Things I Will Not Miss

[brewer12345]

It will be some time before I can even ESR. One of the things I do from time to time is consider things I will not miss when I bail. Do others do this? Anyway, a few that come readily to mind:

- train problems that make my lengthy commute seemingly forever

- rolling out of bed at 5AM because it is the only time I can find to hit the gym.

- having higher-ups screw with my work because, well, they can.

Any favorites?

 

[NW-Bound]

So many things nobody would miss! How about performance reviews, self-appraisals, goal settings?

Heck, the real question is "Do we miss DA MONEY"?

 

[scrabbler1]

My commute on the trains was my #1, #2, and #3 reasons for leaving. Mine was long, tiring, often sickening even when there no problems on either of the two separate train systems I used to get to work. When there were problems it was worse. And by the time I stopped working in 2008, I was working only 2 days per week. Two days a week on the trains was two too many days!

The morning ritual of getting up, scurrying around, trying to eat breakfast, and scamper to get the train was another awful hour of my day. I had a mostly telecommute gig for a few years but they pulled the plug on that in 2003, putting me back on those awful trains. I knew back then that it would be my eventual undoing, and it was.

 

[easysurfer]

Interesting, I actually much prefered to commute by train than to fight daily traffic and that wasn't at all a factor for me FIRE'ing (had plenty of time to catch up on reading and napping on the train). Now as for the other parts mentioned (supervisors screwing things up because they can, quarterly apprasials and the BS of email wars with co-w*rkers), those are things I definitely do not miss.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Commuting in all its forms is a major quality of life threat. For about 8 years my commute was under 15 minutes. It was just not a burden except in bad snow up north.

But since living here for the last 7 years it has crept up to 40 minutes each way. I know that inescapable fact contributed toward my ESR. Sounds trivial but when you add up the early wake-up, tedious ride in, time spent on weekends rushing in for emergencies or hospital rounds, the occasional near miss in traffic, etc. it is awful. Not to mention gasoline prices.

Only doing it twice a week now, but even that is a drag. I think I'll give it up before the year is out.

 

[Denim]

Managing employees. That's what I will be so happy to be away from.

 

[Retch The Grate]

- rolling out of bed at 5AM because it is the only time I can find to hit the gym.

- having higher-ups screw with my work because, well, they can.

Being able to work out at a reasonable time of day, and not having bosses are both on my list of why I want to be FI too. Being able to walk away from unpleasant environments would be nice too. Performance reviews are definitely on the list as well.

Commuting in all its forms is a major quality of life threat. For about 8 years my commute was under 15 minutes. It was just not a burden except in bad snow up north.

But since living here for the last 7 years it has crept up to 40 minutes each way. I know that inescapable fact contributed toward my ESR. Sounds trivial but when you add up the early wake-up, tedious ride in, time spent on weekends rushing in for emergencies or hospital rounds, the occasional near miss in traffic, etc. it is awful. Not to mention gasoline prices.

Only doing it twice a week now, but even that is a drag. I think I'll give it up before the year is out.

30 minutes is the longest commute I can manage these days, and that is the painful upper limit, I try to keep it less (under 15 at the moment, yay). When it crosses the 30 minute mark I seriously look at moving where I live.

 

[scrabbler1]

I would envy a 30-minute commute. I had a 75-minute commute which included walking to a commuter train, taking said commuter train for about 35 minutes, walking out of the depths of Penn Station (Manhattan) to the street, walking a cross-town block and down to a PATH train (like a subway), a 15-minute ride on the PATH train, then a long walk from the depths of the PATH station to the street and to my office.

And it cost me $20 a day for this round-trip privilege, being bombarded by all those yakkers on their cell phones on the commuter train so napping was next to impossible in the last 10 years or so. No wonder I'd arrive at the office all tired and annoyed.

 

[KM]

I am very fortunate - I have a 10 min commute with no traffic. So I am with NWB, I wont miss the "performance reviews, self-appraisals, goal settings".

And I also won't miss "doing things differently" everything few months because someone has come up with a "great new idea"....the same idea someone else had 2 years ago, but no one remembers it because we stopped doing it that way five times over, due to 5 other people having "great new ideas" along the way.

After 20+ years, I have simply stopped trying to remember any "new procedures". I wait for someone to say "Uh, we have a new procedure for that, you know." To which I reply "Oh, yeah, I forgot, can you refresh my memory." I no longer waste my brain cells trying to stay on top of something that will change again the next time I need to do it.

