Dreams about work

[rk911]

Been FIRE'd for just over two years now. Over that time I have occasionally had dreams about working at my old job. Over the past few weeks however these dreams have become more frequent and seem to consistently focus on frustrating situations at work. Seems curious to me since I don't miss work AT ALL.

Any other FIRE's here have frequent dreams about their old job?

yup. 15-yrs into the mission now and still occasionally dream about work but less frequently as time goes by.

 

[JoeWras]

Heck the first time I saw Animal House I thought it was a documentary film.

 

[Gumby]

Heck the first time I saw Animal House I thought it was a documentary film. Just remember there's still time to change the path you're on. As I digress.

Animal House came out while I was in college. As a graduate of the school ranked #4 on Princeton Review's "Stone Cold Sober Schools," that was, sadly, not my college experience.

 

[atmsmshr]

I am a year out from retirement, and outside of the occasional work dream in the early months, none this year.

On the other hand, last night my dream was nervously preparing to perform espionage in Japan. Delayed backstage at a bombed out theater due to having trouble tying the 12 laces on each of my boots. Don't know how a 6'2" German-Scandinavian was going to spy unnoticed in Asia, but I was game.

DW said I may need therapy.

 

[Amethyst]

That sounds like a movie. Starring Leslie Nielsen.

On the other hand, last night my dream was nervously preparing to perform espionage in Japan. Delayed backstage at a bombed out theater due to having trouble tying the 12 laces on each of my boots. Don't know how a 6'2" German-Scandinavian was going to spy unnoticed in Asia, but I was game.

DW said I may need therapy.

 

[blueskyk]

On the other hand, last night my dream was nervously preparing to perform espionage in Japan. Delayed backstage at a bombed out theater due to having trouble tying the 12 laces on each of my boots. Don't know how a 6'2" German-Scandinavian was going to spy unnoticed in Asia, but I was game.



DW said I may need therapy.

Sounds like the beginning of a great adventure book or TV series to me!

 

[atmsmshr]

We could call the movie/tv series "Misadventures of the retired Spy".

On a more serious note, as a retired nuclear engineer with military experience, I won't share my daymares.

 

[Koolau]

Animal House came out while I was in college. As a graduate of the school ranked #4 on Princeton Review's "Stone Cold Sober Schools," that was, sadly, not my college experience.

Sounds like my school. I recall a discussion in first year psych class. A guy from the East Cost was bemoaning the fact that our school hadn't had any riots over Viet Nam. Nobody in class chimed in. I thought the guy was gonna cry.

The on-campus "Peace Union" held a rally "on the green" to roll back the newly instated fee increases for the next year's tuition. Several thousand of us turned out. The "leader" yelled in the mic "We're gonna roll back the fees, right?" The crowd went wild. "And we're gonna stop the war in Viet Nam, right?" Dead silence - with chirping birds. The attendees began drifting away and that was it.

Now returning you to our discussions of dreams...

 

[Amethyst]

Evidently they do not involve nuclear accidents, or you would not have settled so close to an N-power plant!

We could call the movie/tv series "Misadventures of the retired Spy".

On a more serious note, as a retired nuclear engineer with military experience, I won't share my daymares.

 

[Gumby]

On a more serious note, as a retired nuclear engineer with military experience, I won't share my daymares.

I had a few of those - starting with these words: "Conn. Maneuvering. Reactor Scram......" Then there was the regular, but no less terrifying, at least for the initial minute or so, "Conn. Radio. Receiving Flash Traffic."

 

[atmsmshr]

Outside of non-regulatory compliant and poorly designed plants like Chernobyl or Fukushimia, civilian nuclear power can be a force of good.

As Gumby alludes to, living on a fleet ballistic missile submarine is riding around everyday in a machine of Armageddon.

 

[Koolau]

Outside of non-regulatory compliant and poorly designed plants like Chernobyl or Fukushimia, civilian nuclear power can be a force of good.

As Gumby alludes to, living on a fleet ballistic missile submarine is riding around everyday in a machine of Armageddon.

I guess the old adage "99% boredom punctuated by 1% stark terror" could apply. YMMV

 

[Al in Ohio]

I have had a few dreams about both work and college since I retired 10 years ago. The work ones often include thinking I have to get up and catch the train I hated taking, even only 2 or 3 days a week like I had in the last 7 years I worked. The college ones included, for some weird reason, having to attend a class I not only hated but actually dropped after a few weeks!

Curious. Why did you hate taking the train? No driving in traffic to desl with!

 

[scrabbler1]

Curious. Why did you hate taking the train? No driving in traffic to desl with!

Driving from Long Island to Jersey City, New Jersey was unthinkable, especially during the rush hour. Even during off-peak hours, the two times I drove it on a weekend were terrible, taking nearly 2 hours one-way. I'd have to drive through New York City, including Manhattan, with the horrible traffic. THAT would be a nightmare.

