Did some !&%^!!#$% person help you to retire early?

[Chuckanut]

I am wondering if some really nasty, obnoxious, arrogant idiot did any of us a favor, and pushed us to early retirement when we were really planning on staying on at least 2 more years or more? Did you send the person a Thank You card?

 

[Nords]

I didn't have anyone nudge me out the door-- I was already banging on it to be let out.

But I had several commanding officers or bosses who'd fit that description, and who made the Navy much more miserable than it needed to be.

My final XO offered to ask the Navy to let me stay on active duty a little longer to help out with the command's personnel turnover, and one of my "No thanks!" reasons was the CO we had at that time.

These days I sometimes ruminate to my spouse "I could SO do that job" and she says "Sure, but would you want to do it for _____"? At which point I get over my brief infatuation with paid employment.

 

[Moemg]

I am wondering if some really nasty, obnoxious, arrogant idiot did any of us a favor, and pushed us to early retirement when we were really planning on staying on at least 2 more years or more? Did you send the person a Thank You card?

No, in fact it was just the opposite . I had great relationships with my co-workers and maybe this is why I stayed so long .

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I'm not RE'd yet, but it was a coworker like that who inspired me to start doing some serious planning. I found this forum, firecalc and the Bogleheads, looked at my finances, and found out I am only a couple of years away (I always contributed to my 401k and IRAs as much as possible).

Megacorp laid off a bunch this week and put others on reduced hours. Before I could stop myself I blurted out, "why couldn't I have been one of the ones who get to work 20 hours?" Especially since our policy is that 20 h/wk is the minimum needed to qualify for full benefits.

I got a pretty puzzled and nasty look, let me tell you!

 

[JmfromTx]

Not a person but a company that turned completely idiotic. The nail in the coffin was having to attend a two day session of Practicing Perfection. It was an insulting slap in the face to the most dedicated group I had worked with in 29 years with the company. It made me so mad I wanted to quit but I didn't, I started educating myself and in a few months I had figured out I didn't have to work there any more. So I stayed until I got my 30 in and left at the end of that month.

 

[Koolau]

Nope, not the boss or other "authority figure" at Megacorp specifically, but the j*b suddenly took a %&^@%@%$ turn. From "happy" to gone in a week (with notice, of course). YMMV

 

[SecondCor521]

I have a list of reasons to retire and on it are the names of a few co-workers who I'd rather not deal with. However, that list is small compared to my co-workers who are generally good to great to work with.

2Cor521

 

[ohyes]

Yes, i have one that totally cinched the decision for me. Even 10 years ago, I might have thought her an idiot, but rolled with the new demands. Now, as she was hired in our district (my last year), i feel incredibly blessed to be bowing out. at this time.

Coincidence? i don't think so.

 

[pb4uski]

Not at all. My boss is a lot of fun and I thoroughly enjoy my colleagues and most of our clients. I just decided that I had other things that I wanted to do in life than work.

 

[Onward]

I probably would have worked till I died had it not been for miserable, self-loathing, abusive, power-thirsty or power-drunk coworkers and managers.

Most coworkers and managers were great, but it only takes one basard, properly positioned, to make your life a living Hell.

I retired to be free from that guy.

 

[FinanceDude]

I probably would have worked till I died had it not been for miserable, self-loathing, abusive, power-thirsty or power-drunk coworkers and managers.

Most coworkers and managers were great, but it only takes one basard, properly positioned, to make your life a living Hell.

I retired to be free from that guy.

Well, you coulda switched jobs, just sayin'.........

 

[CyclingInvestor]

I was ready to retire in 2004, but stayed an extra 2 years because the job (programming) was going so smoothly. A high-up (*#@$_* decided to implement "extreme programming" company wide. I retired as our department was being forced to switch over.

 

[Onward]

Well, you coulda switched jobs, just sayin'.........

Switched jobs many times! He kept "following" me. Eventually I realized the problem was with corporate environments in general. They're breeding grounds for sociopaths.

 

[obgyn65]

Well some of my patients have been abnoxious, and one peer has not been any better. I won't miss them.

I am wondering if some really nasty, obnoxious, arrogant idiot did any of us a favor

 

[Dawg52]

My business partners(mainly boss) enjoyed spending money too much. Bonuses went down as a result. I didn't enjoy working for less money. And from talking to friends who are still there, nothing has changed. I did enjoy working with some there.

 

[scrabbler1]

I had a few bad apples of coworkers in my 23 years of working, but I was able to rid myself of them in various ways (i.e. they left, got transferred, or I moved to a new cubicle away from them).