(Unless, of course, the new way makes my life easier - but that is rarely the case....)

 

[W2R]

Some things I do not miss, are back-stabbing office politics, required computer "training" in subjects that I already fully understand, eating lunch at my desk, and time-wasting meetings.

My home is 1.5 miles from my former workplace, so commuting wasn't a problem for me. Obviously this location of my home was not an accident.

 

[check6]

Commuted 1200 miles 3 times a month for 23 years. Ugh.

I will not miss going through airport security lines 20 times a month.

 

[Walt34]

What I don't miss:

1. The insane traffic in the Washington, DC area. Trying to go the wrong place at the wrong time can take two hours instead of the 20 minutes it should.

2. "Emergencies" that aren't. Is somebody going to die in the next twenty minutes? No? Then it's not an emergency.

3. We're not going to assemble a 7-person stakeout team and maintain 24-hr surveillance for three days on an empty house because somebody ordered a $300 item on your credit card.

4. Somebody calling you a fathead on Facebook is not a crime.

5. You sent $200k to a deposed prince in Nigeria and he didn't send the $10 mil he said he would? Yes, that's a crime but I don't have jurisdiction in Nigeria. And if you're that stupid how'd you get $200k in the first place?

6. Procurement people. Okay, I know government is supposed to attempt to use the people's tax money efficiently. I tried to, I really did. Hey, I pay taxes too! But when the vendor sends several free upgrades because what we ordered isn't made anymore because the procurement people took six months to write a check that's a problem.

 

[samclem]

The thing I most "do not miss" is thinking about what I have to get done at work even when I'm at home. Fretting about the inbox, upcoming evaluations and other personnel stuff, etc. When I started my career it was easy to mentally leave my work at the office, but over time I slowly began stewing in the responsibilities for most of my waking hours, even if only in the back of my mind. I was barely even conscious of it, as it was ever-present. After I retired from full-time work, the lifting of this burden was my happiest surprise.

In ESR my work is for a few days or weeks at a time, and when I'm done with a particular assignment the slate is clean again. That works out well for me.

 

[brewer12345]

Ah, another "favorite:"

- get told to do a task, do it thoroughly and creatively, submit a well written report that actually helps other people doing the same work and get held up for 3 months because of comments that amount to "you used the wrong font" and "I can't understand basic accounting so your report is too complex for most readers."

 

[Dawg52]

The boring work and my idiot business partners.

 

[brewer12345]

Being sent wherever, whenever with absolutely no say. Last year I was on the road for my wedding anniversary and this year I will be pressed to avoid being away on my birthday.

 

[cj]

Doing emergency "fire drills" because someone more important than I am didn't plan ahead.

And yes, I have a 1.25-1.5 hour (each way) commute, half of which is on public transportation. Even though it's only 2 days per week, it's really getting on my nerves.

 

[donheff]

Different strokes for different folks. I actually liked getting up at 5:30 to go to the gym so I miss that. Of course that may have been because I was already tossing and turning obsessing about work issues, something I don't miss. The main thing I don't miss is managing - the only thing I was good at but the one thing that weighed most heavily on me.

 

[audreyh1]

Only doing it twice a week now, but even that is a drag. I think I'll give it up before the year is out.

Imagine that!

Audrey

 

[MichaelB]

Lunch in the cafeteria.
Appraisals and performance reviews.
Annual management training. (what's your mission statement?)
Team building sessions.
Meetings. More meetings. Then more meetings. Then traveling to meetings.

 

[REWahoo]

Taking inventory - especially during long holiday weekends.

 

[Pete]

I loved my job, and miss all the adult conversation that came with it. I also miss the problem solving opportunities. I don't miss going to bed early, waking up early, waiting for my carpoolers who were always late, eating fast, watching the clock, and feeling tired and not being able to do anything about it. Above all, even though I loved my job, I hated that the anticipation of going to work ruined a lot of the time off.

 

[TromboneAl]

I feel for you guys who are still commuting. One summer I commuted on the Long Island Railroad from Huntington, NY to Manhattan. 1.5 hours each way, door to door. Horrible.

And I had a consulting job where I commuted from Berkeley to Sunnyvale every day by car (>1 hour).

In both cases I was desperate for a job, but now it seems like nothing could be worth that agony.

 

[Moemg]

Getting up at 5:30 and rushing to get to work on time , twelve hour shifts , eating lunch standing up and endless paperwork .

 

[Onward]

The few, inevitable, inescapable nasty people.