"You Can Never Go Back" ... Just Tried Return to Work ... Mission Aborted

Great post! I retired at 52 and after 18 months decided to go back to work on a part time basis. We bought a house in New Mexico when we retired but kept our old house in Vegas where our jobs were. We use the Vegas house in the winter and spring months and my former employer basically let me set my own schedule when we were in town. I could work as much or as little as I wanted. Did that for a couple of years and then one day they decided to change computer management systems and that's when I knew I was done! Did not want to learn a new system so I bid farewell to everyone again permanently. That was 2 years ago. Havent looked back!
 
mojavesue said:
Great post! I retired at 52 and after 18 months decided to go back to work on a part time basis. We bought a house in New Mexico when we retired but kept our old house in Vegas where our jobs were. We use the Vegas house in the winter and spring months and my former employer basically let me set my own schedule when we were in town. I could work as much or as little as I wanted. Did that for a couple of years and then one day they decided to change computer management systems and that's when I knew I was done! Did not want to learn a new system so I bid farewell to everyone again permanently. That was 2 years ago. Havent looked back!
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Do you still have your Vegas house?
 
coltsfan53 said:
When I reconnected (AGAIN) with the fact that I was giving all of my time away for a meaningless amount of money then I quickly walked.
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This ^^^ was the same thinking/logic that helped my decision to FIRE. Thanks for sharing.
 
Retired at 57 and have never considered going back to work, not to mention they wouldn't accept me at this age anyway.
Would have retired earlier if I could have.
 
I retired four years ago from a position that would be difficult to get back into at the same level of pay. Even if I wanted to try and get back in with the company I left it wouldn't be possible because they went bankrupt. I guess they couldn't make it without me;)
 
Guamaniac said:
I retired four years ago from a position that would be difficult to get back into at the same level of pay. Even if I wanted to try and get back in with the company I left it wouldn't be possible because they went bankrupt. I guess they couldn't make it without me;)
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My Megacorp would not, under any circumstances, hire one of their own retirees or empl*yees who had quit. It was pathological. One time, someone recognized a contract empl*yee who had previously w*rked for Megacorp. He was ushered off the premises before lunch. Just plain nuts, but that was just a "kink" that Megacorp would NOT change - even to its own detriment. You can't make this stuff up.
 
Koolau said:
My Megacorp would not, under any circumstances, hire one of their own retirees or empl*yees who had quit. It was pathological. One time, someone recognized a contract empl*yee who had previously w*rked for Megacorp. He was ushered off the premises before lunch. Just plain nuts, but that was just a "kink" that Megacorp would NOT change - even to its own detriment. You can't make this stuff up.
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That was policy at my MC also. However, they softened after they started laying people off. When I quit in the 90s, the exit interviewer specifically told me they changed that policy and should I feel the need to come back, I could reapply.
 
I quit a company that had really gone downhill. I decided to take 6 months off to ponder what's next.

I didn't want to get back in the same rat race. I do have a part time job in an area I like, but it's something I'd do for free.
 
I've been retired for six glorious months.

I'm doing/considering doing a few professional things but honestly, I'm just not that motivated. I feel like the SHOULD do these things, but almost anytime I have something on my calendar it feels like an imposition.

I get up, think about my day, and consider really pouring energy into one of these things. And then I remember that I want to go to the gym, work on the golf swing, stretch my back, read a bit, update the portfolio, plan some family travel, go to the beach house, and do some maintainance on the main house that I've put off for 10 years.

So I say, "Nah, I'll do that professional stuff tomorrow."

Tomorrow may never come!
 
I failed retirement after one year. I was 47 and single, with a decent stash. I travelled a lot, met up old friends from all over the world, volunteered a little. After about 18 months, I was starting to feel rudderless. An old colleague called and suggested I would be great for a project. He introduced me to his CEO, and I was very impressed. I took the job with little due diligence. BIG MISTAKE. It was everything I hated about corporate roles, lots of politics, relationship based rather than merit oriented, and a few less than ethical players. I cleaned up the mess I landed in, and felt good about that. I finally left with twice the net worth I started with. But honestly, it was money I really didn't need, and I won't get that time back. When I retired for good a few years later, I decided to find my own purpose, not rely on a company to define it for me. Six years so far , and still going great!
 
On a similar note, I recently got an invitation to my 50th high school reunion. At first thought, I was excited to think about going and showing up as a (relative) success, not who I was back in high school. Then I looked at the link in the invitation from the 45th reunion. I didn't recognize a single person. Checking the names, of the over 150 that went, I maybe, sorta recognized a couple dozen tops. None were those I hung with during those years. Plus, they all looked AWFUL! I mean man, these people have really, REALLY let themselves go over those 45 years. Add another 5 on top of that and I realized there simply was nothing worth attending to make it even slightly interesting, but rather depressing instead.
I asked my wife, who was one year younger and one grade below mine, if she was interested. She gave me a quizzical look and asked me who from high school, over the past 50 years have you seen even once, let alone arraigned for a get-together? No one, I told her. I left high school, joined the military and after that, we started our family and friends locally to wherever we lived. So instead of attending my 50th high school reunion, we are renting a VRBO on Maui, a $5M condo on the beach, for 10 days and taking my brother and his wife along for the fun. We have a blast together, the 4 of us and since they moved to the other side of the country, we don't get to see each other often enough as it is.
 
