What I don't miss about work.

[Letj]

There really isn’t anything I miss about work. I just hated working period. I hated having my time controlled, the politics, the posturing, the jockeying for attention by coworkers, presentations to senior management who were too lazy to read the reports themselves, the endless closing and budget cycles, etc, etc.

 

[Koolau]

oooooh...who remembers "Quality Circles"?

Yeah, we had a choice name for 'em. It stated with Circle. YMMV

 

[punkinhead]

I got satisfaction out of solving difficult problems but beyond that I don't miss a thing. The deadlines, the international travel, having someone else control my schedule... I can find problems to solve at home so I don't need work for that.

 

[MarieIG]

Billable hours.

Nasty-grams.

Inequity in assignments

The Covid-prompted protocols. (Nothing to do with masks or the physical aspects of Covid - more like firing some people and overloading others with their work.)

Over-nighters.

Rushes.

(Fixing) other people's messes.

Being exhausted physically and emotionally.

 

[aja8888]

oooooh...who remembers "Quality Circles"?

You would remind me if that nonsense.

 

[Ronstar]

Commute, time cards, paperwork, meetings.

 

[ClarkeK]

What I don't miss in aerospace procurement:

Engineer: We have a new design and need this, this and this.

Me: Ok, these parts are typically 26 weeks, when do you need them?

Eng: Tomorrow

 

[rk911]

Yeah, we had a choice name for 'em. It stated with Circle. YMMV

 

[Midpack]

I enjoyed most of the 50-80 local people I worked with daily, even miss/still talk with a few - but I don't miss the half dozen or so who were never happy. And I don't miss "the suits that ran the store" (about half the entitled Corp dweebs). I had a good 35 year run, enjoyed about 33 years of it, that was enough...

 

[pacergal]

......
- technology that was clearly broken, then being asked if I would "turn it on and off again"....

This, I don't miss this. That was always the first thing IT asked when I called, except ours was "Did you turn it on and off yet?" the answer was always YES, before I called!

 

[Dtail]

3 hour round trip commute except the last 6 years.
The last boss I had.
Wondering when I will retire, even though overall I liked my career.

 

[f35phixer]

the crap SW the manufacture of my forum name would give us for testing over and over and over again.... Excuse me, how can we test this?? BYE BYE ;-)

 

[TheWizard]

This, I don't miss this. That was always the first thing IT asked when I called, except ours was "Did you turn it on and off yet?" the answer was always YES, before I called!

'twould likely be better to reverse the sequence: turn it OFF and then back ON...

 

[scrabbler1]

The commute is what I was most glad to get rid of. Even as little as 2 days a week in my last 17 months of working, I hated it. Commuting on the trains distorted my view of time because I had to live by the LIRR train schedule. I could basically leave the office at only certain times. If I left 5 minutes earlier, I'd have to wait around at Penn Station longer and get home at the same time. If I left 5 minutes later, I'd miss my train and get home 20 minutes later. In the morning, I was often under time pressure to make a certain train. If I left 5 minutes later, I'd get to work 20 minutes later. It's not like driving where, if you leave 5 minutes later, you arrive 5 minutes later, usually.

I hated meetings at work, they were usually too long and a waste of time. I hated writing up employee evaluations, too. Got into some hot water on one, not because I wrote something inaccurate or undeserved, but because my boss's feedback and his boss's feedback conflicted, and I got criticized for that! When I switched to working part-time, I thankfully didn't have to write up any more of them although I had to provide feedback to the evaluation writers on those who reported to me, which was fine.

 

[easysurfer]

I really don't miss those conference calls and meetings where one group tries to push work onto other groups and have me thinking why the heck am I here?

 

[Irishgirlyc58]

Yeah, we had a choice name for 'em. It stated with Circle. YMMV

We had cluster ****s instead.
I of course was in government work. [emoji23]

I don’t really miss anything.

I sure don’t miss sitting through insufferable board meetings. In fact I forgot about those until one day someone asked me about the previous meeting.

I’m only 4 months into retirement. I think it took me 2 weeks to forget about my 35 year career.

 

[Scout]

The worry and stress that people don't get hurt/killed and follow all safety rules. No short cuts do it safe every time all the time.

Sending crews out in storms and adverse weather conditions in a dangerous job to begin with.

I don't miss that stress one bit!!!

What did you do Street?

 

[Koolau]

I enjoyed most of the 50-80 local people I worked with daily, even miss/still talk with a few - but I don't miss the half dozen or so who were never happy. And I don't miss "the suits that ran the store" (about half the entitled Corp dweebs). I had a good 35 year run, enjoyed about 33 years of it, that was enough...

Glad you got a good 33 out of 35. I seemed to have 5 or 6 year runs of good followed by about the same periods of bad. My last 7 years was pretty good because I got to do what I wanted to do, my office was at the front of the plant and my windows overlooked a pastoral scene with herds of deer playing and I was financially independent so I simply ignored the corporate cwap. When I was informed I was going to have another bad period, I left within the week. Nice ending to a "checkered" c*reer. YMMV

 

[street]

What did you do Street?

Electrical line superintendent/engineering.

 

[Koolau]

Electrical line superintendent/engineering.

Heh, heh, so do you love or hate "Wichita Lineman" by Glen Campbell?

 

[street]

Heh, heh, so do you love or hate "Wichita Lineman" by Glen Campbell?

LOL! Well, nice to have a song with that title but not a fan of the song. I have a lot of respect for the lineman and my hats goes off to all in the industry.

 

[Winemaker]

Meetings and all the gobbledegoop that went with them. Nothing like spending 10 + hours underground on midnight shift, then come out and go to a meeting with guys that worked 8 hours underground and had to stick around until you came above ground and signed the legal books. Then listen to BS about not putting heart into it... Then they sell your a$$ off to avoid liabilities.

 

[big-papa]

This year's "new age" (or what ever) program to make us more productive: Performance Excellence, 6 Sigma, etc.


Oh, and I don't miss Performance Appraisals (both giving and receiving.) YMMV

Just finished giving performance appraisals for the very last time.

My direct manager was let go shortly before the performance review cycle started, so I reported to his boss for a while, who was the one who actually wrote my performance appraisal. But then he was let go. So it was completely awesome to have my performance review delivered by somebody (my new, permanent boss) whom I didn't report to for the bulk of last year and which was written by somebody who is no longer at the company.

But at least I did get to tell new boss that I'm retiring during my performance review. So at least that was something. Felt kinda bad for him because he's somebody I've known for years and believe that I'd enjoy reporting to him. But my plans are in place. Final date still to be determined as I've agreed to stay on as long as reasonable to help replace me and train new person.

Anyway, HATE HATE HATE performance reviews, at least as they've been done in every mega-corp I've worked at for the bulk of 4 decades. Ranking people with different skillsets, applying a forced distribution of scores, delivering bad news to people who are great performers in an absolute sense, but simply had people better than they are in the organization and then having to explain to higher-ups why we have attrition.

Nope, not gonna miss it one bit...

Cheers,
Big-Papa

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

One thing I don't miss is the software updates, each one of which was designed to wring a little more productivity out of you. (None ever had the goal of making the j*b easier.) And with every update came the bugs that had to be worked around on the fly while the systems guy struggled to straighten them out. A former colleague summed it up: "Every upgrade is a downgrade."

 

[ElizabethT]

SMART goals. My gawd I hated them.

As a volunteer, I still resent direct requests asking if I can fill in for another volunteer. The answer, for the record, will always be 'No.' I control my life now, including the time I give away to you for free. I work like a dervish during every volunteer shift, but that is all you get. Be thankful.