Feeling dumb for not retiring?

[tulak]

RTO policies are set by companies and managers have very little control.

One hack I heard about was to swipe in before midnight, and then again after midnight, to get a 2 for 1.

A bit too brazen for my tastes, but I thought it was clever.

 

[Hamlet]

Seriously?

Sounds like the boss should be the one pushing WAH for his/her direct reports. If you are doing your best at home and your boss is happy, s/he should take the lead and push for WAH.

That’s not really how this company works. Someone way up the chain has decided that RTO is very important. Pushing against that would be extremely career limiting for my manager.

 

[earlierme]

That’s not really how this company works.

most companies unfortunately.
Top corporate management believe that WFH people are slackers. They're biased that way, and there is no way they're going to be convinced otherwise.

 

[BlueberryPie]

I just saw a social media post about this guy claiming he had 5 remote jobs at once as a programmer since he started working from home.
Probably not true but the scary part is that it's believable.
I know someone working for me was working on 2 other jobs, but it affected his performance pretty quickly and I had to terminate him after he fessed up to it.

That being said half of my team is remote and this guy's work hard instead of water cooler chats at the office.

 

[Happy30]

I think we all do! Going back to the office will suck! Sounds like you have been given the sign to do it! It is sooo nice being retired! Enjoy!

 

[Chuckanut]

In my very late 50’s the unfortunate early deaths of several friends and relatives was a huge wake up call for me. I was two years from the point where I qualified for ‘early’ retirement. I ran FireCalc and two Monte-Carlo simulators. All three showed I could retire and survive all but the worst economic conditions. I followed the plan and have never regretted since as we know:

 

[Koolau]

most companies unfortunately.
Top corporate management believe that WFH people are slackers. They're biased that way, and there is no way they're going to be convinced otherwise.

Megacorp went to 4 10s as an option for those that could fit into w*rk requirements. I had an empl*yee who chose that shift. I quickly found out she was leaving early (no time cards or checkin/checkout). Right before I was ready to discipline her, Megacorp did away with the policy. The abuse was so rampant that the policy lasted weeks - not months.

So I'm sure WFH is abused. Not by everyone, obviously.

 

[earlierme]

Megacorp went to 4 10s as an option for those that could fit into w*rk requirements. I had an empl*yee who chose that shift. I quickly found out she was leaving early (no time cards or checkin/checkout). Right before I was ready to discipline her, Megacorp did away with the policy. The abuse was so rampant that the policy lasted weeks - not months.

So I'm sure WFH is abused. Not by everyone, obviously.

Anything that can be abused will be.

Upper management simply doesn't "trust" their employees to work unless they are at the office which is rather funny since non-work can happen anywhere even at the office.

 

[Koolau]

Anything that can be abused will be.

Heh, heh, I couldn't have said it better - not even in my tag line.

Upper management simply doesn't "trust" their employees to work unless they are at the office which is rather funny since non-work can happen anywhere even at the office.

Management "thinks" they have a handle on at-w*rk non-w*rk. Clearly, all they can do is keep a lid on it - not prevent it.

I had a manger who kept a small plaque on his desk. It said:

"Notice everything. Overlook a lot. Manage a little." That was my "management style" for my w*rk group.

 

[livingalmostlarge]

You can't retire without leaving money on the table. You just want to make sure that by continuing to work you are not leaving your life on the table.

this is something i'm going to frame.

 

[anothercog]

I am struggling with this myself. My comp is high, my work is relatively easy and effectively part-time, but mentally I feel like I have already checked out. I hear there will be voluntary buy outs next month and now that I'm 55 I will qualify for the first time. I was thinking 58 would be the age I would go but I'm going to have a difficult decision once I see the package.

Firecalc says I'm good financially but it's hard walking away from an easy job with a nice paycheck.

 

[Koolau]

I am struggling with this myself. My comp is high, my work is relatively easy and effectively part-time, but mentally I feel like I have already checked out. I hear there will be voluntary buy outs next month and now that I'm 55 I will qualify for the first time. I was thinking 58 would be the age I would go but I'm going to have a difficult decision once I see the package.