I would say it was some decisions made by the bigwigs which further depressed me to the point at which I had to leave. One was relocating to Jersey City, New Jersey. Another was ending all open-ended telecommuting. Both of these greatly worsened my commute to the point at which I could no longer stand it. A third decision was not to allow me to basically buy into the group health plan (by paying 100% of the premiums; I thought that was a no-brainer) even though my weekly hours worked had fallen below 20 hours, or alternatively, extend COBRA beyond 18 months. That might have kept me around a littlle longer, too.

 

[donheff]

Nope, other than a short period years ago, I always liked most of my coworkers and bosses. I just preferred not working more than working.

 

[james7]

Switched jobs many times! He kept "following" me. Eventually I realized the problem was with corporate environments in general. They're breeding grounds for sociopaths.

The above sentences sum up corporations very well.

I have met at least one person on every job I have ever had like that. Those sociopaths never made me want to retire, they made me want to be my own boss. Now I am my own boss and I don't want to retire ever. Maybe I will feel differently in the next few years. I would have no problem taking a part or full time job in a corp if I decide to stop working for myself, however if and when the *^&#$% starts, I would be out the door faster than you can say jumping jack flash!!

 

[sinjin]

I probably would have worked till I died had it not been for miserable, self-loathing, abusive, power-thirsty or power-drunk coworkers and managers.

Most coworkers and managers were great, but it only takes one basard, properly positioned, to make your life a living Hell.

I retired to be free from that guy.

I could have written this except for the co-workers. My job went from the best ever to the worst ever with an astounding shift in management culture to such an extent that the EEOC was involved on my behalf in my departure. I am sooooo happy to be out of that toxic environment and have enjoyed everyday of my early retirement so far. I feel nothing but pity for the co-workers I left behind. The best and the brightest of them are bailing out in ever increasing numbers.

 

[ksr]

My co-workers were really great - smart, talented, dedicated, and low-key. Unfortunately, the boss was verbally abusive and quite possibly qualified as the "sociopath" discussed in this thread. On a daily basis he would yell, belittle and otherwise abuse at least one of these very talented people, often in public. In private discussions several of us decided that he had anger management issues, and he appeared to have no awareness of it.

It was certainly a driving force in getting me out of megacorp. Sadly the rest of the group is still there taking the abuse.

 

[Lsbcal]

In my case and many of the cases above, I believe that there was a confluence of economic mistakes and political mistakes that led to our eventual workplace issues. I'm not referring to the bad bosses that could be with us even in good times (though you could more easily take another job in good times). I'm talking about workplace tensions and company mass layoffs as resulting from high level mistakes -- and maybe not just in the USA too.

In my case I trace the layoffs at megacorp to (1) a multinational company splitting up to avoid a lower margin business, (2) being then isolated in that lower margin business, (3) the tech boom phase leading to huge management and investor (capital allocation) mistakes, (4) management buying a company in Belgium they could not treat in the US way i.e. no layoffs, (5) Sept 11 attack causing huge government budget shifts and imbalances, (6) Iraq war. That was the scenario in 2003 when my megacorp had another round of mass layoffs. And its just kept happening there.

I could go on but what I'm saying is that many individuals have suffered in their personal lives due to broad mistakes made at very high levels of companies and governments. We only have to look at the equity markets over the last decade as a mirror onto this.

 

[tightasadrum]

I remember a few weird nuts and incompetent "leaders", but I still enjoyed the rolls I had. The vast majority of my coworkers were hardworking, pleasant people. I bump into one every now and then, and I'm always glad to see them and chat about how their lives are going. I didn't leave because of the job or the people, I left because we were bought and the new company closed several operations.

 

[KiraC]

I made the mistake of saying I'd like to retire in 2-5 years and from that point on my new management made my life so miserable the only answer was to make a deal to leave. He had a thing against experienced employees and wanted to replace everyone with contractors that he could use and abuse for 3 months, then eliminate them.

 

[easysurfer]

Not a certain individual, though a few folks that come to mind didn't help.

When I decided that my path lead elsewhere, I was ready. The first day in FIRE was a day like today (several inches of snow falling down, a messy commute). But I get to stay home and skip all the sloppy travel because I'm FIRE'd.

 

[Texas Proud]

I probably would have worked till I died had it not been for miserable, self-loathing, abusive, power-thirsty or power-drunk coworkers and managers.

Most coworkers and managers were great, but it only takes one basard, properly positioned, to make your life a living Hell.

I retired to be free from that guy.

Or you could take the position that one of my sisters and I have used....

Tell them, 'We were here before you got here and we will be here after you leave'... most people don't know how to handle that...

PS... you do have to do it where that person can not fire you at their whim... and be very good at what you do.... just saying....