. I have 30+ years at a mega corp in a "C" level job. If I leave on "good terms" - I get around 150k/ yr for 10 yrs. I was thinking about 6 months notice, but perhaps it should be more like 12 months or more?

I mentioned it to my boss very unofficially, a sort of "I'm thinking about this" thing, 6-12 months before I left. Our selling our house (after we had moved into our second house) was the tipping point as I figured our expenses were that much lower and our nestegg higher from the proceeds from the sale of our main home and I "officially" gave notice about a month after we passed papers on our main house and a month before my last day of work. Since I had so much accrued vacation after my last day of work I was "on vacation" for a couple months until my last day on payroll. It was a good transition in that since I was on vacation I could interrupt and respond if anything important arose and I was still covered by health insurance and my vacation pay payout got into the next tax year.

 

[Ronstar]

I'm nearing the end of my final months and it hasn't been too bad. Once I trained my replacement and agreed to working 1-2 days a week for more training past April 1st in exchange for the company buying my stock, all has gone well. Very few meetings and my replacement is handling most of my tasks.

 

[ohyes]

Gave about 5 months notice to my boss, chiefly for my own sake---so i would not back out.

I remember grinning all the time, when thinking about it. Co-workers would say things like, Wipe that grin off your face!

There were sad moments, even tears, on my part, but it was mainly a sweet, delicious feeling.

 

[racy]

I gave notice to megacorp on January 2 and today (Febr 28) was my last day. The past couple of months were pretty normal for me. I prepared a list of all my responsibilities and my boss & I decided who was going to handle each until they name a successor (another 4-6 weeks from now, I hear). I stayed involved as normal, although it was hard to focus some days, knowing "the day" was coming. I was treated very well; no complaints.

 

[easysurfer]

My last few months went from enjoying the holidays (nov, dec) as I had lots of vacation time, to returning in Jan, and learning I got outsourced, do deciding I really didn't want to get outsourced to calling it a career. I remember keeping my decision to myself, seeking private health insurance (this was the final piece of my puzzle to retire) and pretending to be interested in the upcoming work for a new year.

 

[Idnar7]

Thanks for all the responses. Obviously everyone still clearly remembers their last days. Racy congratulations!!!

When I started at the Mega Corp in 1979 there was a marketing manager they wanted to leave/retire. At that time there were not job eliminations. Over time they took away his people, his secretary, his projects, travel, etc. He had an office with a door but little furniture. Everyday he would come in dressed in a suit and with a briefcase. He would shut the door, open his briefcase, and proceed to read newspapers and magazines for the next 8 hours. He did this for a couple years until he was ready to leave. I always remembered that.

 

[GrayHare]

Yes, but will you fly away in a helicopter?

The next thing you know, the Pope will be parachuting into the Olympics.

 

[Meadbh]

The next thing you know, the Pope will be parachuting into the Olympics.

No, I think that was another Queen.

 

[HighRoller]

I gave 3 months official notice. But my boss knew I was going to retire a good 6 months before that. I didn't get any "new significant work" once I gave my official notice but I did start a formal knowledge transfer to my replacement and took about half the remaining time as vacation. I just eased into retirement and said goodbye on good terms.

 

[LoneAspen]

Thanks for all the responses. Obviously everyone still clearly remembers their last days. Racy congratulations!!!

When I started at the Mega Corp in 1979 there was a marketing manager they wanted to leave/retire. At that time there were not job eliminations. Over time they took away his people, his secretary, his projects, travel, etc. He had an office with a door but little furniture. Everyday he would come in dressed in a suit and with a briefcase. He would shut the door, open his briefcase, and proceed to read newspapers and magazines for the next 8 hours. He did this for a couple years until he was ready to leave. I always remembered that.

They should have moved him into the basement and taken his red stapler.