Firecalc says I'm good financially but it's hard walking away from an easy job with a nice paycheck.

I guess you can wait and see what kind of "package" will be offered.

 

[bonvoyage]

I am struggling with this myself. My comp is high, my work is relatively easy and effectively part-time, but mentally I feel like I have already checked out. I hear there will be voluntary buy outs next month and now that I'm 55 I will qualify for the first time. I was thinking 58 would be the age I would go but I'm going to have a difficult decision once I see the package.

Firecalc says I'm good financially but it's hard walking away from an easy job with a nice paycheck.

If it makes you feel better, my wife is in a similar position. She says she's getting paid well for relatively little work (and she has a good boss) so she is finding it hard to quit. She gets paid extremely well but we have already saved so much that we don't really need it. So she's waiting for something to change...

 

[Koolau]

If it makes you feel better, my wife is in a similar position. She says she's getting paid well for relatively little work (and she has a good boss) so she is finding it hard to quit. She gets paid extremely well but we have already saved so much that we don't really need it. So she's waiting for something to change...

Yeah, I was feeling very good at w*rk back in the day. My "w*rk" was relatively "easy" because it was what I knew better than probably anyone else in the company. When my assignment was suddenly changed, that's all I needed to make my decision to leave immediately. Perhaps your wife will have a similar situation.

 

[anothercog]

Yeah, I was feeling very good at w*rk back in the day. My "w*rk" was relatively "easy" because it was what I knew better than probably anyone else in the company. When my assignment was suddenly changed, that's all I needed to make my decision to leave immediately. Perhaps your wife will have a similar situation.

yeah, its a bit of this, I do have a niche in the part of my job that I like that nobody else in the company can currently do. Plus I feel really responsible for my team who I really like. They are the ones that make my job easy. But there is lot of stress with that responsibility especially since there are incessant budget cuts, no budget for travel or training and the constant pressure to do more with less. If one or more of them were to quit that would make me want to leave immediately.

I'm going to at least try and leverage the package to get some improvements to these concerns and if not, I can always go. If I do stay, it seems these packages are offered every 3-4 years so that next one would put me at my target age when I expected to retire (58).

 

[sergio]

Two thoughts...

1.
Our end date, while unknown, will be what it will be.
So, every extra day you work is theoretically one less day you have in retirement.

Not only is it one day less, but it's also one fewer "prime" day in retirement i.e. when you are "younger" and theoretically have more energy and fewer health issues.

My father semi-retired at 52. He would work Jan-April full time each year, then had the rest of the year off. He had a great 7 years before he started encountering massive mobility issues - needed a hip replacement at 61, knee replacement at 63, has rotator cuff issues that might require another surgery, now on medications that have side effects, etc.

Of course, he still enjoys life at 67 but he's definitely not going on long mountain hikes, running marathons, or traveling to exotic Asian locations like he was in his early 50s.

 

[zangbao]

most companies unfortunately.
Top corporate management believe that WFH people are slackers. They're biased that way, and there is no way they're going to be convinced otherwise.

This is me. A slacker. My home is my sanctuary, a place where I want to relax and would prefer not to do any work related activities. And for this reason, during Covid, when my work gave everyone an option to work from home, I went to the office everyday.

 

[FedRetired50]

My home is my sanctuary, a place where I want to relax and would prefer not to do any work related activities.

I WFH for almost 10 years, about 3 of that 5-days. I set a similar rule - work always from my home office, never from the couch or on my back porch/yard. I didn't want to associate work with my relaxation spots. There were a few exceptions but 99.9% of the time I was in my office chair.

 

[Sunrise_Ray]

I've been planning for retirement literally my whole life. I've run the numbers 1000's of times. I'm good to go.

I like the job enough, but it's not all that interesting anymore. And when you don't "need" the money, my motivation has been low the last year. Megacorp decided to take away our work from home benefit and we all now have to come into the office 5 days a week. So, I figured that was my catalyst to quit. Any accommodation is not happening. Part time, consulting, job shift. Was flat out told no.

