What three thing I won't miss after I FIRE

[hakuna matata]

I was thinking this as my alarm went off this morning! What are the things that I won't miss.

First off that &#@% alarm going off at 4:15 so I can catch the 6:10 ferry. I am a natural morning person, but 6ish is my natural time to want to wake up and it will be nice to get to that point again. 6 years...six long years...2496 alarms...not that I am counting

Second thing is coming home after work and going to the gym. I love Saturday, we go to the gym first thing in the morning. Perfect! I hate working all day and then dragging my sorry tush to the gym to work out. I would much prefer to working out first thing in the morning.

Finally I do love my job. It is very rewarding and in many ways I love it, but to not have to 'do' it because I have to, but to do it because I want to will be a very different task. I am an Architect and right now I do great projects but for very very VERY rich people, and I frankly would prefer to do projects for people who truly would appreciate my talents and what I do for them. I think I would be very happy doing kitchen remodels and house remodels that truly changed the lives of those folks living in those houses rather then $1.3 million dollar ski lodges. I know I won't get rich at doing those house remodels but I know that making people happy will also make me happy.

and you? what won't you miss when you FIRE?

 

[laurence]

You get to ride a ferry to work? Screw you!

Alarms, meetings, and office politics. Now that I'm a middle manager, all the worker bees are always hustling me for a favor and other middle managers are always trying to form alliances for petty feuds.

 

[hakuna matata]

You get to ride a ferry to work? Screw you!

Alarms, meetings, and office politics. Now that I'm a middle manager, all the worker bees are always hustling me for a favor and other middle managers are always trying to form alliances for petty feuds.

Yep you sound like my friends son. Who tells him how lucky he is to take a ferry to work every day, the son makes it sound like he is taking a cruise everyday! It 'sounds' romantic until you do it for 10 years But it is better then being stuck on the freeway everyday I suppose.

God don't even get me started about the office politics. I am so glad that I know I am out of there in 6 years that I stay out of that fray. That part is at least refreshing the fact I can stay out of the mud.

 

[laurence]

Maybe you get used to the view, but to not have to clutch a steering wheel while getting crushed in traffic on the freeway...aaah. You could read something, get lost in thought.....aaaahhh.

They built a light rail system with a stop walking distance from my house, I was so happy. Until I found out they made it's last stop was still in the residential district, when 4 miles further would have got it to my work. Blech.

 

[Goonie]

I was thinking this as my alarm went off this morning! What are the things that I won't miss.............

and you? what won't you miss when you FIRE?

Alarms, meetings, and office politics.

Being 16 months FIRE'd....more or less, but who's counting. Anyway in no certain order:

I had to think about 'alarms' for a minute, then I vaguely remembered that those are those annoying time-pieces that make all sorts of disgusting racket way too early in the morning only to disrupt your sleep so you can find out what ungodly time it is. I can't tell you the last time I used one of those nasty things......and I certainly don't miss it!!!

Office politics.....that was nothing! I ignored all that BS. What I really hated were actual political politics. I worked in municipal government, and we had administration changes every 4 years......new [-]dirt bags[/-] politicians that expected to have there *sses kissed by all of the employees. I was always a MAJOR disappointment to them in that category.....if anyone's *ss was going to get kissed, it was going to be mine.....by them. They pretty much steered clear of my "bad attitude" for most of my 30+ years.

And I hated being rushed while eating. I had to scarf down breakfast so I wouldn't be late in the morning. I had to cram my lunch down my gullet on "their" schedule. Then I had to hurry and get cleaned up, so I wouldn't be late supper when I got home. Now I eat when I'm hungry, with no set time for any meal, and no constraints on how long I have to eat each meal.

But in all fairness, there are certain things that I really do miss. I really miss the Okidata Color Laser printer/copier......that sucker made the nicest semi-gloss color pictures on standard copy paper! I miss that! I also miss the fax machine....never needed it much (still don't need it very often)....but it was nice to have when I did need it. And let's see......hmmm.....can't think of anything else that I miss. Nothing! Nada! Zilch!

 

[Walt34]

Insane levels of traffic, requiring one to plan every trip around morning, noon, and evening traffic levels. A 20 minute trip attempted at the "wrong" time could take 2 hours, most of it sitting still. Later on, that was true even on weekends. Don't people do anything other than go shopping?

Procurement BS. The last time I ordered new equipment they spent four times the cost of it paying me to deal with the procurement process, writing specifications, sending out bids to vendors, etc. When we finally got the equipment the vendor included several "free" upgrades because they didn't make what we ordered anymore.

Training BS. Trying to get ongoing training, and not getting an answer until the week before the class is supposed to start. Well, by then it's closed, morons!

 

[Helen]

I won't miss the alarm, being on call every other week, missing out on great weather for outdoor activity while I waste my life away in a cubical, the stress, the Sunday night blues, scheduling vacations around work schedules, the non stop system upgrades which entails long weekends and months of preperation.

