Do you miss anything from your work days?

[CardsFan]

For me. I don't miss the work, but I DO miss the travel to other countries, and particularly eating dishes I had never seen before.

I usually had a local counterpart to see me around. When it came time to eat, some would ask if I wanted to find "American" food. I always asked them to take me to a place they would like, and to order for me. Some were a little leery about this, but after being there a few times, they knew they could really order anything, and I would try it.

While I did get some unusual things, 90+% of the time I got something I would never have found on the menu, and really enjoyed.

How about you?

 

[G8tr]

Still working, but I miss the travel too. Mostly domestic, but there was this week long conference at the Fairmont in Banff, Canada.... Ah.

 

[CindyBlue]

I was a teacher, and I miss the kids, and the excitement and wonder when they finally "get" it! I miss the fun and hard work of coming up with a new way to teach something that might just reach those two kids in the back row. Did I say I miss the kids?

I don't miss the (thankfully few!) entitled parents who think their kid can do no wrong (when they were making my life and the rest of the student's lives miserable) and the (thankfully few!) administrators who don't have a clue about what is really going on the the modern classroom.

 

[W2R]

I had to travel for work once every month or two, and I utterly despised it. There is nothing more miserable IMO. You have to fly there (often on your own time), hang around airports, deal with per diem, work 16+ hours/day with jet lag, be fresh and present well at meetings every day, sleep in a hotel room, and be away from those you care about and who care about you.

So no, I don't miss work travel.

And is there anything else anyone could possibly miss? I suppose if I was into back-stabbing and sabotaging my co-workers, I'd miss that; but I never really got into that stuff. Let's see; oh, I know, those phony-baloney performance awards. I guess they were better than nothing (who doesn't want cash), but I don't miss them.

Bear in mind that my original username was "Want2Retire"; I really wanted to retire, and now that I have been retired for 11 years I have not regretted it for a moment.

 

[CardsFan]

I had to travel for work once every month or two, and I utterly despised it. There is nothing more miserable IMO. You have to fly there (often on your own time), hang around airports, deal with per diem, work 16+ hours/day with jet lag, be fresh and present well at meetings every day, sleep in a hotel room, and be away from those you care about and who care about you.

I hear you, and the TRAVELLING part was not always enjoyable (until the last 5-6 years when we flew Business international and I often could upgrade to First class). I didn't have to work around per diems , which can be a pain, for most of my travelling. And in the early days I learned to work per diems to my favor. From what you have written previously, I assume you worked for a govt. agency, so that would be pretty strict.

In any event, I chose to look at the travelling as an adventure. Sometimes more fun than others, but always different.

 

[travelover]

I don't know. For me, it is a tough choice between the windowless basement cubicle and the annual performance review charade.

 

[W2R]

From what you have written previously, I assume you worked for a govt. agency, so that would be pretty strict.

Yes, I worked for the Department of the Interior and they were pretty strict, plus we all took pride in our agency's reputation. We were required to avoid both wrongdoing and the appearance of wrongdoing. I think what irked me most was that I couldn't even order room service on my own dime after a long flight, because people might think their tax dollars were paying for it. We all had to fly coach no matter what level we were in our agency's bureaucracy and again, could not upgrade even on our own dime. If we were meeting with a company we had to be very careful about not accepting food over a certain dollar value from them, since the public might consider that to be fishy. So when in doubt, I'd say "oh I'm not hungry" and sit there while they ate food that they provided for everyone, and then go back to my hotel room and not order room service. I hated work travel.

 

[Exchme]

I'm still w*rking, but about to retire. I've pulled back from management, sales and general corporate nonsense and have now fashioned a job where I just solve technical problems that others can't solve. I will miss solving the problems and most of all will miss teaching the younger folks, especially on those occasions where I believe the person actually can apply what I told them.

But our portfolio is more than big enough, I am tired of the crazy deadlines, unreasonable expectations and the scramble for billable hours. So in a month or so, will put in my notice.

 

[1242Vintage]

Miss all the friends that I made over the years.

What I don’t miss are the nit picky corporate accountants who would go through travel expense claims with a magnifying glass. Got real tired of arguing with some junior accountant who was sitting behind a desk in a warm office working 8-5 telling me that I should have parked in the distant and cheap economy lot at the airport at 5 am ... instead of the more expensive closer daily parking ... in order to catch my 6 am flight to meet with clients.

 

[street]

Even thou I had great friendships with co-workers I don't miss them as much as I missed working with our consumers. I got to meet and do business with many great people that I still can see once in awhile to this day. I enjoyed the work we could do for the consumers and tried to accommodate them every chance I could.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

Just the $$$. I was always amazed that they would pay me what seemed like alot (standard engineer bucks) for such an easy, stress-free job (programming), mostly by myself with almost no meetings and minimal oversight or human interaction (until the last couple years). This feeling grew stronger in the restroom (they're paying me $65/hour to do this?)

