How long was your glide path?

[Al in Ohio]

How many here who have already reached their FIRE date maintained adequate performance expectations on the job and stayed on top of things, but noticed an attitude change that you weren't going let certain co-workers bother you ( maybe by ignoring them from that point on) or just took things down a gear so to speak ( like punching a drain hole in the bottom of your BS bucket) once you set a date in the not too distant future to RE? If so, how did you make that happen for your situation?

As a follow up ... How long do you remember that "glide path" being for you?

 

[Onward]

The closer I got to FIRE, the more certain co-workers bothered me.

The closer I got to escape velocity, the less I was able to tolerate them, and the less I needed to.

 

[W2R]

I used all of my vacation time during the last few months with the blessing of my immediate supervisor, who was a good friend. Since vacations of over two weeks required upper management approval, I took two week vacations separated by a week of work, and repeat. That meant I couldn't be compensated for that vacation time, but it was well worth it to me to lower my insanely high stress levels as I got closer to retirement.

Since I was a lot less visible (being gone 2/3rds of the time), the sort of friction you are asking about pretty much vanished.

I retired as soon as I was eligible to do so, but that meant I couldn't just move my retirement to an earlier date instead of using my vacation time. Doing the latter really helped in that situation.

 

[Amethyst]

Presently I am being subjected to highly detailed critiques of my e-mails, by someone who is in a quasi-supervisory position over me (supervisor of record is an absentee landlord). I'll log in, to discover a copy of a selected e-mail, with the critiqued portion highlighted in yellow, plus a detailed explanation of why my word choices, To's and CC's were unsuitable or inappropriate. This of course is to be taken in the spirit of "helping me to improve." If I weren't on the glide path, I'd be seeing red. Now, I feel only pity - and disgust.

Amethyst

 

[Ozstache]

I ignored one key person in particular who was a crisis creation machine and amusingly he kicked it back a few notches and actually became quite reasonable to deal with when he realised his evil spells weren't working on me any more.

And despite me wanting to keep working at full performance right up to the finish line, but I couldn't help but skim over the BS parts of the job and just concentrate on what really mattered to my values.

This whole process was the three months between handing in my notice and finishing up for good.

 

[luckydude]

I achieved FI about three years ago but had decided to keep w*orking until an unexpected bequest earlier this year prompted me to decide to FIRE. I’ve been on a glide path since May and will hang it up in six weeks.

My attitude toward and enthusiasm for work had been gradually going downhill since I achieved FI, but they have really taken a dive since I made the decision to FIRE. Over the last few months, I have found that I’m now completely unwilling to take any sh*t from anybody at work, and am very quick and blunt in speaking my mind. I know that my changing attitude has rubbed some of my esteemed colleagues the wrong way, but I don’t really care at this point and in fact delight in giving payback to some of those who had given me grief over the years.

In a way I’m burning bridges at work, which is bad if I ever have to go back to work, but with a net worth about 100 times my expected annual burn rate, I am not exactly worried about that. So I’ll just keep on burning all the bridges and enjoy the spectacle for the next 6 weeks before riding into the sunset.

 

[donheff]

I planned ER more than a decade before I retired, really all my working life. About 10 years before ER I made a major change (from HR management to IT management) that made my last years almost fun. I respected and liked working with my employees and most of my peers. I did not like the procurement system and some of the IT architecture, and bureaucratic demands that constrained our work (and undoubtedly contributed to the ACA systems disaster) but I did not have any good, workable answers so I was beginning to be part of the problem, not the solution. Thus my ER was a good thing for everyone.

 

[MichaelB]

Presently I am being subjected to highly detailed critiques of my e-mails, by someone who is in a quasi-supervisory position over me (supervisor of record is an absentee landlord). I'll log in, to discover a copy of a selected e-mail, with the critiqued portion highlighted in yellow, plus a detailed explanation of why my word choices, To's and CC's were unsuitable or inappropriate. This of course is to be taken in the spirit of "helping me to improve." If I weren't on the glide path, I'd be seeing red. Now, I feel only pity - and disgust.

Amethyst

An email critic? That's amazing .. And also pretty bad. That person must not have much of a life. That you can feel pity is a healthy sign, though.

