Is it normal, as retirement nears... (emotionally, moving, conversation, fighting)
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...to grow more and more dissatisfied with your job and working? I can't decide if it's me, my job, or an actual retirement phenomenon, but I have just a few months left and can barely make myself go in now.
It got harder the last couple of months for my husband and he didn't hate his job but it was hard to start any major research , so he puttered around in the lab just counting down the days.
I do think it's reasonable to accept the fact of work (and/or be glad to be employed) in the huge part of life where work is a financial necessity. I think it can be counterproductive to be thinking about not working when you have years of it to go. But when the end is clearly in sight... yes, I found it harder to to in since I put in my papers and had three months to go. I'd enjoy my 3am conversations and international coworkers on a quiet night and then, the 4am near-death experience of feeling very chilled and fighting to stay awake and not wanting to do anything and not wanting to do this anymore.
I think once you know there's an option, it's hard to keep going on as if nothing had changed! I did start counting at 100 total days, but I don't think that's too unreasonable. But on days off, it felt like getting high or something just to be able to sleep at night and as much as I wanted.
Are you going ROAD? As we called it in the military - Retired on Active Duty - lol.
... HA! Good one! ...
On my last 'temp' job, where I was employed for 7.5 years, we were calling it "RiP" - "Retired-in-Place" ...
The last 2 weeks I worked there, I was pretty-much just making sure there would be some continuity for the little things the job had degenerated to ...
OH - And on days when I wasn't really needed onsite, I could log on and do not-very-much from home, too ... So, I did!
If possible, if I'm not needed for a specific job, I plan to spend my last four shifts roaming around talking to people. Unfortunately, I'm likely to be needed to do the job right up to the last night.
I met my replacement. She said, "I'm the new Ilene," and I suggested she might want to see what people mean by that! When I was new, people asked "Are you the new Marcy?" as someone named March had left that slot that I was in. Turned out old March slept with a lot of the coworkers and had quite a reputation!
Now, the old Ilene is famous for being direct, showing people what corners to cut and which ones not to cut, referring to unnecessary details as "stupid" when orienting someone and swearing like a drunken sailor behind closed doors. So the new Kim might want to be just that, "new Kim." She didn't look like she might have a trash mouth like me, but people can learn, right?
Watching the retirement date too closely has the same effect as watching the finish line too soon while one is running. One invariably 'runs out of gas' because their mind shifts to 'being at the finish line' from running the necessary race to get there.
My "last few months" actually extended to a year and a half. That is how long it took to downsize, cleanup the house, get it on the market and get the house sold. I thought it would be tough as a lame duck. I was also keeping my retirement quiet so I did not need to make a commitment or to be pushed into a corner. Regardless the last year or so was not too bad. I did spend a great deal of time on the internet planning my retirement, which included taking off in an RV for full time RV living. Work went better than expected. I really did not care so I was not upset by the usual management foolishness. I spent a lot of time nodding my head up and down regarding the latest insanity. My bosses liked that and most of the crazy ideas were never implemented anyway.
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