Except... I'm second guessing it. Not because of the money, that's covered. I've run into a few snags retiring with my rental, my house closing etc. But I have no real reason to keep working.

Anyway, I feel dumb to keep working. Maybe it's one more year? But, then I worry that could turn into another. *sigh*

Anyone go through this?

Yes, you posted this a while ago, but I am IN THAT BOAT!

But, will be getting off the train soon! 2 to 3 years!!

SRay

 

[silvor]

Yes, you posted this a while ago, but I am IN THAT BOAT!

But, will be getting off the train soon! 2 to 3 years!!

SRay

As an update for the OP…

I chickend out and ended up taking a new job in March. I figured it makes sense since I’m in a new city. It’s my excuse really.

At first was happy because the market was tanking. But now…I’m just mad at myself

Oh well, “one more year”. I hope.

 

[d.davis]

My favorite wfh story is marissa meyor, who raised her kids for many years under Yahoo's liberal wfh policy. Immediately after becoming ceo of yahoo, she cancelled the wfh policy.
Wonder what she knew...

When I started my consulting company I built an office in the garage with air conditioning. I never billed the customer hours unless I was in that office, actually working, or at the customer site.

 

[RetiredHappy]

My favorite wfh story is marissa meyor, who raised her kids for many years under Yahoo's liberal wfh policy. Immediately after becoming ceo of yahoo, she cancelled the wfh policy.
Wonder what she knew...

When I started my consulting company I built an office in the garage with air conditioning. I never billed the customer hours unless I was in that office, actually working, or at the customer site.

She asked IT to run a report of VPN login and showed that few actually logged into the system while so called working from home. She dared to change the WFH policy. My heroine.

 

[Diogenes]

You can't retire without leaving money on the table. You just want to make sure that by continuing to work you are not leaving your life on the table.

The "money left on the table" can be regretted, or not. If it's no biggy, and there's minimal regret, then we're equipped to accept this fact. So, we retire. If however we can anticipate regret years later, then pondering this now, we might be loath to retire. The actual amount of money is irrelevant. The quiver of feelings, is dispositive. How will our future selves feel? Can we reckon with that, now?

The premise is that once one retires, one can never return to work. For some people this is manifestly false. They're in demand, and always will be. For some people, work was sufficiently unpleasant, that there's no reason to ponder a return. Right? Both the first group, and the second, is fine. No worries. Why endure OMY? Just retire now!

But... there's a third group. This group has cushy jobs, that would be impossible to replicate. Once gone, there's no return. These folks aren't much in-demand. Nobody would want them back. In the moment, right now, they worry... "what if I will actually will want to go back"? Yes? Then we face OMY. And again. And again.

There's no easy solution.

 

[ut2sua]

As an update for the OP…

I chickend out and ended up taking a new job in March. I figured it makes sense since I’m in a new city. It’s my excuse really.

At first was happy because the market was tanking. But now…I’m just mad at myself

Oh well, “one more year”. I hope.

I didn't read thru the whole thread, but there is nothing wrong with this. Since you are not mentally ready, it is probably a mistake to force FIRE (especially if you can't just get back the same job easily). When you are mentally (and financially) ready, you will not be able to wait to FIRE. You will know.

 

[OK EE]

The RTO stuff with these MegaCorps is maddening. I’ve been required to RTO, but none of my team is actually in the office I’m assigned to. They check up on the RTO by running a report on the number of badge swipes the RTO people have. My boss just wants me off of that report, so I literally drive into the parking ramp, walk across the skyway to the security station to badge in, and then go down the 1st floor and walk back out to the parking ramp and drive home.

DW is in the same situation. 4 days mandatory, they check badge swipes. Although apparently they are getting smarter and checking the total time. For her it makes no sense to go in only to swipe, it's a 45 minute drive each way. The stupid thing is that due to acquisitions most of her team isn't even in the same physical location.

It's a good thing we're done next year. DW's MegaCorp likes abusing their employees. She likes her job but every time she tells me about some of that crap I ask her "why do you tolerate it"?