What I won't miss about working life

When I saw that series MAD MEN, my mind immediately went back to the days in 1960 when we worked in a mostly all girl office. The series depicts parts of society in the 60's including smoking, drinking, sexism and adultery. We were always watching the older men come back to the office red faced and smelling of cigars and grog. One of the men was always calling one girl/woman into his office and shut the door, they were in there for a very long time, and we had our suspicions. I asked Mr. H. if he had a daughter called Jan and he said "Yes" I said I was in her class at St. Patrick's, you should have seen the look on his face.
 

I guess just about every office situation has the same type of characters. I don't miss that either, though for the most part, there were no despicable people in my work-home, just annoying ones. Our manager was a piece of work who got on everyone's nerves. I loved what I did and thankfully, was mostly in the field on solo assignment, but still had to deal with some BS from time to time.

Retirememt Water Pitcher & Flowers.jpg
 

I loved the work I did which was testing and evaluating people with disabilities to help them obtain employment. I didn’t love working for the state which at times was like the military.

I made some lifelong friends there and we are still friends after being retired 11 years. Some people were truly awful.
 
I will add to these toxic environments. There are people, that will sabotage the work of people that do their job well, to bring their efficiency down to their level.
I disliked my job enough, to learn investing to be able to retire early.
The more you disliked your job, the more you enjoy retirement.
I really, REALLY like retirement.
 
What I don't miss about working life is, running for the bus, standing in the crowded train for about 40 minutes, shocking in the Summertime as the trains were not airconditioned in those day. Having to climb 80 stairs to get to my desk, the lift was only for goods. But I did miss the friendships although I still meet up with 6 girls ( all retired now).
 
oscash said:
What I don't miss about working life is, running for the bus, standing in the crowded train for about 40 minutes, shocking in the Summertime as the trains were not airconditioned in those day. Having to climb 80 stairs to get to my desk, the lift was only for goods. But I did miss the friendships although I still meet up with 6 girls ( all retired now).
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At one point my husband was having to travel on 3 trains to get to work at 5am every morning and then the same on the return..often not getting home until 9pm...just exhausting..
 
One month ago I spent my last day at work, at 77, I called it a day so that I could be with my wife. Her younger sister passed away in the last week of May, the death hit my wife really hard, they were very close. My retirement surprised, but pleased, my lady, I knew it would but I am not embracing retirement with joy, it's so hard adjusting.
 
horseless carriage said:
One month ago I spent my last day at work, at 77, I called it a day so that I could be with my wife. Her younger sister passed away in the last week of May, the death hit my wife really hard, they were very close. My retirement surprised, but pleased, my lady, I knew it would but I am not embracing retirement with joy, it's so hard adjusting.
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It takes a while to settle into a new routine. Be sure to stay busy even if just around the house.
Congratulations! Even though it may not seem it right now.
 
They had the legal right to put me on the street after I hurt my back but instead they had a gal retire so they put me up front with another gal and made a purchasing agent / buyer out of me for the last eight years of the thirty one that I worked for the company......had my own office and I actually kinda liked the job but at 65 1/2 I decided to go ahead and pull the plug.

The gal I'd spent eight years working with said, "Ike when you retire you'll miss the job and people"......she couldn't have been more wrong.
 
againstthegrain said:
What I don't miss is the constant struggle to make sales, and "splitting the baby" day, after day, after day.

Putting high quality produce on store shelves and in restaurants 24/7/365 is very hard and demanding work. If you care too much it eats you alive, and if you don't care enough you'll end up w no business.
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Yes. Sales is quite stressful. I am a basically shy, introverted person. How I ended up in sales most of my life baffles me. I looked at it as "take care of people and the money will come". That is mostly true but I was not often the high achiever and not the low. I made a good living and had many loyal clients and good word of mouth referrals.
I just dealt with the stress through the years, not always in a good way. Now I can see the toll but I'm grateful that the last year I went in full gear mode and had my best year ever. That gave me a great feeling to retire on that note.
In retirement I'm able to enjoy my private, quiet life and my stress level is low.
 
horseless carriage said:
One month ago I spent my last day at work, at 77, I called it a day so that I could be with my wife. Her younger sister passed away in the last week of May, the death hit my wife really hard, they were very close. My retirement surprised, but pleased, my lady, I knew it would but I am not embracing retirement with joy, it's so hard adjusting.
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I think I remember you saying you. weren't a handyman, which is what a lot of men busy themselves doing around the property when they retire... .. you could take your lovely lady to places around the Uk you've never visited... that's what I did. in my first year or 2 of retirement..