I retired from Megacorp after designing a very complex assembly line for one of our European plants. The project got put on hold and they called me a year after retirement and said they'd just started building the line and didn't have the engineering expertise to program, debug, and install it. They were behind schedule and in full crisis mode. A big reason I left is because I was tired of every project being a crisis. No thanks. Not even at triple my old salary. After declining I kind of wondered if going back as an hourly contractor would have changed my attitude. Maybe I wouldn't have cared if it was a crisis if I weren't trying to get raises and promotions like I was as a salaried drone. But the bottom line is I fully believe in a saying that I think I read on this site: "Don't trade time you can't replace with money you don't need."
 
skipro33 said:
On a similar note, I recently got an invitation to my 50th high school reunion. At first thought, I was excited to think about going and showing up as a (relative) success, not who I was back in high school.
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Oddly, I really enjoyed our 50th reunion even though I had only kept track (more or less) with one class member out of over 500. It's true that, for the most part, we looked like old people. But what I noticed was that all the old rivalries and petty ranking had faded into the background. I couldn't dredge up a single bad memory of that time. It was, however, sobering to think that we'd already lost a fifth of our number over the years. I guess it's all a matter of perception so YMMV.
 
Lagniappe said:
I failed retirement after one year. I was 47 and single, with a decent stash. I travelled a lot, met up old friends from all over the world, volunteered a little. After about 18 months, I was starting to feel rudderless. An old colleague called and suggested I would be great for a project. He introduced me to his CEO, and I was very impressed. I took the job with little due diligence. BIG MISTAKE. It was everything I hated about corporate roles, lots of politics, relationship based rather than merit oriented, and a few less than ethical players. I cleaned up the mess I landed in, and felt good about that. I finally left with twice the net worth I started with. But honestly, it was money I really didn't need, and I won't get that time back. When I retired for good a few years later, I decided to find my own purpose, not rely on a company to define it for me. Six years so far , and still going great!
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"When I retired for good a few years later, I decided to find my own purpose, not rely on a company to define it for me."

I loved your post, especially the last line. Would you mind sharing your journey on finding your purpose (vs relying on a company to define it)?
 
Glad you put your big toe back into the grind to find it's not worth it. Had you not done that, you would still be in the "I wanna" stage for how long. Some of us miss the work grind, others don't. I, for one do not miss it, nor does DH. Good for you to take your own advice, now continue to relax, do you, and enjoy the rest of retirement the way it's suppose to be....your way.
 
I never thought about going back but I ran into an old colleague a few years ago near the office and I took him up on his offer to come up and visit. I almost had a panic attack just being there. Never again will I even get that close to my old prison.
 
I was an Independent contractor for 32 years before I FIRED. Age 50. I ran through the end zone and was well beyond Financially Independent. ( a modest income on a modest lifestyle)

I was offered a salary position by a company that I previously did business with. Salary was about 1/3 my previous annual earnings, I respectfully declined. This position would have had me require to be inside a locked brick building at a certain time, til a certain time...... including bathroom breaks, catching hell all day long. I thought to myself......"that's how prisoners in jail live". I declined the position.....Now instead I work in my garden and watch this company's employees drive like hell past my farm every morning driving to work and then home again at night past my farm driving to beat hell home.
 
GalaxyBoy said:
I never thought about going back but I ran into an old colleague a few years ago near the office and I took him up on his offer to come up and visit. I almost had a panic attack just being there. Never again will I even get that close to my old prison.
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Yes. Sights and smells can trigger bad memories.

Every other month or so, I meet with a few old colleagues and we mostly discuss retirement. Sometimes we invite current active employees. When they come, they verify to us we are glad to be out of there. Their latest stories raise my blood pressure even though we are in a secure, undisclosed location far away from the office.:)
 
Koolau said:
Oddly, I really enjoyed our 50th reunion even though I had only kept track (more or less) with one class member out of over 500. It's true that, for the most part, we looked like old people. But what I noticed was that all the old rivalries and petty ranking had faded into the background. I couldn't dredge up a single bad memory of that time. It was, however, sobering to think that we'd already lost a fifth of our number over the years. I guess it's all a matter of perception so YMMV.
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It's been 58 yrs since HS and I have been to all but the first reunion and enjoyed each of them in spite of not having been close friends with most of them (at least not that I remember). Most everyone was friendly and fun to talk with and appeared to enjoy talking about their path as well as interested in hearing mine. Each time the number of classmates (out of about 1350) get smaller with the last time about <50 due to distance, cost, disinterest, or age.
 
JoeWras said:
Every other month or so, I meet with a few old colleagues and we mostly discuss retirement. Sometimes we invite current active employees. When they come, they verify to us we are glad to be out of there. Their latest stories raise my blood pressure even though we are in a secure, undisclosed location far away from the office.:)
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This isn't quite the same thing, but the Mom of one of my co-workers retired back around 1999 or 2000, from the same industry we're both in. In fact, it was her who hired me, way back in 1992. Anyway, my co-worker regularly tells her Mom about all of the monkeyshines that tend to go on at work these days, and her Mom says that the workplace these days sounds like a nightmare!
 
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