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As for the rest of your post, you seem very defensive for some reason. It was not my intent to start an argument, So I'll simply bow out now and wish you luck.
No I don't think job burn out and depression are "identical." (your word)
But I think you read some tone into the post that wasn't there.
I was just having a conversation. But thanks for weighing in.
Quote:
n your case, can you vest your retirement if you leave now, and collect on it when you do retire? With 9 years to retirement you may still have time to get another (small) pension. Here, it's only 5 years to vest or retire but obviously not enough years to get much. A major change can be scary, especially that late, but it does sometimes work out, and it seems like being unhappy for 9 years would be a shame.
Financially that just doesn't make sense. And to leave a job I can do blind-folded. To learn a new job, new co-workers, new office politics, new boss, lose vacation AND 21 years of seniority -- no thanks. I'll stick it out with my 5 weeks vacation, union coverage, decent pay -- even if it does mean nine more years not really wanting to be there.
Thank you slyfox2, that's what I'd like to here whether people have -- on their own accord -- bounced back from severe burn out. And if they did, HOW they did it...did they do it at the same job, with the same company. OR did they have to leave and regroup? Did they take a new job? Take time off. Did they give up benefits? Pay? OR if they never did recover from burn out how long did they stick it out before retiring or leaving. You did 5 years. I've got nine to go
You're a counselor…. Did you feel "depressed" you last five gruel years, or did you manage to just accept…this is what I have to do…but you didn't OBSESS about being able to retire? Perhaps I'm still in the psychological process of really accepting that I will indeed have to do nine more "boring and tedious" years…when I'd rather not.
I had to work the last 5 years of my educ psych counseling career in burnout. There should be legal limit on the number of horrible stories about mistreatment by adults or other children on children under the age 12 that a grownup should be allowed to hear. Unfortunately there is no legal limit. After 35 years of doing it, I was pretty well exhausted by it by age 57.
While I still work in a kind of intense helping profession ON-Line, if I don't have to ever hear another horrible story, and help a child deal with a situation that they really have no control over at all, just one more time in this life, it will really be too many.
My wife retired from teaching kindergarten children and would love to go back. I retired from psychological counseling with them, and I have no interest in doing so again.
Mmmmm...currently I am a kindergarten teacher looking to perhaps go in the field of counseling. I have felt really burned out in my current job, but because of summers, it gives me a chance to revamp. Do you think it was worth it to go into counseling?
Financially that just doesn't make sense. And to leave a job I can do blind-folded. To learn a new job, new co-workers, new office politics, new boss, lose vacation AND 21 years of seniority -- no thanks. I'll stick it out with my 5 weeks vacation, union coverage, decent pay -- even if it does mean nine more years not really wanting to be there.
Why don't you get a piece of paper and make 2 columns. Under one column lists the Pros of leaving; under the other column list the Cons of leaving.
As for leaving your current job, you should definitely consider if it is worthwhile starting over at this late date.
Unless, perhaps, you have a passion that you could turn into a new business, or something?
I'm 59 years old. After working for decades, you just get tired of it all.
I have a couple friends who are a few years older than me, and they are looking forward to retirement.
By the time you age into your late 50s, you develop a yearning for retirement.
I rather think so. I have always felt like my work, most of the time, is almost like getting paid to play. And paid ridiculously well. But not much about it is new of late, and shaking things up to pursue new horizons would be stupid from a financial standpoint as it would gut my earning power in the short term, and expose me to a lot of business world BS that I largely float above now. I'm behind in what I should have put away for retirement and cash reserves. I can sock away as much as $100k for every year I keep working, and should not really consider stopping that sooner than 5 years from now as I need at least that much more to comfortably and permanently retire. But honestly in an ideal world I could quit today and never look back, apart from financial necessity. I have plenty of interests / things to do.
These are definitely first-world problems and I'm not complaining. But you're right, at 59 my reaction to most anything I encounter tends to be along the lines of "I'm to old for this sh_t". I think one sees how unimportant and/or pointless so many things turn out to be, that we used to have this laser-like focus on. None of it really matters as much as simple enjoyment / contentment and you're not interested in the striving, the politics, the brainstorming, strategizing, etc. Also I believe that without realizing it many people get by in life largely with rationalizations of the general form, "things will be better just around the next corner". But at my age you realize there aren't many "next corners" left and if whatever you were waiting to show up hasn't been hiding around past corners it's probably not hiding around future ones. Indeed, at this point one's health starts to slide, a little at a time and then faster and faster, and what's actually LIKELY to be around future corners are decline and disability, at least relatively speaking.
Put another way, I have realized that not only is my ship never coming in ... there never evan WAS a ship in the first place.*
So ... different things are important to me now. Not chasing rainbows and unicorns anymore. Staying as healthy as I can, enjoying my relationships and experiences as much as I can, closing out my affairs honorably, being ready for anything. Work is just another abandoned immortality project I suppose, which is why it means less and less to us as we grow older.
* And no this isn't a morose, depressed realization, it's just pragmatic. Life never owed me anything, my children were never really mine, there were never any guarantees in any of the roles I played or efforts I made, all things are impermanent, etc etc. It's just recognition of how much BS I bought into during much of my life and how skewed my perceptions of what was important were. Freed of all (well, okay, MOST) of those attachments to particular outcomes, this has the potential to be "my time" in a way that hasn't been possible before.
Sounds like you've got it pretty good, OP. Count your blessings.
I do….and I do
Mordant, that's so very true. I'm feeling that way and have to work 9 more years….
How many more years do you want to work, or how many more do you feel you'll need to work to set up the retirement you want.
I feel burned out. And I really don't want to work. I'm bored and not challenged at work. And I don't WANT to be. I don't want to HAVE to be any where 8 hours a day, at someone ELSE's demand, and I want my schedule to be my own.
I don't know what line of work you're in but can you open your own firm? For example, a CPA might work for a large corporation for 10 years or so then open their own small private practice. It might bring the fire back.
By the time you're in your 50's you're just sick of it. I wonder if it's because, as we age, we are getting more real and more authentic w/ ourselves and just want to do what we want to do. We need more meaning and purpose and things that do it for us. A job is still a job and playing a role is how I look at it. Even w/ your own business, you still have demands from others. Maybe more time doing exactly what you want, exploring things that really mean something to you and doing them in little ways now?
Mordant, that's so very true. I'm feeling that way and have to work 9 more years….
How many more years do you want to work, or how many more do you feel you'll need to work to set up the retirement you want.
Well I am 59 and if I can continue at my present savings rate, age 65 is likely a good time to consider bowing out. It will depend on how my health and energy levels hold up, how those things go for my wife, etc. There are plausible scenarios where I would never be able to comfortably retire. I am down to one full time client and that company is privately owned by a guy in his late 70s. If he dies, I don't know what kind of succession plan he has, if any, but the company could be quickly sold to empty suits and I could be summarily tossed out as their major expense or simply replaced with their own people. Or I could have to consider using some of my savings to pool with other contractors and employees and buy the company out.
My hope is that I just continue as I have been for another 6 or so years and then quit. I really am not interested in being an entrepreneur and/or working beyond my mid 60s. But there are things that could force me to keep on going.
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