Also perhaps you could join a local club. You're very lucky where you live that there's so many things for seniors to do... how about green bowls... it's a lovely gentle sport..or just google things for seniors to do..in your area...
 
there are a couple things I don't miss about working
not feeling well but went to work anyways because our dept{pharmacy} was always short staffed esp with pharm techs which I was one
senority in our dept allowed the 3 women techs who had been there the longest, always got Thanksgiving, Xmas,Easter week off This really upset the rest of the techs{inc me},For yrs tried to explain to my family why I couldn't come for thanksgiving was like hitting my head against the wall
verbal abuse from unruly doctors/nurses who wanted the meds ASAP.At times tried to explain to them, I didn't deliver those specific meds ,the other techs did
 
InTheWoods said:
Giving presentations to crowds. This I don't miss. I always did well, but I always had stage fright for days or weeks in advance.
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Now imagine having to TRY to talk to the Parents of a 7 year old kid, who was just run over by a delivery truck, in front of their house................While ALSO trying to examine the screaming child, who you are pretty sure has a massive head injury. The whole ethnic neighbourhood is standing around you and your Ambulance partner, and they are yelling at us to "DO SOMETHING!!!!!. Just a bit more stressful than talking to calm people sitting in a auditorium, yes ??? Just getting the injured child into your Ambulance, without causing further serious injury, and then trying to drive through a 4 block long traffic back up on a side street in down town Toronto, was a challenge.

Now.... multiply that call times 10 years of working on that job, and you know why I left . In the last 2 years of working for Metro Toronto Ambulance, my old injuries had become so bad that I could no longer do the job. I pleaded with the management to re-assign me to "public affairs " which involved speaking to large crowds of people. about what the 911 system was all about, and also giving tours of our Head Quarters building and communications department. No stress at all.
 
hollydolly said:
I think I remember you saying you. weren't a handyman, which is what a lot of men busy themselves doing around the property when they retire... .. you could take your lovely lady to places around the Uk you've never visited... that's what I did. in my first year or 2 of retirement..

Also perhaps you could join a local club. You're very lucky where you live that there's so many things for seniors to do... how about green bowls... it's a lovely gentle sport..or just google things for seniors to do..in your area...
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Thanks Holly, you are probably bored about the number of times I regale the forum with our love of dance. Age has restricted us somewhat, but we leave the fast dances to those that can. Your mention of bowls made me think, not a sport that appeals, but you are right in that I should look to find something.

Thanks for the local club suggestion, I have found one that puts on afternoon tea dances. I will keep you posted. Thank you very much.
 
Other things I don't miss...like @Leann...meetings. I've always considered them time wasters and hated sitting through them. I also don't miss having to get up and go to work when I was feeling bad. Unfortunately between my son and me, I never could accumulate much sick time. He got much healthier as he entered puberty but I continued to suffer with my cardiac arrhythmia. Our clinic nurse use to scold me for coming in when I was in that condition. After I became a field rep, a position that necessitated me being on the road almost 1/2 the time, I never got behind the wheel when I was having episodes.
 
Meetings....yes....I won't miss those.

I worked for a large company with branches all over the country. We were on the verge of merging with another like company and becoming a real power in the field.

Corporate decided that the announcement of the merger MUST be announced simultaneously to all branches. It was going to be televised to us. I had to rent the ballroom of a large meeting place, arrange for a news truck from one of the local television stations to stream the announcement, arrange catering, hire busses to haul everyone there and shut the office down for the day because EVERYBODY had to be there for the grand announcement. BIG expense. BIG hassle. NOBODY really wanted to go, but it was 100% mandatory.

On our way to the meeting place, the deal fell through. We get there....."radio silence". Finally, the "show" goes on. It's now become a pep talk.....Everything is just FINE!....We're doing just GREAT!......We're looking forward to BIGGER and BETTER things!.....OH YES WE ARE!!!!.....Nothing to worry about.....

We all eat our box lunches and file back on the busses for the silent ride back to the office, where we are greeted by calls from irate customers who weren't happy with the recording on the phones that we were out for ****AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE****.

That's one of the 1,000 things I don't miss about working.
 
I won’t miss having somebody tell me how to spend my time off. Yes, I had a boss like that. We were not supposed to go anywhere where he couldn’t reach us.
 

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