Would a Gold Watch Help the Transition?

[pb4uski]

My former mega was quite generous. Quinquennial anniversaries were celebrated with selections from a catalogue and were generally nice quality items and better/more expensive for more tenure.

Retirement parties for retiring partners or departing long-term staff were typical. Today's retiring partner or departing staff could become tomorrow's client or someone in a position of influence at a potential client.

Non-partner retirements were rare.... but when I retired (technically resigned) after 13 years they gave me a nice retirement party at a local pub with appetizers, finger food and open bar and a lot of colleagues from my time stopped by to say goodbye. They also paid for my and DW travel expenses and put us up at the Waldorf.

 

[sengsational]

For those of you where retirement was initiated with some acknowledgement of the milestone (for instance, a party, with or without a parting gift), that would serve to force society to "acknowledge the transformed you", at least to your "work society". The ritual of having a gift that you can talk about with your non-work peers can serve to cement your new role (at least that's what I might infer from the article).

 

[infoseeker]

I have a very colorful set of ribbons from 21 years in the military, many with bits of metal attached. Intrinsically worthless, but great sentimental value.

Thank you for your service.

If you have other memorabilia from your military career it makes a great shadow box presentation. I have done this with my dad's service ribbons, dog tags, dog eared paper military ID, black and white military ID photo. I used his DD 214 as a back ground. Vintage, original, sentimental, patriotic.......what a wonderful way to use/preserve these items that often get lost.

 

[athena53]

I have a very colorful set of ribbons from 21 years in the military, many with bits of metal attached. Intrinsically worthless, but great sentimental value.

I loved the quote from Napoleon in your Sig line! Some things don't change; I sent my son to NY Military Academy for HS and one of the staff mentioned that they had to make sure not to run out of medals and ribbons because the students really wanted to display them when they earned them. (DS and I joked about how the public school would feel about a system where each student's accomplishments- or lack thereof- was displayed on their clothing every day, but it sure worked for DS.)

But, closer to the OT- I once started a discussion on a LinkedIn group for alumni of a megacorp and asked what paraphernalia everyone had from the company. It got more responses than anything I ever posted on LinkedIn. People who had fond memories of the company (and most did) enjoyed having the logo items around.

 

[jim584672]

Megacorp gave me a gold watch (at least gold colored) at 25 years of service.

 

[sailor]

Our megacorp also offers catalog purchases every 5 years of service.
I let family members choose. For 10 years DW got nice food processor,
for 15 years my kids got binoculars.

 

[Goonie]

They gave me a cheapo watch after 32+ years of employment. I don't wear a watch. Never took it out of the box, and have no clue where it is. I would have much preferred a gift certificate at my neighborhood butchershop!

I didn't need anything to help me transition into retirement. I was already living my life my way, and the j*b was merely a daily distraction from that, as well as a funding source for that. Once I fire'd, the only change in my living life, was that I no longer had to deal with that daily distraction. All of my friends and family adjusted to my retirement just as quickly and easily.....even without any 'transition gift'.