bUU - a month will go by quickly. Cheer up, because the time will fly and you may need it for the odds and ends of retirement separation. Two other benefits, 1) you should not be expected to start new projects, and 2) people will come to you less for problem solving. Just say 'sucks to be you' to one person trying to land their problem on your lap - word gets around quickly.
I'm not sure a month will go by all that quickly. Once I get back from vacation I'll have very little actual work to do. I'm leaving behind enough of my work that the rest of my team will take several
months to work through, at a minimum. No one will expect me to be adding more logs to the pile. So my days will involve reviewing the work done in India overnight and running the 9am status meeting. After that, I'll probably just spend my time making it look like I'm busy (something that goes so slow) to justify getting paid for the week.
I'm not scheduled to be the "problem solver of the week" until my last week, but even that never means more than a few hours of extra work. That's actually the only part of the job I ever liked.
I've been doing my job (product owner) and that of a colleague (project manager) who was laid off several months ago. They have been trying to replace that colleague with a contractor, and it seems likely that they'll make their decision about that now, given that they know I'm leaving. So somewhere along the line I'll hand over even that work. The current top candidate doesn't seem like the kind of guy who will be interested in my bringing him up to speed - he seems more inclined to start from scratch and do things his own way. So I won't even have that work ahead of me.
I'm not "retiring" from the perspective of the company - I've just been there 15 months. So I think "separation" will just involve leaving my laptop with my boss on the last day, and handing my ID badge to the guard as I swipe out one last time. I have a 401k there, but I initiate the rollover wholly within Fidelity, 401k to IRA; easy peasy.
Somehow or another, my boss set up my exit interview for yesterday afternoon. I didn't actually give notice yet (and won't for another week yet). Still, it was a nice discussion. The HR manager acknowledged the failings of the organization but did try to contend that things would eventually get better. I told her I hoped so - there are some really good people I like very much who I'm leaving behind, people who don't have the luxury of being able to step away like I do.
We're moving later this year, so I will start interviewing realtors and movers soon. Maybe I'll do some work along those lines during work hours, especially on my work-at-home days. (I doubt they'll say I have to be in the office these last several weeks: There aren't enough desks for everyone, so my working at home two days a week, means that some of the newer people actually get to work at a workstation for a change, instead of crowded around a small table or balancing their laptops on their laps. Yes; the company is that stupid-foolish.)