 

[CardsFan]

What I don’t miss are the nit picky corporate accountants who would go through travel expense claims with a magnifying glass. Got real tired of arguing with some junior accountant who was sitting behind a desk in a warm office working 8-5 telling me that I should have parked in the distant and cheap economy lot at the airport at 5 am ... instead of the more expensive closer daily parking ... in order to catch my 6 am flight to meet with clients.

Oh, I had few of these. Trying to explain to a SVP why I had 5 meals in 24 hours (duh, I was flying half way around the world on short hops, in coach, with no food service), and, by the way, it was really over 30 hours, with the time difference.

Or the time I flew to India, on short notice, when I had a vacation planned to go to a wedding. Made it the wedding on time, but was questioned why I had laundry done on such a short trip (duh, I packed an overnight bag and had to go to a wedding)

BUT, those were few and far between. I only remember them for the entertainment value.

 

[coveredbridge]

Salary and benefits. But not enough to go back.

 

[MRG]

I miss lunch.[emoji4]

 

[Bamaman]

I miss the driving 1,000 miles a week. Living in Atlanta, my territory was Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia--seldom flying anywhere. Now, we seldom travel domestically, especially in 2020.

And I miss my 12 co-workers. We once had a complete computer failure and all had to pitch in for about 6 months in Atlanta offices to reconstruct the books. Despite how close we all were, no one ever talks to each other. Every restaurant we'd go into would have a birthday cake for one guy--night after night.

 

[RobbieB]

Yeah, me too. Not this year of course, but when I was working.

Take customers out to nice places and eat lots of excellent food on the company's dime.

 

[CincyDave]

I've only been retired about a week but the only thing I miss is my coworkers. Worked with a great bunch of people, but with Covid and w*rking from home since March, didn't have near as much interaction as when we were in the office. I think working from home the last 9 months of my career really made the transition to retirement a little easier.

 

[2017ish]

Nope.

Objectively, both DW and I could miss the $$, the intellectual simulation, and the helping of clients/patients, but neither of us would put those ahead of what we have now after paying our dues for 30 years or so.

 

[Ally]

I miss the wonderful ladies I worked with and I try to keep up with them.

 

[Koolau]

I guess I do miss the travel. Don't tell DW, but just getting away for a while (so it was great to come back home) is something I miss. (Read the Men Are From Mars, etc. book.) I'm sure it's a guy thing. I recall spending two weeks away one time and I FINALLY got lonely. It was a wonderful feeling - especially since I knew I'd be going home soon. I guess you had to be there.

Otherwise, just a few of the coworkers. MAYBE, once in a while a "reason" to get up in the morning (Wait. Naaahhhh!) YMMV

 

[Foghorn Leghorn]

I miss the travel ( some)

I will miss the bonus checks ( more than the travel)

 

[marko]

For me. I don't miss the work, but I DO miss the travel to other countries, and particularly eating dishes I had never seen before.

I usually had a local counterpart to see me around. When it came time to eat, some would ask if I wanted to find "American" food. I always asked them to take me to a place they would like, and to order for me. Some were a little leery about this, but after being there a few times, they knew they could really order anything, and I would try it.

While I did get some unusual things, 90+% of the time I got something I would never have found on the menu, and really enjoyed.

How about you?

You wrote exactly my own experience!

I traveled internationally 200 days a year for 30 years (Europe, Japan, Asia) and it is the ONLY thing I miss about working. Racked up 4 million miles to boot! (still travel but now I have to pay for it myself)

Like you, I always had a local who'd take me to some really cool places (food, drink, sites) that are never on any tourist map. When the food would sometimes get 'too local'--if you know what I mean--I'd claim an allergy to my well-intentioned friends.

The living was extraordinarily good: Company policy: five star hotels, limo pickups, first class seats, 'yes sir!' everywhere I went. DW would also tag along when I'd go someplace more interesting/exotic.

 

[truenorth418]

I had far more interpersonal interactions and relationships when I was working. Sometimes I miss that, sometimes not. There were some specific people I liked very much. But there were so many jerks, I certainly don’t miss them.

 

[scrabbler1]

I became a go-to person to solve the problems and questions others had, like a Mister Fixit or the old Shell Answerman (remember him?). I found it quite gratifying when I could solve someone's problem. The tougher or more important the problem, the more gratified I felt. The higher up on the food chain the questioner was, especially someone who oversaw my performance review and/or pay raises, the better.

I remember one week I had about 20 years ago when I solved 2 big mysteries in a single week which my boss and her boss had come to me for. Wow, that was nice. And at the end of the year when they gave out special year-end bonuses, I got one for that.

On the programming side, I always liked being able to finish a program and put it into use for my division to use, often saving lots of people lots of time and effort and/or increasing accuracy by automating something done using pencil and paper or through a clumsy and difficult-to-maintain spreadsheet.

 

[statsman]

Got pushed out the door at 53, about 2-3 years before I wanted to retire. Miss the salary, chance to max out my 401(k) contributions those three years, lower health benefits, and a reason to be up at 5am other than to feed our damn cats. Only the latter hasn't changed.