My commute is now down to a 1/2 hour bike ride. I also have cheap access to a fitness center. Other than the cheap fitness center I really can't think of a thing I will miss when I retire.

 

[ziggy29]

"Weekly activity reports." Hate 'em. It's such corporate BS.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Expense reports, weekly status reports, and coming in to work and seeing that I have 275 messages in my inbox and knowing I wont like at least 225 of them.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Just having to be somewhere every single day and having to stay there all day.

 

[hankster]

Operating power plants under the direction of people who don't understand power plant operation ("What's taking so long? Don't you guys just push like a big red button thingy?")

Meaningless monthly reports that are ignored if you point out any problems that might actually cost money to fix!

Cumbersome procedures that assume everyone involved is a complete idiot who can't think for themselves and use common sense to adjust for real world conditions.

 

[rs0460a]

Interseting question.

Here's my 3 (based upon my former "j*bs"):

1. Being called in to work third shift (after working days, going to night classes at the local college) resulting in quite a few 24+ hour (shifts).

2. Traveling to our "HQ" (two different sites in Europe) every 4-6 weeks for "unnecessary meetings" (where minutes are kept, and hours are lost). To attend these "required sessions", I had to start my travel at noon on Saturday, travel overnight, arrive afternoon Sunday, and get rested for work Monday morning. On Friday, I would leave Europe on a noon flight, not arriving till late Friday, early Saturday. It took me the rest of the weekend to get back "in sync" with the local time. That means that I "lost" two weekends in my travel.

3. Working since age 13 (at a family businesss - BTW at no pay since you were "part of the family" - ha!, and were given a place to live, and food to eat...) - expected to work every day you "were free" - including weekends, holidays, summer "vacations". If that's the starting point, I "worked" (e.g. some pay, some not) for 46 years. I have no problem with "taking it easy" these days.

- Ron

 

[ziggy29]

Meaningless monthly reports that are ignored if you point out any problems that might actually cost money to fix!

Ah, yes. Don't get me started on the tight-fisted, unbelievably *stupid* practice of not being willing to spend a dollar today to save ten dollars next year. We see that all the time in terms of IT projects that would increase productivity by an order of magnitude if only the company would spend a few bucks and a couple of months of IT work to get it done. So each year hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent because they won't commit to a one-time $20-50K project to streamline and automate operations.

As it is, we keep being told that we are "next in line" to get these resources to automate manual processes and inefficient use of other resources (both labor and equipment), but when the time gets close the budget isn't there or some other "hot" project just leapfrogged us in terms of priority.

I'm sick of it.

 

[rs0460a]

that we are "next in line"
I'm sick of it.

Ah ha! "Sloppy seconds"...

- Ron

 

[oma]

I FIRE in 12 months - almost to the day.

I won't miss....

1. The Nonstop e-mails, some with short suspense taskings.

2. The little control that I have over my personal time while at work - with interruptions, working through lunch, little prediction on my quitting time every day (probably my own fault, some here may say).

3. Little time for myself to exercise/workout.

 

[oma]

ps.....I have a copy of Don't Sweat the Small Stuff that I read while at stop lights on the way to work. It has positively helped me change my perspective at work -

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Ah, yes. Don't get me started on the tight-fisted, unbelievably *stupid* practice of not being willing to spend a dollar today to save ten dollars next year. We see that all the time in terms of IT projects that would increase productivity by an order of magnitude if only the company would spend a few bucks and a couple of months of IT work to get it done. So each year hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent because they won't commit to a one-time $20-50K project to streamline and automate operations.

As it is, we keep being told that we are "next in line" to get these resources to automate manual processes and inefficient use of other resources (both labor and equipment), but when the time gets close the budget isn't there or some other "hot" project just leapfrogged us in terms of priority.

I'm sick of it.

Oh hey, and lets not forget that when something that was reported as being a problem and would have been cheap to fix finally does blow up and costs the company a brazillion dollars, the subsequent witch hunts and the "laying of the blame" game, while everyone who gave the project and expenditure two thumbs down now seems to mysteriously not remember doing so.

Or better still, suggests that you should have been "more persistent" in convincing them.

Orrrrr...the customer groups who think central IT is a bunch of incompetent jagoffs and secretly implement their own "solutions", which inevitably screws up some major system somewhere. Which takes twice as long to fix when the cowboys claim they didnt do anything.

 

[haha]

I am an Architect and right now I do great projects but for very very VERY rich people, and I frankly would prefer to do projects for people who truly would appreciate my talents and what I do for them.

You may find that for many reasons, rich people make the best clients. And the richer they are the better they are.

Ha

 

[hakuna matata]

You may find that for many reasons, rich people make the best clients. And the richer they are the better they are.

Ha

True if I am after only money. But I find that someone foolish enough to spend $2000 a square foot for a ski lodge they use twice a year is not usually someone I have a lot in common with. I don't mind taking their money, but it doesn't give me a lot of personal satisfaction. I love Architecture, but I need the drive that comes from serving a purpose and right now what I do does not give me that.

