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What I'm Looking Forward to...
Old 05-15-2007, 02:19 PM   #1
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What I'm Looking Forward to...

Here I am...standing on the crumbling edge of a 33 year career and watching expectantly as the escalator up to my retirement life slowly moves into place to catch me at the last second before I fall off the edge into the abyss of corporate madness.

The desk has been cleaned out...the files shredded...the manuals tossed into the various trash barrels that have come and gone in my office over the past week as I discard all trapping of my former life. Having delegated most everything to someone else and with some time on my hands, I threw together some thoughts on why I glad it is almost over.


What I am looking forward to…..

Not getting up at 5:45AM so I can beat the traffic so I can have an extra 20 minutes of work time to get tasks done before my 7-8 hours of daily meetings begin.

Not having to work past 5:45PM to avoid the major rush hour home and to have an extra 30 minutes at the end of the day to get emails read and answered.

Not having to buy frozen entrees to eat at my desk because I don’t’ have the time or want to spend the extra money on rushed lunches outside the office.

Not having to lose sleep on Sunday nights because I am thinking about the upcoming work week.

Not having to schedule time off around meetings to see doctors or getting chores done during normal business hours.

Not having to put off car maintenance because I can’t take off the time to drop off the car and pick it up during their business hours.

Not having to plan my vacation time around major business activities like: budget planning, Performance Reviews, Merit Budgets, Business Planning, Bonus allocation time, Governmental Agency audits, inter-company audits, third party audits, and other staff member vacation requests.

Not being able to take a vacation because of work needs.

Not having to check voice messages and email while on vacation.

Not laying awake half the night thinking about work issues.

Not having to make presentations to staff or management.

Not having to act interested in or actively supporting the management “flavor of the month” program.

Not having to have my time scheduled by someone else.

Not having to time or energy to read things other than those related to the job.

Not having to play nurse-maid, councilor or referee to employees.

Not having to act like I like the people I work for.

Not having to compromise my ideals because management has none.

Not having to pretend to enjoy required work-related outings and activities.

Not having to attend management leadership meetings where there clearly is none.

Not having to attend HR “touchy-feely” classes to tell me how to be a more vanilla human being.

Not having to make employee Performance Evaluations match a budget number that is outside of my control to create or change; and then explain why it is a good system to my managers.

Not having to shield my people from upper management’s inability to communicate without finding blame.

Not having to be on endless conference calls where leaders don’t lead and participants act like mindless robots who can only nit pick other people’s ideas while nothing really gets done.

Not having to endure the total idiocy of management decisions despite data and advice

Not having to create budgets based on actual expected expenses to only have it arbitrarily cut by a VP who has no idea what my department does or how I budget.

Not having to give to the charity chosen by management without feeling like not doing so is making a career-limiting decision.

Not having to finish all the projects I have been juggling.

Not having to give up 12-14+ hours of my daily life spent getting ready for work, driving to work, working, driving home from work and working more once I am at home.


Life is just begining.....

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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...
Old 05-15-2007, 02:24 PM   #2
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...

Awww, you'll miss it. Next time you're sitting out on the back porch with frosty beverage in hand listening to the birds chirp, you'll miss it!
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...
Old 05-15-2007, 02:25 PM   #3
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...

SteveR, ya missed the biggest one!...

Not having to come up with any more items for your "Not having to" list.

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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...
Old 05-15-2007, 02:29 PM   #4
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...

Congratulations!! WHOO WHOO damn thats some list.
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...
Old 05-15-2007, 02:38 PM   #5
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...

You know - I'm not retired and I refuse to do most of that now at my job-----I've found I'mjust that more productive whenIfocus on those things that really mean something to my customers and they tend to stick up for me when push comes to shove..........hmmmm, perhaps I'm much more mentally than financially ready right now.....sigh - Deserat
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...
Old 05-15-2007, 02:44 PM   #6
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...

If I had your job, I'd be like you....ready to retire a decade ago!!!! ...even if it meant in poverty. Hopefully you were very well paid. Warmest wishes in your retirement! Have fun with all you "want to dos" 8)
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...
Old 05-15-2007, 04:17 PM   #7
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireup2025
If I had your job, I'd be like you....ready to retire a decade ago!!!! ...even if it meant in poverty. Hopefully you were very well paid. Warmest wishes in your retirement! Have fun with all you "want to dos" 8)
At my current employer I calculated that 25% of my time here has been spent doing at least two Director level jobs (mine and my bosses mostly).

I only wish they paid me salaries for both those jobs.
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...
Old 05-15-2007, 04:42 PM   #8
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...

SteveR, great list!

I think you're off to a great retirement. Have a ball, pull out the list in a month or two and sigh contentedly.

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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...
Old 05-15-2007, 05:59 PM   #9
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...

That list gave me a flashback. :P
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...
Old 05-15-2007, 06:01 PM   #10
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...

SteveR,

I loved your list. I could put a check mark by almost all of them and claimed them as mine, but you said it so much better than I could have done. Congratulations on your retirement! I know from your list that you are going to sail into the next portion of your life and not look back to much. Having been retired two years now, I can say that retirement is wonderful. The best is ahead of you!
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...
Old 05-15-2007, 06:10 PM   #11
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...

Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveR
What I am looking forward to:
Not ...
That's a very impressive list of the many negative things that you will be happy to avoid. I certainly don't blame you, but I do hope you also have a list of positive activities and experiences that you are actually looking forward to.
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...
Old 05-15-2007, 07:04 PM   #12
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...

Thanks for reminding me why I can't wait to be FIREd. There has to be more to life than the BS we all endure on a daily basis.
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...
Old 05-15-2007, 08:31 PM   #13
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Khan
That list gave me a flashback. :P
Me too! Actually, for a moment there, I felt my blood pressure starting to climb!

Boy am I glad I'm outta the rat race....as Lily Tomlin said: "The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat."
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...
Old 05-15-2007, 11:25 PM   #14
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...

Gee, May 18th is Friday. Congratulations.
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...
Old 05-16-2007, 12:15 AM   #15
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...

wow... very impressive list. I especially liked the leadership training and the HR touchy feely part -- too true.

I think I'll print it and tape it inside by cabinet door at w*rk. Just to remind me that life is far to short for this type of silliness. Being FI certainly gives one a a better perspective on what's really important.

Congratulations on your retirement.
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...
Old 05-16-2007, 07:45 AM   #16
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Re: What I'm Looking Forward to...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Milton
That's a very impressive list of the many negative things that you will be happy to avoid. I certainly don't blame you, but I do hope you also have a list of positive activities and experiences that you are actually looking forward to.
My To Do list in ER has been in my head and discussed with DW for many many months. I have already started on it.

1. Sell cabin....buy RV and change the view out the front window as often as desired.
2. Eat right...sleep more...spend more quality time with DW...exercise more (preferable with DW )... repeat.
3. See new places....meet new people....see #2....repeat as needed.
4. All the other stuff will drift in and out of my life while we are doing #2 and #3.
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