What were your signals?

[Mr._Graybeard]

For me it was the technology. Rather than saving labor, it increased my work load as management used it to enhance the company's online presence -- and eliminate others' jobs. As a former co-w*orker used to remark, "Every upgrade is a downgrade."

After a new, particularly migrane-producing platform was rolled out, I slogged through for a few months until a buyout offer came around (they were pretty regular annual events).

 

[Danmar]

When the hassle of working is bigger than the financial benefit of working. This relationship starts to move in one direction once FI is achieved.

 

[scrabbler1]

When the hassle of working is bigger than the financial benefit of working. This relationship starts to move in one direction once FI is achieved.

I actually created this imbalance intentionally when I twice reduced my weekly hours worked, the second time 17 months before I ERed. I was trying to reduce the hassle of working but it barely nudged while the financial benefit of working fell. hmmmmm......

 

[DrRoy]

My timing was greatly influenced by the financials, and I have 2 months left to RE, but I find that I am losing patience for the annoying demands that I get from customers from time to time.

 

[Danmar]

My timing was greatly influenced by the financials, and I have 2 months left to RE, but I find that I am losing patience for the annoying demands that I get from customers from time to time.

I know the feeling. The closer I got to my retirement date the more I cringed when I saw my boss's name (or his assistant) come up on my phone. When that happens you know it is "time".

 

[ttvjef]

Wow, it's like I'm thinking out loud when I read the posts in this thread. Nice to know I'm not the only one.

+1

I'm going a bit crazy here at my job these days. Not a whole lot to do. I was previously a high performer and kept engaged but I'm at the point now that I don't really care about what's going on. I do get to work remotely once a week so that's nice.
So the signs are there for me and I'm looking for the best method/process to escape. There're planning to move the project I'm on to another city, so at this point it's a sinking ship. I'm hanging on to see if I could get UE, as I'm a consultant. Would be nice to get laid off and be on my ER way

 

[athena53]

Over 30 years ago, some of my actuarial colleagues were discussing a former coworker who had been given a promotion he didn't want. They told him he had no choice. He told them yes, he did, and quit and retired to FL. I think that left a permanent impression on me.

Years later, when I was in my late 50s and I'd talk to former colleagues at professional society meetings and they were already retired. I just felt little twinges of jealousy. One had retired at 57 and told me I could do it, too, but I wasn't married, as she was, to a guy who'd worked for umpty-ump years at IBM and had a nice DB pension and retiree health insurance.

I actually loved the work I was doing till the day I left. Give me a pile of data and ask me to find some interesting stuff in it and distill the good stuff into user-friendly graphics and I'm in hog heaven. Unfortunately, they brought in someone who sabotaged me and turned people against me and I just looked at the investments and my projections and decided I didn't want to do it anymore. I was gone a week later, at age 61. The person who sabotaged me was gone less than 6 months later. That was 2 years ago and her LinkedIn profile is still gone. Karma.

 

[Carpediem]

Not retired yet but one of the signals telling me to get out is the following email I received this morning:

"In prep for the team meeting discussion related to Cultural Navigator, a deck with background has been attached. Please review and let me know if there are any questions. During the meeting, we will talk about the Team Aggregate and Gap Analysis results – this should be fun/interesting!!"

 

[Chuckanut]

Two things:

The unfortunate death of several close friends and relatives to disease that seemed to come out of nowhere and strike down previously very healthy people.

A work environment where my bosses tossed out phrases like 'world class' and 'excellence' right and left, promised the moon, but seemed more interested in promoting their pet projects than actually helping us meet our goals.

Finally, 35+ years of LBYM put me in a position where I could enjoy life and not have to work. See the attached cartoon:

 

[msieweke]

Chuckanut, this is now one of my favorite comics. Thank you!

 

[CaptTom]

...A work environment where my bosses tossed out phrases like 'world class' and 'excellence' right and left...

Oh, yeah. At my former company, employees were supposed to be excellent and world-class performers.

But The pay scale was carefully analyzed annually and adjusted to the industry median.

"Striving for mediocrity" I used to call it.

No, I don't miss the place. Co-workers, yes. Working there, no.