 

[rk911]

Curious. Why did you hate taking the train? No driving in traffic to desl with!

not the OP but for 2-yrs i drove into Chicago for classes at U of I and traffic was it’s usual horrible. even scheduling no class before 10 or after 2 was little help. but give me my car and my radio over the crowded, smelly and dirty commuter train any day.

 

[Al in Ohio]

Driving from Long Island to Jersey City, New Jersey was unthinkable, especially during the rush hour. Even during off-peak hours, the two times I drove it on a weekend were terrible, taking nearly 2 hours one-way. I'd have to drive through New York City, including Manhattan, with the horrible traffic. THAT would be a nightmare.

I don’t get it. If you taking the train aren’t you NOT driving?

 

[scrabbler1]

I don’t get it. If you taking the train aren’t you NOT driving?

That's right, I never drove to my office when I had to work there. The two times I drove there were for non-work purposes. The first time was the year before my company moved there. A friend/coworker, who lived near the new office, gave me a little tour of the area before I drove us back into Manhattan to play at his favorite bridge club. The second time I drove there to pick up some old personal computer equipment the company was selling back to employees dirt cheap. I was on my way driving to northern Virginia.

Driving there on a regular workday was unthinkable, as it would have taken at least 2 hours each way (while the trains took about one hour and 15 minutes). Even those two time I drove there took me nearly 2 hours, once on a Saturday afternoon and the other a Saturday morning, hardly rush hours.

 

[donheff]

not the OP but for 2-yrs i drove into Chicago for classes at U of I and traffic was it’s usual horrible. even scheduling no class before 10 or after 2 was little help. but give me my car and my radio over the crowded, smelly and dirty commuter train any day.

I rode the Rock Island Train (pre Metra) from the south side to downtown for a few years and liked it. I could relax and read the paper and not deal with stop and go traffic. At other times I rode the El from Lincoln Park and preferred that to driving, although it better fit your description.

 

[JoeWras]

I had a weird one last night!

Dreamed I was back at work in some newfangled, futuristic, fancy, all-white (kind of like Apple white) work desk farm. Not cubes, more the new side by side work tables.

Everyone was working hard.

Except me. My workstation was a nice, comfortable bed. I slept all day while they worked around me. After sleeping for what seemed like a few weeks, I announced I'm leaving. Nobody seemed to care. I left.

This was one of the strangest dreams I've had in years. I'm sure there is symbolism here. Or, maybe I was just really tired.

 

[LRDave]

I just awoke from a work dream as well. This one is a recurring theme. In this case, it was at my last j*b (more or less - some weird changes, but that is common to most dreams of mine). Some assignment I had forgotten or didn't want to do..... wondering what I was going to, wondering if I could get out of doing it somehow. Then slow realizing I had retired and could just leave! I have been dreaming some version of this 3 times a week since retirement.

 

[Nemo2]

I used to have one, not so much any more, (in fact not for years):

Variations on a theme: Huge office, I seem to recognize some people; I'm apparently a sales rep again.

I have no idea what the company does, but someone, presumably my sales manager, hands me an enormous case file and says I'm late for a customer meeting.

I don't know who the customer is, or where they're located, but jump on a crowded city bus and start trying to interpret the file.

Look up...bus is empty except for the driver, and we're in the middle of nowhere with not a building in sight.

That's when I wake up and go "Whaaat?"

 

[O2Bfree]

I had a similar "lost and/or late" dream about work recently. Went to my office with my laptop and was wandering around looking for familiar faces or places, as everything looked different. The place looked more like the old office when I started the job, with cubicles and cluttered, pre-5S engineering stations here and there, but with new, young engineers walking around. I sat down at a desk and did something with some work files on my laptop, then started wandering around again. Then I realized I was lost and didn't know where my laptop was. A young man kindly guided me back to the desk I'd used, then the dream ended with a nice surprise: He told me that what I'd done on my laptop earlier qualified as work and handed me a check for $420!

I guess after a year some part of me still misses the feeling of paychecks coming in, though I get enough from my investment income stream, and my accounts have actually grown since I retired.

 

[jebmke]

I used to have one, not so much any more, (in fact not for years):

Variations on a theme: Huge office, I seem to recognize some people; I'm apparently a sales rep again.

I have no idea what the company does, but someone, presumably my sales manager, hands me an enormous case file and says I'm late for a customer meeting.

I don't know who the customer is, or where they're located, but jump on a crowded city bus and start trying to interpret the file.

Look up...bus is empty except for the driver, and we're in the middle of nowhere with not a building in sight.

That's when I wake up and go "Whaaat?"

Variation on the "exam dream" but in this case, you walk in to workplace and have no idea how to perform the job.

 

[Nemo2]

Variation on the "exam dream" but in this case, you walk in to workplace and have no idea how to perform the job.

In mine I didn't even know what the job was.

Hold on....hold on..perhaps they weren't dreams but actual real life memories.

 

[FreeBear]

These really tapered off 2 years ago. Got them almost weekly for the first 3-4 years.

After moving far away to SE Arizona this year, they’ve almost stopped. Now I get dreams involving all the remodeling we’ve been doing!