Do you still have dreams of previous work life?

[Dcharles]

Not at my last job, but I have when I was a younger Engineer in the field and life was much more simple and straight forward and certainly fun. Add HR, lawyers, EEOC, more forms and goal seeking synergetic numskulls and the job becomes a nightmare fast!


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[boatfishandnature]

I have been comfortably and quite happily retired for 3 years now. I still think about my previous job at leat once a week and very occasionally dream about it. I understand that we only remember the dreams that we woke up in the middle of, so I must be dreaming about it often...

I also occasionally keep up in touch with colleagues whom have retired soon after I did and we all follow events at Megacorp, from a distance.

So, to the OP, I would say that it is probably normal, if you had a job that was a major part of your life.

 

[Drewskers]

I retired 15 years ago at age 47, after working 25 years as an engineer at "Big Tech Corp". For many years I very frequently and vividly dreamed of being back in the workplace. My take is that the dreams were about unfinished business related to work life. One would do well to pay attention to any recurring themes that show up in the dreams, and try unpacking the deeper (less obvious) meanings behind them. E.g. don't assume a dream is about the first thing you think of, because that is probably the product of the same unreflective thinking that is part and parcel of the internal conflict the psyche is trying to resolve vis-a-vis the dreams. It took me a long time to solve the riddles of my work dreams, it was difficult because I had to studiously stay off the hamster-wheel of criticism (initially outwardly-directed, and later inwardly-directed) and come to deeply understand and accept a lot of things about the work experience, and my participation in it. The interesting thing is, the same unconscious problem attitudes I had in my work life were still showing in my retirement life. So while it was a lot of work it was very beneficial to pay attention and unpack the messages of my work dreams.