I will have enough to FIRE by age 55 and at that point I would prefer to do what I want to do, and take the kinds of projects that give me personal satisfaction. I think of it almost as Pro Bono work in that I don't anticipate making huge amounts of cash from it, but I will have huge mental and emotional rewards from it. For example assisting the local Y in figuring out how to better use their space for $150,000 seems more productive to me personally then helping some rich guy design a $1.2 million dollar condo in Vail.

but yes you are correct if I am after money then I should stick with the rich guys!

 

[CuppaJoe]

Welcome, Hakuna Matata, I'll have to look up your original posts. Oh, Seattle, much like the city I live in with even better coffee shops.

I struggled with your question and came to the idea that after 15 years on the same job, I just stopped caring. I've been there about 16+ years now and find i can no longer do the things I was really good at (probably the reason I was hired).

1) I can no longer allow clients to cry on my shoulder. "Your life is in danger?" Get a life, people!

2) I no longer can help and be patient with would-be clients who are friends of the boss' friends. You know, the obnoxious slow talking ones who have been calling for 10+ years for yet another referral; and want me to listen yet again to their full story and complaints about our previous referrals. Get outta here, I like those people we referred you to.

3) I can do the paperwork by rote--it no longer holds any challenges.

4) Bad coffee and short meal breaks.

Rich folks are the lifeblood of the business but, yes, they are less fun. A high point of my career was working with a middle-class client whose case was lost at the state Supreme Court level but was won in later settlement. A justice's dissenting opinion is still citable. OTOH, I had a miserable experience with a pro bona client who got me to do all his paperwork and then changed his mind (three times), refused to sign the papers and insisted on going on to plans B, C, and D. He ODed as I was w*rking on plan D. (edit: He was the guy who frequently called at 4:45 and wanted to talk for an hour) I will not miss that.

 

[Marquette]

Ah, yes. Don't get me started on the tight-fisted, unbelievably *stupid* practice of not being willing to spend a dollar today to save ten dollars next year. We see that all the time in terms of IT projects that would increase productivity by an order of magnitude if only the company would spend a few bucks and a couple of months of IT work to get it done. So each year hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent because they won't commit to a one-time $20-50K project to streamline and automate operations.

Frankly, I'm surprised that I survived 2007. We had a pretty busy 2006... well, I was able to consistantly work 35 hours a week at least. For all of 2007 we were told that more work was coming. We kept spinning up projects to bring new sales channels online only to have things stall in contract or we'd put things on hold because they were no longer aligned with company vision (whatever that means).

And, through it all, we were told to sit on our hands, basically. There were several areas that could have used our help and plenty of innovative things we could have tried, but either our boss (an otherwise rational person) would put a stop to (he didn't want us working on projects outside of the team charter in the event that it'd either break the team up or would cause us to bring on other work that he didn't want to hold on to long-term) or, even better, we couldn't do the work because that'd require a project and we didn't have money to fund new projects. They were happy to pay me to do nothing but couldn't fathom a way to pay me to actually work.

Ah well, at least the second half of 2008 is shaping up a little better. And, any bad day here is still better than my best day at my old job.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Eh, your boss may have been pretty smart. I often did other peoples/groups work when they seemed reticent to do so or they claimed resource problems and I needed the work done to conclude something I was working on.

This was rarely rewarded in a positive manner.

 

[Marquette]

Eh, your boss may have been pretty smart. I often did other peoples/groups work when they seemed reticent to do so or they claimed resource problems and I needed the work done to conclude something I was working on.

This was rarely rewarded in a positive manner.

Totally agreed on not stepping up to do another group's work. But, for example, we had plenty of opportunities to bring on new work that no one else was doing and it would have been highly received by senior leadership on the business side. It's a tough call on what goes from being a favor for the senior vp of distribution to turning into your new delivery job, but all of us would have preferred to err on the side of having too much work than not enough.

It's all a moot point now, my boss quit, we went from first place in the industry to third and they're busy laying off enough of us to get us to be busy again (well, those of us not lucky enough to get laid off... I keep asking but no one loves me)

 

[Nords]

1. Weekend duty.
1a. Weekend duty with a Monday-morning underway.

2. Midwatches.

3. Department-head meetings. I don't know why they're called "DH meetings" if the XO is the one doing all the talking...

 

[M Paquette]

1. Weekend duty.
1a. Weekend duty with a Monday-morning underway.

Weekend duty in a plant that's shutdown, cold, with a Monday morning underway. With fine quality shipyard shore power. No rest for the weary...

"Shutdown Rover, 2JV (doo-da, doo-da...)"
"Rover, Shutdown RO. Could you reset the pressurizer heater breakers again?"

After SRO, guess who's got Startup watch? And Maneuvering Stations?

I bet I dream tonight. Gack.