Nightmare

[Donzo]

Since retiring 4 and a half months ago I have been having a recurring nightmare. I dream that I was lured back into my old management position by the national director. At first I try and convince myself that it is a good thing - I will get to spend time with my direct reports ( the one part of the job I did for the most part enjoy), I have the corporate card back, money will be flowing IN again etc. Then I find myself in line at the airport waiting to go through security, the cell is ringing and I realize I am going on a week long business trip and my time is not my own - About then I wake up with a jolt -- and feel SO relieved that I am still free

Did you guys have a similar nightmare? - is this a normal thing for ERs that left a job they disliked?
What are your dreams/nightmares?

 

[youbet]

Did you guys have a similar nightmare? - is this a normal thing for ERs that left a job they disliked?

No nightmares for me. I'm delighted to be ER'd and am enjoying this time very, very much. But my attitude towards work was pragmatic, that it was something I needed to do to support myself and the family and I made the best of it. I have no urge to go back, but I have no nightmares over the memories either. That was then, this is now.

 

[justin]

I had a similar dream last night.

Then this morning I woke up and went to work...

 

[Nords]

Since retiring 4 and a half months ago I have been having a recurring nightmare.
Did you guys have a similar nightmare? - is this a normal thing for ERs that left a job they disliked?
What are your dreams/nightmares?

I sure hope it's normal.

Maybe it's our subconscious minds trying to process (& hopefully discard) years of trauma. I find it hard to believe that it's a repressed longing to return to the workplace.

I have submarine nightmares at least weekly, which is less often than I used to have them. At least I don't wake up shouting orders anymore...

 

[tryan]

Similar dream happened to me couple months ago ... interviewed then hired in the same sitting. Everyone - all faces I knew; but a different mega corp - welcoming me back. Finally I realize what's happened and start running for the door (but running inplace, of course) .... then wake up.

What a releif.

 

[OAG]

Did not think of them as nightmares but OFTEN I will have dreams about military times over 30 years ago. Kind of neat as I even remember faces and names in those dreams. Guess some experiences just have a way of getting imprinted in our minds and never get erased. And it could be a sign that our minds are not getting too hazy as we age. Have to leave that one to the medical experts.

 

[johnlw]

Good Question.

The “work dreams” I have are from over 20 years ago. I’ve been working in Information Technology (programmer, database administrator) for almost 20 years, but the dreams I have are from a blue collar job I had when I was in my 20’s (lineman for a power company).

I frequently dream about things that are no longer part of my day to day reality (childhood, my father who died 5 years ago, the old blue collar job). Perhaps it’s a way to stay in touch with something or someone that was once a very important part of your life and still is.

John

 

[Bob_Smith]

Nope. No nightmares, no worries, no anxiety of any kind. After living largely for the future, I'm now living in the here and now for the first time since I was a little kid.

When I first retired there was a little anxiety mixed in with the elation. I can recall feeling like someone would show up at the door and say, "What the hell do you think you're doing... get your lazy ass back to work!". That feeling has passed. The elation is toned down too.

 

[audreyh1]

Yes, I had a very similar dream - being "lured" back to work, and then wondering "what the he** am I doing working again?!?!". Very occasionally. But it did seem to recur for several years. It's been a while since I have had such a dream now.

Audrey

 

[Khan]

Yes, I had a very similar dream - being "lured" back to work, and then wondering "what the he** am I doing working again?!?!". Very occasionally. But it did seem to recur for several years. It's been a while since I have had such a dream now.

Audrey

I haven't had a work dream in quite a while. The last ones I did, I would be having some terrible problems and suddenly think: "I'm retired" and wake up.

 

[kcowan]

Never had any nightmares but I left employment for consulting 10 years before I retired. In one of my consulting assignments (as VP Operations) I initiated a 20% corporate-wide downsizing. I fired 6 (of the 120) people that day. That day replayed a few times because it weighed heavily on my conscience. But never as a nightmare.

 

[AltaRed]

Cannot recall having a dream or a nightmare about work since I retired. Maybe because I don't recall having any real traumatic moments at work, just 11-12 hours a day of half fun, half garbage.

 

[Donzo]

Thanks for the replies - it seems to be a mixed bag concerning post work - work dreams. I don't feel like I had any real "trauma" in my career, its just that it became so mind numbing and I lost my patience w/ all the politics my ex megacorp doled out - the jockeying for position etc.
The best part of this dream is the waking up......and falling back to sleep with a smile on my face

PS- NORDS - If I shouted out orders to my people I would have had bruised egos and complaints to HR...everything had to be carefully worded and delivered w/ a spoon full of sugar One of the many differences between megacorp and military! Of course there are no life vs. death situations in megacorp....altho it felt like it sometimes no more.
Tyran - I have had that running in place dream also - very fustrating!
Audrey - good to hear that the dream may fade w/ time

Regaurds -
Donzo

 

[ERD50]

Yes, I had a very similar dream - being "lured" back to work, and then wondering "what the he** am I doing working again?!?!". Very occasionally. But it did seem to recur for several years. It's been a while since I have had such a dream now.

Audrey

That's how mine have gone, too. It's really strange, I'm also 'lured' back to work for some project they 'need' me on, nothing bad happens, work actually goes along just fine, no conflicts, no pressure, nothing. But, I'm bored, I just *don't* want to be there,. And I can't seem to get up the courage to tell them I'm going home and not coming back, even though everyone knows that I'm retired. It seems to go on for months (in my dream).

It's so nice to wake up and realize that I am *not* going to be bored today

-ERD50

 

[HFWR]

"...You are not wrong who deem
that my days have been a dream.
Yet if hope has flown away, in a night or in a day
In a vision, or in none;
Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream."

E.A. Poe

 

[Nords]

PS- NORDS - If I shouted out orders to my people I would have had bruised egos and complaints to HR...everything had to be carefully worded and delivered w/ a spoon full of sugar One of the many differences between megacorp and military! Of course there are no life vs. death situations in megacorp....altho it felt like it sometimes no more.

Eh, our HR understood that sometimes it was hard to make yourself heard over the din of the sirens & buzzers, the roar of the flooding, the rush of the steam leak, the squawk box of your air mask, or the screams of the survivors...

700-psi air leaks were the worst for broadband noise coverage. You could literally scream and not hear yourself, let alone your shipmate. 4500-psi and 3000-psi air were well-behaved minor inconveniences by comparison.

 

[Donzo]

Ah, I had'nt thought about the noise factor aboard a sub. The most noise I had to deal with while talking w/ an employee was while driving in his company Ford Explorer.....w/ terribly cupped tires!