As a follow up ... How long do you remember that "glide path" being for you?

Mine lasted almost exactly one year. It coincided with the expiration date of my work assignment contract and at the same time the vesting of a group of options and RSUs. Looking back, the most noteworthy thing that happened was I put on a lot of weight. In my case, that showed the stress was going away.

 

[Which Roger]

I had heard that sometimes when you reach FI, the w*rk stuff stops bothering you. But the opposite happened for me. As soon as I reached FI, the BS bucket filled up more quickly, and things that hadn't bothered me previously started to bother me a lot. So I knew it was time to ER, and that's what I did. But ER had been a goal of mine for many years, so I think my reaction makes sense.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Presently I am being subjected to highly detailed critiques of my e-mails, by someone who is in a quasi-supervisory position over me (supervisor of record is an absentee landlord). I'll log in, to discover a copy of a selected e-mail, with the critiqued portion highlighted in yellow, plus a detailed explanation of why my word choices, To's and CC's were unsuitable or inappropriate. This of course is to be taken in the spirit of "helping me to improve." If I weren't on the glide path, I'd be seeing red. Now, I feel only pity - and disgust.

Amethyst

You are a better woman than I. I might be inclined to go all Alice on someone like that, just for the sport of it.

 

[scrabbler1]

I was working only 2 days a week (12 hours total) for the last 17 months of my career. Most of my work was on a single project I was barely able to get done in time before I left. In my final weeks, I had to attend some meetings about related projects which would take place after this big phase (the one I was working on) ended. Those for me were a total yawn because I would not be around for any of that.

I did have a coworker in another division who retired about 4 months before I did. She worked in a key support unit for my division and I wrote many programs for her over the years. Her work got transferred to our division but that meant I had to make many of her programs more user-friendly because they would be run by staff who were not as adept as she was in her 20+ years of running those programs for us. At least I was given enough lead-time to get that done and was around to handle any bugs in the programs after my own division's staff began using them.

As for annoying coworkers, I had only one but I had basically rid myself of her a few months before I switched to the 12-hour week when I moved to a new desk further away from hers (and from most of everyone else in my division, another plus).

As for the BS bucket and other things mentioned in this thread, I did not have to deal with that stuff, thankfully. I was not in the office very much and that shielded me from most of the BS going there anyway.

 

[TimSF]

I can totally relate to this question. For me, my glide path was about two years.

 

[brewer12345]

I am counting down the days to my quit date in January and I am deeply unenthused about the work at this point. Having deadlines for pointless work pushed in my face and then tightened is making me less and less interested in finishing strong, and just showing up every day to deal with bullcrap is tough. The scheduled internal 1 hour meeting that was supposed to be shorter than that but went over 90 minutes yesterday because my superiors love to hear the sound of their own voices is just the maraschino cherry on top of this **** sundae.

 

[ls99]

The last three years until the last lswo weeks was like a glider 25:1. the last 2 weeks were like a rock without wings.

 

[Meadbh]

Presently I am being subjected to highly detailed critiques of my e-mails, by someone who is in a quasi-supervisory position over me (supervisor of record is an absentee landlord). I'll log in, to discover a copy of a selected e-mail, with the critiqued portion highlighted in yellow, plus a detailed explanation of why my word choices, To's and CC's were unsuitable or inappropriate. This of course is to be taken in the spirit of "helping me to improve." If I weren't on the glide path, I'd be seeing red. Now, I feel only pity - and disgust.

Amethyst

That is disgusting and unprofessional. I guess you can't put this person on ignore electronically, but at least don't let the emails upset you and above all, don't be tempted to respond back in the same tone. Email can be a dangerous tool when combined with vindictiveness. You want to stay above all that.

One thing I would consider doing is building a portfolio of these nasty communications and bringing it to the attention of whoever heads up communications in your organization.

 

[brewer12345]

That is disgusting and unprofessional. I guess you can't put this person on ignore electronically, but at least don't let the emails upset you and above all, don't be tempted to respond back in the same tone. Email can be a dangerous tool when combined with vindictiveness. You want to stay above all that.

One thing I would consider doing is building a portfolio of these nasty communications and bringing it to the attention of whoever heads up communications in your organization.

