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View Poll Results: What's the best aspect of retirement for you? No work or free time?
Not having to go to work 44 55.70%
Having more free time to do whatever I like 31 39.24%
Other 4 5.06%
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Old 07-15-2011, 09:05 AM   #21
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For me, it was not having to go to work. Specifically, and as I have mentioned many, MANY times in threads here adn in other forums and blogs, it was the COMMUTE, the dang COMMUTE, which I had to get rid of, and totally.

I worked part-time from 2001-2008 so that freed up enough time to do most of the things I wanted to do, mainly my School Scrabble volunteer work and square dancing. But even while being able to juggle with some difficulty those two things while working as little as two days a week in my final 17 months of working was lousy because of the dang COMMUTE which was spilling over into the workday, making my still somewhat positive level of satisfaction at work less and less satisfying.

The only solution for me was to totally eliminate the dang COMMUTE from my life. In fact, I told the HR rep during my exit interview that even if I were offered the mostly telecommute gig I had from 2001-2003 where I went to the office one day per week I would have turned it DOWN because one day a week of the dang COMMUTE was one day too many.
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Old 07-15-2011, 09:28 AM   #22
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I will clarify.......my motivation for wanting to quit work is not cause I desire more time to do something else such as volunteer, spend more time with family or devote time to a passion/hobby (though I do want to travel for a couple years at some point in my life.)

Given a choice, I would rather be sitting on my couch watch tv, golfing, at the sports bar watching my teams or just about anything else I can think of rather than working. In other words, anything and everything I can think of is more enjoyable than my current existence as a senior level manager in a Fortune 500 company. I find Corporate America life unbearable. Ironically though, this is the one thing I am actually good at. I have been promoted to a point where only my boss is above me in my profession (IT) within our company.

The things I truly loved in life (mostly sports) I was not good enough at them to make a decent living doing them. In all honesty, if I could make what I make now, digging ditches, I would rather do that.
I don't think you're being lazy. Watching TV can be mentally stimulating. Golfing is exercise, etc.... These are things that bring you joy, or at least some degree of happiness. At the very least, these things are self-indulgent, which seems to be a taboo concept in American work life. Doing something for yourself? How selfish!
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Old 07-15-2011, 10:04 AM   #23
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Not having to deal with monstrous managers/coworkers. After 25 yrs I came to the sad realization that all companies have them, and they seem to be inescapable.
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Old 07-15-2011, 10:04 AM   #24
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Skyvue: But if you already have enough time to do the things you want, why would you want more time off? Being lazy isn't a very impressive attribute don't you think?
It might not be the work as much as it's coping with the dissatisfiers of rush hour, workplace attire, department meetings, arbitrary deadlines, mandatory training... I could go on and on.

I'm still looking for a company where work is suspended due to high surf. Until then I'll remain "self-employed".
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Old 07-15-2011, 10:18 AM   #25
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I'm still looking for a company where work is suspended due to high surf. Until then I'll remain "self-employed".
My high school Advanced Math (algebra II + trig) teacher was pretty well known in surfing circles back in the 1960's. He had the unofficial "wink" and days off permitted whenever the North Shore was breaking. When he returned he wasn't at all secretive about the reason for his absence, and would tell us all about it (and then back to Advanced Math).

So there ya go. I still wonder how he managed to arrange that cushy situation!
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Old 07-15-2011, 10:55 AM   #26
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"Lazy" is a word that has negative connotations that I am guessing were not intended. It implies doing nothing, and all you have to do is read a few posts about what people here who have already taken the leap are doing with their time to realize they are far from doing nothing.

So maybe "relaxed", "laid back", "content" are more descriptive.
He used the word. just saying.
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Old 07-15-2011, 11:01 AM   #27
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I liked my job but I like being retired more. I voted #1 but #2 was a close second.
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Old 07-15-2011, 11:13 AM   #28
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It might not be the work as much as it's coping with the dissatisfiers of rush hour, workplace attire, department meetings, arbitrary deadlines, mandatory training... I could go on and on.

I'm still looking for a company where work is suspended due to high surf. Until then I'll remain "self-employed".
Yes, it is not the work itself (building and enhancing our companies software applications) but the incredibly unproductive things such as the "program of the month", office politics, "doing what the boss wants even though everyone else knows it's crazy", non-value added tasks such as status reports, continous improvement plans, etc....basically things found in most of Corporate America. At this point I feel a lot like Peter Gibbons from Office Space. I played the game well until about 37 or so then it just got to me.
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Old 07-15-2011, 11:14 AM   #29
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He used the word. just saying.
I take no offense to the word. If "lazy" means I would prefer not to have to work, then I am that!
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Old 07-15-2011, 02:11 PM   #30
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Since I retired I am starting to wonder if perhaps I became one of those awful bosses we keep referring to? i think I may have become quite negative and cynical in the last few years of work. It would seem to be quite unlikely if noboby on this forum who was in a position of authority prior to retirement might actually have been or became a poor boss. Has anyone else reexamined their career and might do it a little differently if they had a second chance(not that anyone would want one of course)?
Or are all the problems with work someone else's fault. Just wondering.
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Old 07-15-2011, 02:30 PM   #31
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Since I retired I am starting to wonder if perhaps I became one of those awful bosses we keep referring to? i think I may have become quite negative and cynical in the last few years of work. It would seem to be quite unlikely if noboby on this forum who was in a position of authority prior to retirement might actually have been or became a poor boss. Has anyone else reexamined their career and might do it a little differently if they had a second chance(not that anyone would want one of course)?
You go first...
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Old 07-15-2011, 03:28 PM   #32
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You go first...
Thought I did?
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Old 07-15-2011, 05:49 PM   #33
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Thought I did?
Yes...
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Originally Posted by Danmar View Post
Since I retired I am starting to wonder if perhaps I became one of those awful bosses we keep referring to? i think I may have become quite negative and cynical in the last few years of work. ... Has anyone else reexamined their career...
...and no:
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... and might do it a little differently if they had a second chance(not that anyone would want one of course)?
Or are all the problems with work someone else's fault. Just wondering.
Not clear to me that you are saying you would do it differently if you had the chance for a 'do-over', that you have some regrets in how you treated those who worked for you. Is that the case?
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Old 07-15-2011, 05:56 PM   #34
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Yes...

