Not someone I want to emulate

[Whakamole]

I was reading the CEO's annual statement for a company and saw this paragraph:

"Southwest Water Company and the California water industry lost one of their "elder statesmen" in November 2003. Reginald A. Stone, a 43-year veteran employee of our Califonria utility, passed away after a brief illness, just weeks before his planned retirement from the company.

A trusted colleague and personal friend, Reg played an integral role in the success of our Utility Group..."

Poor guy. Working for the same company for 43 years and he didn't even get to enjoy retirement.

[Bob_Smith]

Now that is sad. It reminds me of two coworkers who didn't get to enjoy their retirements. One managed the hospital's social services dept. and the other was a physician. Both killed themselves the day after they retired. One shot himself and the other slit his wrists. To many people, work IS their life.

[Jarhead*]

Quote:

Now that is sad. It reminds me of two coworkers who didn't get to enjoy their retirements. One managed the hospital's social services dept. and the other was a physician. Both killed themselves the day after they retired. One shot himself and the other slit his wrists. To many people, work IS their life.

Bob:

Seems that this is a pattern of a lot of people in the "care" professions. (Dr's, Nurses, etc.).
What is truly sad, is they probably could have left their regular occupations, and continued to get satisfaction, and a possibility to contribute even more if they carried over to volunteer status.
This was the point that I parted company with "Ted" when he was posting. He felt that retiring early was the moral equivelent of deserting under fire in combat.
When I retired at the age of 49, (Which I thought was maybe too early) they interviewd 25 applicants for my old job. Probably the only time I made that many people happy in my career.
Somewhere out there is an individual that may someday discover an innoculation that destroys all cancer cells. (Hope he doesn't decide to retire early.
For the lions share of us, early retirement, if you so choose, can be an opportunity to contribute more than you ever did while working full-time.
Or, as UncleMick says, you can party on

Quote:

Now that is sad. It reminds me of two coworkers who didn't get to enjoy their retirements. One managed the hospital's social services dept. and the other was a physician. Both killed themselves the day after they retired. One shot himself and the other slit his wrists. To many people, work IS their life.

To me, this sounds like they were forced to retire. Maybe they didn't have enough financial assets to retire in comfort.

Here is someone that I would not want to emulate.

The CEO of the company that I worked for started looking for a buyer when he wanted to retire. After 9/11/2001 buyers were tough to find. He ended up selling to our competition that he bad-mouthed for over 10 years. He used to rant and throw tirades about some of our employees that went to work for them. He took his 10 million and went to Florida. The New company mostly fired all the long term employees, and froze development on the product.

This pretty much broke the trust of all the customers and employees - But hey ! - It worked for him! - Capitalism at its finest :

I'm sure that he now brags how successful he was in his business career.

[Whakamole]

Quote:

Here is someone that I would not want to emulate. The CEO of the company that I worked for started looking for a buyer when he wanted to retire. After 9/11/2001 *buyers were tough to find. He ended up selling to our competition that he bad-mouthed for over 10 years. He used to rant and throw tirades about some of our employees that went to work for them. He took his 10 million and went to Florida. The New company mostly fired all the long term employees, and froze development on the product. This pretty much broke the trust of all the customers and employees - But hey ! - It worked for him! - Capitalism at its finest : I'm sure that he now brags how successful he was in his business career.

Reminds me of all the companies I've worked for where the owner sold out to a bigger company - and stayed on. (Usually was paid very well to stay too.) Always said that nothing would change, yadda yadda yadda. It never took long for the new bosses to either get rid of them or render them powerless.

I always wondered how happy these guys were - after all, they got a boatload of cash - but I figure guys that start companies like this can get attached not just to their business but to the power they wield.

The ones I knew all started other businesses as soon as they could. The funny part was, they never did replicate their original success - and usually they sank much of their money into the new business.

Oh well.

[Bob_Smith]

Quote:

When I retired at the age of 49, (Which I thought was maybe too early) they interviewd 25 applicants for my old job. *Probably the only time I made that many people happy in my career.

Same here Jarhead. There was a long line of applicants for my job. I would have stayed on a few more years if the new management hadn't made the job almost intolerable (and risky). Now I'm very glad I left. I take my youngest off to college in two weeks. These past three months have been worth their weight in gold because I've been home and have really made a point to get to know her better.

Before I retired for good in 1998, I was offered the
best job (low stress, high pay, great bennies) of my life.
Turned it down flat. Could I have made a bunch of money? Absolutely. Could I use it now? You bet!
But, I opted for the free time of ER rather than
continue to build my pile. This was especially
unusual because I started so late to save/plan for ER.
Anyway, I have no regrets. I might have continued to
run my small company, but once I had to work for others
again, it did not seem worth it. Cadillacs, bigger houses,
the country club, huge bar/dinner tabs. I think it's okay
for others, if that is what they want. I got tired of
supporting the infrastructure.

John Galt