I get the same treatment on every deliverable document from at least three levels of management. They don't bother with emails, but every other document no matter how trivial gets the full red pen monty.

 

[anethum]

I worked in one insane place that had official forms with the heading "Non-Compliance Notification" for technical documents which didn't meet the petty rules for company documents. There were 20 possible reasons on the form that the document police could check off to explain why your document was being rejected. Someone made a hilarious April Fool's parody using the same form but with a bunch of words changed. Instead of rejecting documents, the April Fool's form rejected donuts.

Not surprisingly, that place eventually went belly-up.

 

[akck]

When I hit the one year mark I was all set to glide, but new inept management decided to pass down their work they didn't know how to do. So instead of gliding, I'm doing tasks that someone else will have to learn on their own. One thing I'll especially drag my feet on is if they involve me in hiring for the people who quit. I'd hate to leave someone new to face this C.F. after I leave.

 

[Walt34]

Wow. When I see the content in threads like this one I realize how lucky I was to work where I did. There was management BS of course, but nothing on the level people describe here.

 

[MBAustin]

My glide path was very short - less than 3 months from the time I was finally convinced we were FI to my last day of w*rk.

I found it much easier to ignore the BS during that time, and actually got brave with ignoring stupid requests from my VP. For example, she asked for a very complex report, which I put together for her (as a one time exercise it was useful and reasonable) and then, as usual, she "needed" to get it weekly. There was no way to automate it and I didn't want to waste the time of anyone on my team doing it, so I did it for several weeks. When I got no comments from her for two weeks in a row, I "got too busy" to do it the following week. It took her 3 weeks to notice she wasn't getting it anymore and when she asked me about it I told her exactly what I had done. She agreed that she really didn't need it weekly after all. (This all happened after I made my ER decision but before I announced it.)

I must say, realizing that there could be no consequence for my action made it much easier, but I sort of wished I had been braver much earlier.

 

[Midpack]

While reaching FI does make it easier to avoid "letting certain co-workers bother you," I never would been able to maintain my performance right up until the end had I waited that long. It's a skill you can learn (and continue to improve) at any age, the sooner the better. I could go on and on but here's some basics...

9 Ways To Manage People Who Bother You
Stop letting things get to you | Dash of Reality

Undoubtedly some will roll their eyes , I did too when I was a 20-something, but it finally clicked for me years later - and made life much better. Don't wait for FI to learn how to stop letting other people/events get to you. YMMV

 

[Amethyst]

I just needed to develop a tougher hide. I was raised to always try to see things from the other person's point of view, with the result that people at work felt free to jerk me around. Mentors assured me that people will naturally jerk your chain if they think you're vulnerable, so the secret is not to appear vulnerable.

That doesn't mean I don't still get annoyed! I just don't show it, unless I think getting visibly angry may serve a purpose.

Amethyst

While reaching FI does make it easier to avoid "letting certain co-workers bother you," I never would been able to maintain my performance right up until the end had I waited that long. It's a skill you can learn (and continue to improve) at any age, the sooner the better. I could go on and on but here's some basics...

9 Ways To Manage People Who Bother You
Stop letting things get to you | Dash of Reality

Undoubtedly some will roll their eyes , I did too when I was a 20-something, but it finally clicked for me years later - and made life much better. Don't wait for FI to learn how to stop letting other people/events get to you. YMMV

 

[Dawg52]

My glide time was about 2 years. After I was approved for an individual health policy. At that point, I knew I was good to go. I worked the extra 2 years to pad the ole portfolio. The stress I had felt went away knowing my plan was in place.

 

[Huston55]

I am counting down the days to my quit date in January and I am deeply unenthused about the work at this point. Having deadlines for pointless work pushed in my face and then tightened is making me less and less interested in finishing strong, and just showing up every day to deal with bullcrap is tough. The scheduled internal 1 hour meeting that was supposed to be shorter than that but went over 90 minutes yesterday because my superiors love to hear the sound of their own voices is just the maraschino cherry on top of this **** sundae.

"DEEPLY UNENTHUSED"

Yep, that's likely to become my new glide path motto.

Thx Brewer!

 

[Ronstar]

I've got 5 months of 2 days a week work left and my work relationships are getting better as time goes on.