...and no:

Not clear to me that you are saying you would do it differently if you had the chance for a 'do-over', that you have some regrets in how you treated those who worked for you. Is that the case?
yes. i might do it differently. Not sure about how I treated others. But I certainly could have been a more productive, positive employee in the last few years. Maybe we get cynical or negative towards the end of our careers? Anyway, I could have done better and I regret that I didn't.
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Old 07-15-2011, 06:45 PM   #35
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I didn't retire because I hated my job. I worked with preschool children and I loved them. But a day with the kids began to exhaust me physically and emotionally. And last summer, I realized that I was dreading the beginning of the school year. I knew then it was time.

So, I didn't have an awful job I was fleeing from. I was retiring to find more time for myself, to spend time with my hobbies (and finding new ones) that I had so often set aside while I was raising a family and working.
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Old 07-15-2011, 06:49 PM   #36
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Maybe we get cynical or negative towards the end of our careers? Anyway, I could have done better and I regret that I didn't.

I suppose what one does going forwards (not backwards) is what counts.
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Old 07-16-2011, 12:08 AM   #37
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My high school Advanced Math (algebra II + trig) teacher was pretty well known in surfing circles back in the 1960's. He had the unofficial "wink" and days off permitted whenever the North Shore was breaking. When he returned he wasn't at all secretive about the reason for his absence, and would tell us all about it (and then back to Advanced Math).
So there ya go. I still wonder how he managed to arrange that cushy situation!
Hey hey hey, is this a Punahou story? I read something similar in a surfing history book. IIRC it was either John Kelly or Peter Cole who sneaked away for some North Shore surfing one afternoon, only to be busted by their school principal who was sitting on the beach as they walked by with their board. "Unfortunately" (depending on your point of view), the (married) principal was sitting on the beach with a very attractive girlfriend.

Kelly (Cole?) said that they exchanged the silent guy's signal with the principal for "Noted, but we will never speak of this again" and went their separate ways...

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Since I retired I am starting to wonder if perhaps I became one of those awful bosses we keep referring to? i think I may have become quite negative and cynical in the last few years of work.
Well, introspection is always the first clue...

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It would seem to be quite unlikely if noboby on this forum who was in a position of authority prior to retirement might actually have been or became a poor boss. Has anyone else reexamined their career and might do it a little differently if they had a second chance(not that anyone would want one of course)?
I made the majority of my mistakes earlier in my career, when I had a lot less sleep and much more stress. These days I'm still apologizing to my shipmates for some of the work-related interactions. I became a lot more mellow and comfortable with that responsibility later in my career.

When I was at my final command before retirement, I became the guy who wasn't afraid to point out the naked emperors. That worked well as long as I had a CO who was willing to step in to say "Um, Admiral, what Nords meant to say was..." while the admiral's aide was furiously scribbling notes for the staff inquiry.

When I no longer had that type of CO support, I took care of the troops but otherwise mostly became invisible.
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Old 07-16-2011, 12:52 AM   #38
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Hey hey hey, is this a Punahou story? I read something similar in a surfing history book. IIRC it was either John Kelly or Peter Cole who [....]
Yes, it's a Punahou story, but it was Mr. Price*. Mr. Cole was another math teacher there that year (1965), and I remember him too; nice guy. They both were. We had a great math faculty.

In retrospect they must have been in cahoots in their escapes when the North Shore was breaking; I'll bet your story about the principal explains how they got away with it.

*(Unless maybe Mr. Cole was taking Mr. Price's class for a few months and I forgot? I thought it was Mr. Price, though. I wasn't paying a WHOLE lot of attention in math because I already knew it, and because the cutest guy on Oahu on earth in my teenage opinion was in that class and sat across from me.)
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Old 07-16-2011, 05:43 AM   #39
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Since I retired I am starting to wonder if perhaps I became one of those awful bosses we keep referring to? i think I may have become quite negative and cynical in the last few years of work.
As the years of management flew by I found the "been there, done that" line running through my head more and more with each "new" ground breaking initiative. By the time I ERed that refrain was playing more often than not. I realized that I was becoming one of those cynical managers I never wanted to become when I was younger. I always treated my team well and tried not to be overtly cynical no matter how hard it became to put positive a spin on onerous requirements. Still... Time to leave.
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Old 07-16-2011, 06:52 AM   #40
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As the years of management flew by I found the "been there, done that" line running through my head more and more with each "new" ground breaking initiative. By the time I ERed that refrain was playing more often than not. I realized that I was becoming one of those cynical managers I never wanted to become when I was younger. I always treated my team well and tried not to be overtly cynical not matter how hard it became to put positive a spin on onerous requirements. Still... Time to leave.
That reflects my experience as well. i sometimes refered to my retirement as " I was past my best before date(as in food dates) so it was time to go" @ Nords. i took that role in the last couple of years as well. The guy who wasn't afraid to call a spade....The CEO seemed generally OK wih this and it was kind of fun. But not as much fun as ER
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