what is it about your job that you want to RE?

[vicky]

Just wondering what the main reason for people is to RE.

I don't mind the job part of my job too much (like what my job description says), it is more all the stuff surrounding it. The work itself is bearable, the whole environment and structure is what is driving me nuts. It is often the same stuff regardless of which company I am with, that bothers me.

Major dislikes:
1) face time 50 weeks a year, 8+ hours a day
2) sucking up or politially stated as 'visibility' - a strongly encouraged behavior
3) disfunctional management
4) boredom
5) lack of control over just about anything
6) corporate rallies/restucturing/initiatives
7) colleagues that are more interested in backstabbing than doing some constructive work
8) 'social' events especially after work hours where people have a chance to poke into your private life
9) cubicle without natural light that looks like a prison cell without bars
10) performance reviews that are aimed at crushing personality

Just wondering what motivates others to leave the job

Vicky

 

[Nords]

Sheesh, it's hard to add to that list! If you have 10 major dislikes then I'd hate to see the list of minor annoyances...

But two strong disincentives to any new career would be "commuting" and "wearing workplace attire".

Phew, I'm glad to realize that I'm not secretly yearning for a job. I'm still reeling from the thought that by now Dolly Freed may have succeeded in procreating...

 

[John Galt]

Hey, maybe I was adopted and Dolly Freed is actually
my Mom. That would explain a lot. I have a bunch of hazy
childhood memories that really felt like deja vu when I was reading her book. Like, I remember when we were
shooting the bunnies in the head, Mom would say,
"Just pretend they're Democrats!" Worked every
time

JG

 

[brewer12345]

Masterful summary, vicky. I think that the BS and lack of natural light are what has really been getting to me lately. That, and the tendency of workloads to grow, almost always via the addition of scut-work, mind-numbing brain-dead labor that a monkey could do but gets dumped on white collar types because we can't avoid it.

 

[REWahoo]

Just wondering what the main reason for people is to RE.

Not having to work for a living.

REW

 

[unclemick]

FIRE

The FI (financial independance) part is interesting.

Went back to the old plant as a temp after two years out.

Duh - I was a happy camper doing dull data gathering/crunching crap I would not go near when an employee - getting an outrageous hourly rate(no benefits) and actually getting paid time and a half for overtime.

I noticed all the people I had worked with for twenty years or so had totally changed - overly PC, nervous, grumpy, etc., etc.

Couldn't have been me - heh, heh, heh.

Whether RE or the fact that the job was Lagniappe( a little something extra)? - I won't speculate.

 

[Eagle43]

Just wondering what the main reason for people is to RE.

I don't mind the job part of my job too much (like what my job description says), it is more all the stuff surrounding it. The work itself is bearable, the whole environment and structure is what is driving me nuts. It is often the same stuff regardless of which company I am with, that bothers me.

Major dislikes:
1) face time 50 weeks a year, 8+ hours a day
2) sucking up or politially stated as 'visibility' - a strongly encouraged behavior
3) disfunctional management
4) boredom
5) lack of control over just about anything
6) corporate rallies/restucturing/initiatives
7) colleagues that are more interested in backstabbing than doing some constructive work
8) 'social' events especially after work hours where people have a chance to poke into your private life
9) cubicle without natural light that looks like a prison cell without bars
10) performance reviews that are aimed at crushing personality

Just wondering what motivates others to leave the job

Vicky

Of course you might have covered this at #3 and #5, but like Ross Perot said, "Whenever a good idea was presented, they wanted to kill it."

And I hated #10. To have some a-h who was clearly my inferior discussing "room for improvement". Just because he had to put something down.. Oh, and #1 is right on. Heck, you've covered it. Very good post.

 

[retire@40]

I wonder if you had none of items 1 through 10 if you would still consider ER?

I happen to be self-employed and none of the items you talk about apply to me. Nor do I commute nor do I have to wear workplace attire.

So why would I want to retire? Because I want total freedom of time. Even now that I am semi-retired working only a few hours a week, it's good but not good enough. I can take any day off I want, I can work any 4 hour period of the day I want, and I can even delegate some of the work I don't want to do. But I can't take off more than about 3 weeks at a time, and that is what bothers me now. I am "working" on that problem too, and I figure it will take me until age 40 to get there.

In the meanwhile I'm having fun with the free time I have. I like to plan for the future but live for the moment.

 

[Janie]

Both of us enjoy our work, but sticking in the federal job system (in husband's agency) limits where we can live.

Looking forward to taking long vacations and doing volunteer work.

 

[vicky]

I wonder if you had none of items 1 through 10 if you would still consider ER?

I happen to be self-employed and none of the items you talk about apply to me.  Nor do I commute nor do I have to wear workplace attire.
moment.

I am self-employed on the side too. Yep, items 1-10 do not apply to it. I obviously enjoy it much more than the cube existence. I could survive on it at this time, but it would be a struggle. It helps me getting to ER and I would probably keep on doing it in ER. However, I don't want to dependent on either a job or self-employment to pay the daily bills. Like you said, you can't take off more than a little here and there. I don't want to be constrained that way. There are so many things I would like to do, including extended travel

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I hated almost everything except some of the people and the paycheck.

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

And I hated #10. To have some a-h who was clearly my inferior discussing "room for improvement". Just because he had to put something down.

