Stormy Kromer
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2017
- Messages
- 1,159
The only friendships I've had last past ER would be my hunting & fishing friends, and a couple from my old fire department. Work was work, friends are friends.
Or the folks who were in the bridal party.It's a bit like high school isn't it?
"Friends for life" until graduation and by the time September rolls around you never see them again.
So, my question is, is this a normal thing and have you experienced these feelings?
I haven't lost 100% contact with my old coworkers. Every now and then (few months), I'll meet a few for lunch. But this will fade soon.I don’t like hearing about office politics, the status of the company, etc. Left it all behind when I retired almost 3 years ago.
It is normal, though I never considered anyone I worked with a true friend even though I’d do almost anything for some of them (and did several times). It may depend on your job/position at work, but they were always what I called “work-friends,” that was a conscious choice on my part. You can’t get as close to anyone at work, and still be completely effective IME. I spent a lot of time with them obviously, and we helped each other enjoy our time at work, but I didn’t hang out with them outside of work as often as my true friends. So it’s no surprise we don’t hang out since I retired.
When I left my first two large companies I did still have some interaction with former co-workers, although in some cases it became impossible since we were competitors in sales. The last company I worked for before retiring was horrendous and fostered an atmosphere of back-stabbing and stealing of sales from your fellow workers in different areas, never what was best for the customer. Basically left on a Friday and have never had anything to do with anyone from that last company. Still stay in touch through FB, email and LinkedIn with some from the prior two, but otherwise it was time to move on and leave the working world behind completely.