Among my parents' generation...
1) Mom retired at the age of 62, from the federal government. She was under the old CSRS system, and had pretty much maxed out her retirement benefit. This was also that era where government salaries were getting frozen, so the only way to advance was to get a step increase, promotion, or whatever. And she was maxed out in that regard. Towards the end, she was getting tired of things, but her attitude did become a bit more carefree. She would actually tell people "piss me off enough, and I'm outta here!" And she was valued enough, at the time, that she could get them to chill out on whatever was annoying her.
2) Stepdad: took an early retirement, just before he turned 59, a few months after Mom retired. He worked for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, a quasi government entity that controls the water and sewers around here, and is corrupt as the day is long. My stepdad can be a jerk, but he's also honest to a fault, and as the WSSC got more and more corrupt, it just got worse for him.
3) Dad: Retired at the age of 62. He was a dental technician at a veterans' hospital and made bridgework and such. He wasn't crazy about his job, but didn't really hate it. He retired to take care of Granddad, who was 94 at the time, and couldn't really be on his own anymore.
4) Uncle (mom's brother): Got fired from his job as a truck driver because he didn't properly secure a load. He was 61 at the time, and in poor health, with kidney issues and cancer popping up here and there. He was on dialysis and only worked 3 days per week. I'm sure he was costing their insurance company a ton of money, so while they would have overlooked this infraction for another driver, I think they used it as an excuse to fire my uncle. Anyway, at that point he discovered he could go on disability...in fact, the doctors were shocked that, in his condition, he hadn't seeked out disability years before!
As for me, I've been wanting to retire early for awhile now, but once upon a time, I actually did enjoy my job. I think a turning point came in the early 2000's. We had some pretty big employee turnover in our office, with good employees being replaced by bad ones...yet upper level management let the bad ones get away with whatever they wanted, and if anyone complained, WE were the ones that would get blamed for things! I think that was the point where the whole idea of "It's not WHAT you know, but WHO you know" really came home to roost.
Over the years, those employees sort of weeded themselves out. We got one kicked off our project, when a secretary who liked me planted a rumor to just the right people, that i was thinking about leaving. He ended up getting kicked off two or three projects after that, and once he was no longer placeable, he got put back at the headquarters building, AND given a promotion! Eventually though, a new company won our contract. Most of the people went with the new company, but he stayed with the old one. But once those who protected him were no longer there, that company dropped him like a hot rock.
Another coworker that I couldn't stand, was moved to another building when our project moved. We had been in one big building but were split into two smaller buildings. I didn't really have to deal with her much after that. And then, a few months later, I moved to a totally different project, and all those annoyances were finally out of my life completely.
Still, as time goes by, I've noticed a change, in how they look at us employees. They value us less and less, as human beings with feelings, and treat us more like how you'd treat the photocopier or some other piece of equipment. Something that's expendable. Unless, again, you know the right people. And it seems like there's more bureaucratic BS to go through...too much time spent filling out reports, goals, self-evaluations, etc, and they put more weight on that, it seems, than the actual work we do.