This one hit the nail right on the head for me in regards to my former job. One major distinction, however, was that my "boss" (who was nowhere near as good an attorney as he desperately wanted to believe) put that phrase down in order to keep me in my place. He refused to acknowledge that the areas in which I allegedly needed improvement: (a) resulted from his mistakes, or (b) were things he did himself on a daily basis (I suppose "do as I say, not as I do" would have been applicable to such situations). In retrospect, perhaps pointing such things out during my various reviews was a mistake. :

 

[smooch]

#s 3,4,5,7 and 9 say it for me. But mostly, being 55, I feel the panic of limited time left and so many interesting things that I want to do. Things that can't be done after a day of work: volunteering in an animal shelter, in a retirement community, going on trips without a date to come back. Quilting, stained glass, learning about investments, hikes and picnics on a warm day. I'm making myself sick just thinking that tomorrow is Monday!

 

[farmerEd]

>>I'm making myself sick just thinking that tomorrow is Monday!

Well then I have a present for you....tommorrow is a holiday! (Hopefully you have it off).


Funny thing about weekdays versus weekends while ER'ed...for the first 3-3.5 years, I still felt more relaxed on the weekends...I finally, at last, don't differentiate. (It will be 4 years next week).

 

[Cut-Throat]

Thanks for the list! - It reminds me of why I left work. - I guess most of the Aholes stay on!

Going on 4 years. I actually find myself looking forward to Monday Mornings. Lots of quiet time.

Currently planning my Trout Fishing trip to New Mexico! 8) - Life is great

 

[treypar]

My job is a great one with a great company. Unfortunately the market in my area for my specific area of expertise is not doing well so I am not having a good time. I have FI but am concerned about retiring now due to my age. Any suggestiosn would be welcomed.

 

[Cut-Throat]

My job is a great one with a great company. Unfortunately the market in my area for my specific area of expertise is not doing well so I am not having a good time. I have FI but am concerned about retiring now due to my age. Any suggestiosn would be welcomed.

Your post is confusing

You have Finanicial Independence, but are concerned about retiring because of your age. Too young and would feel guilty?

And if your area of expertise market is not great in your area and you are FI - Why do you care?

 

[treypar]

I have FI but am stll concerned about leaving my job at 55. It pays well with benefits but due to my location it is not very rewarding. I cannot relocate since my dw wants to remain here and has a good well paying job.

 

[Cut-Throat]

I have FI but am stll concerned about leaving my job at 55. It pays well with benefits but due to my location it is not very rewarding. I cannot relocate since my dw wants to remain here and has a good well paying job.

Why

I left work at age 50 - 4 years ago. If your wife wants to work, you can quit and go fishing like me.

If you are FI - Why would you want to work? Unless of course you don't have a life. - In that case - Get one!

 

[lets-retire]

Good question. My list is:

1. Too many bad guys want me dead.
2. At work most of the people I deal with lie.
3. Too many bad guys want me dead.
4. The court system sentences bad guys to very short sentences for very violent crimes (especailly against cops)
5. Too many bad guys want me hurt real bad.
6. Computer programs desinged to identify bad guys don't work.
7. Arresting the same people week in and week out.
8. Did I mention too many bad guys want me dead?

 

[JOhn Galt]

It's interesting to me how many people really hate
their jobs/bosses but stay on anyway. Not necessarily
surprising but interesting. I never had such an experience. If I hated my job/bosses, I just quit. Period. Thus, it mattered very little what my "job"
was at the time. When the time came I did not have to
ask for whom the ER bell tolled. I knew it was me.

JG

 

[hocus]

Too many bad guys want me dead.

I know the feeling.

(that's a joke.)

 

[John Galt]

Re. "I know the feeling", me too.

(That's not a joke )

JG

 

[Helen]

Excellent thread running here. The 1 - 10 list was right on. As other people have mentioned there are opportunity costs of working, not being able to do new and different things because I am tied to my job.

I'm tired of the routine, the games and the psychological torture. I don't know how people who are living paycheck to paycheck handle the stress.

Where I work we are going through "efficiency studies" - straight out of Dilbert. Since I am a Federal employee, my job is pretty secure, but I really feel for the contractors. It's pretty unhealthy to see the unnecessary additional stress some of the managers are creating with remarks about future job cuts. We all can see that it's going to happen, so why torment people with remarks like, "we all had to talk about each employee on the list and justify why that person is critical to the organization and what they contribute". They are trying to tweak out every last ounce of energy from employees using the fear factor, then they are going to drop the axe on many of them anyway.

That's the kind of crap I won't miss 8 years from now.

For me, what is making it difficult is that I've reached my point of saturation. It's a choice I making to stay where I am until I retire, but I would really prefer to move on adn do something new. The issue is that in 8 years I will be FI and I can retire with full health benefits for life plus a reduced cola pension for life. If I leave, I would have to work much longer. Plus, I don't think the new environment I would join would end up being much healthier, it's kind of the same all crap no matter where we work.

So, I'm going to try and enjoy the technical parts of my job which I do like. And, try and work and spend time around the people I do like. It's not all bad, it's just not as good as it's going to be to RE !!!!!

-helen

 

[RAE]

Hi Helen - I'm a fed. employeed also (5 years, 4 months to go). We've gone through the efficiency studies, etc., also, and the new processes and pseudo-training that keep coming down on us every year are very tiresome, to say the least. Like you, I'd just as soon leave now, but leaving in 5 years gets me an immediate annuity plus continued health benefits. If I leave now, I'd end up working much longer somewhere else. So, I'll tough it out for 5 more years. I am putting aside a large % of my salary each pay period, which helps keep me motivated (nice to see that TSP account grow ). Like you, I do enjoy the technical part of my job, and I do have a fair amount of flexibility and perks (nice amount of vacation time, flex-time) so that helps a lot.

RAE