What were your signals?

[VFK57]

During my 36 years carrier I had a few jobs I hated to go to but always was able to overpower myself in order to bring in pay. Twice it was due to a bad boss who managed skilled techs but had no any training or experience in what he managed. Yet much more hated were constant nightly emergency calls in, sometimes twice in one night, driving to a plant half asleep and working with machinery (Chillers, boilers, huge air handlers, high voltage etc) because some companies had no night shift coverage yet operating 24/7 manufacturing. There were also jobs that I enjoyed to work at despite occasional calls in which were not so frequent. Yet I knew that my time was up as HVAC tech when I no longer could do it due to health issues.

 

[phil1ben]

When I was no longer motivated by money. When I got more joy thinking about a future trip to Europe or Montana then looking at a bonus check.

 

[Zorba]

I just felt done. I'm just not as excited about the new projects like I once was. I developed a giant case of "been there, done that".

Sure there are always new peaks to climb, but they all look like the same peaks I've climbed before. Time for a change.

 

[FreeBear]

Over 15 years I watched the company attitude go from "startup", where individual productivity was first priority, to BIG, where "process" was more important than productivity. Middle managers were more and more isolated from the negative effects of their decisions, so they made choices based on what gave them a bigger bonus. Anyone working for a big company is probably familiar with this. The change happened slowly, like boiling a frog, so we got used to it.

But what put me over the edge was working through the Memorial Day holiday weekend in 2014, fixing bugs for a software release that I later learned no one wanted. Previously our VP had declared that "all deadlines would be met", even if they made no sense. Some other idiot had set the release date for Wednesday after Memorial Day, and testing started Wednesday before. Anyone with half a brain could have foreseen the consequences. No one was willing to change the schedule when they realized that customers weren't interested in the new feature. I realized that management was broken, and it couldn't be fixed from where I sat.

I guess this got me started thinking outside the box. It was during the process of exploring my options that I realized I had enough saved to retire on. Then it was just a matter of choosing the time.

+1

Bingo! Glad you escaped too.

Like you, things for me started well, but gradually deteriorated. The last 6 years were often bad; the last 2 years were living Hell! I'm so glad DW & I had saved enough to get out.

It's amazing reading this thread. So many of these situations also applied to my old j*b.