 

[kimcdougc]

I worked for a non-profit. They did something I didn't agree with and I just gave a 6 weeks notice and quit. That was the first time in my life that I could actually quit a job without having another one to go to. I knew I had enough funds to last the rest of DH and my lives. That was almost 7 years ago.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

For me it was the technology. Rather than saving labor, it increased my work load as management used it to enhance the company's online presence -- and eliminate others' jobs. As a former co-w*orker used to remark, "Every upgrade is a downgrade."

After a new, particularly migrane-producing platform was rolled out, I slogged through for a few months until a buyout offer came around (they were pretty regular annual events).

Yes- this is happening for me too. Company just eliminated an important data field on my desktop. When I called to ask where it had gone, I was told that "customers didn't want that information" What does a customer care what is on my desktop? Besides that, clients ask for that information all the time and now I have to go through 17 steps to find it. AARGH.

 

[CaptTom]

FAs a former co-w*orker used to remark, "Every upgrade is a downgrade."

Yes! I worked with computers for 36 years. It used to be we'd all look forward to an upgrade. Faster, easier to use, useful new features, etc.

Now every new version is slower, takes more steps to accomplish anything, is bloated with useless features, and includes a lot of changes "for change's sake" so customers think they're getting something better.

Frequently, advanced capabilities and features that full-time users rely on is removed to "simplify" the system for beginners. Beginners write the reviews and will complain if there's too much functionality they don't yet understand.

I don't know exactly when that change occurred, but it was certainly a "signal" to me that the job wasn't fun anymore.

 

[Nemo2]

Now every new version is slower, takes more steps to accomplish anything, is bloated with useless features, and includes a lot of changes "for change's sake" so customers think they're getting something better.

+1 Or, as I frequently remark to DW, (who used to be a Software Developer), "AAAAARRRRGHHHH!"

 

[mystang52]

Several for me, but top 2:
1) Working in Manhattan, it wasn't feasible to run lunchtime or before work. Running in the dark, when I got home, flat-out sucked. So, I wasn't running much and that bothered me a lot.
2) By NYC commuting standards, I had a good commute. Nevertheless, in the last year or so I started to hate even that "good" commute.

 

[6miths]

The two jobs I left, the main signal was that I found myself singing The Animals 'We've gotta get out of this place' on my way from the parking lot to the building or just sitting in my car in the parking lot.

 

[TNBigfoot]

The things getting under my skin these days are:
- W*rking in a matrixed org where there are few deciders and many
approvers.
- Being handed projects where I have all the accountability but no
authority.
- Leading projects where I have to beg others for funding from their
Budgets and I have none of my own.

Just a few....

 

[pacergal]

I enjoyed my job, loved my co workers and my last boss was the greatest. I always had a "date" to retire, due to retiree health benefits. My boss asked me to work on call to help with projects and I agreed. However, the last six months before retiring, I stopped sleeping well, BP went up and I knew I could not go back. It only took 2 months for sleep to improve and blood pressure to go way back down. My body knew what my working brain did not at the time. Work was not good for me!

 

[msieweke]

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.

 

[nvestysly]

OK, for those of you very close or just into retirement. What were your mental signals (beyond financial) it was time to retire.

I can't decide if;
a) I'm reaching a new level of laziness not seen before, or
b). It's time to pull the plug on work.

Yep, that's the age-old question. I don't have an answer and it wasn't particularly clear to me until mega-corp offered an incentive to leave. It became crystal clear at that point.

I had already been going back and forth between a) and b)... I knew it wasn't really laziness and I was working as hard as ever to do complete my projects at work. However, my heart was just not in it - w*rk, that is. As I said, mega-corp made it crystal clear but it was relatively clear (your answer b.) that it was just time to go.

 

[CaptTom]

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.

Sounds like the big company I worked for. Same exact mentality.

Being reminded of things I DON'T miss about working always cheers me up Thanks!

 

[bclover]

Uh, finding myself in tears 2 or 3 days a week as I parked the truck to hop onto the commuter train.

this literally was me brewer. my last months on my job I would be sitting in the parking lot crying because I did not want to go in.

that was it for me

 

[6miths]

this literally was me brewer. my last months on my job I would be sitting in the parking lot crying because I did not want to go in.

that was it for me

Glad I got out before I got to the crying stage... singing was enough to tell me it was time to go. Definitely can identify though.

 

[brewer12345]

this literally was me brewer. my last months on my job I would be sitting in the parking lot crying because I did not want to go in.

that was it for me

After most business trips I would also be in tears when I finally got to the parking garage and saw the truck on the way home.