Having problems deciding whether to press that resignation button....

cfw1994

jim8888 said:

Nebulous2 said:

You need to prepare psychologically as well as financially. 

Its amazing talking to nurses and Doctors who retired and came back to help during the pandemic how many of them feel revitalised by having some work. Most of them are better at setting boundaries for how much they work than me, but a lot of them talk of having a new sense of purpose. 

They talk of 'drifting' when retired, lacking motivation, sleeping until mid-morning etc. Even one 6 hour shift a week appears to have brought structure for some people and a new sense of purpose. 

I'd totally agree with this. It's a massive challenge going from full time employment to full time retirement and I've struggled with it (although it's quite a pleasant struggle!) I wish I could have gone to a three day week, but that wasn't an option in the job I had. I'm six months into retirement and while the summer was like a long holiday, I'm now looking for ways to constructively fill the days. I turn 58 this month, but still feel I could enjoy a job if one came along. I dread "drifting and sleeping until mid-morning", but as ever it's up to me to find alternatives if I'm not happy with it.

I almost embrace not getting up early!  

Not sleeping, but reading t’internet is a serious task, and can often take 2 cups of tea & sometimes a coffee ☕️🤪
The dark nights lend themselves to catching up with films & reading….not to mention a bit of sport….or pub quizzes (managed a couple last week, although our regular two still haven’t returned post-Covid 🙄
The crisp days can be filled with some winter gardening, walks, or 65k bike rides (as I did with a pal yesterday…my Roam told me it was 14 degrees early on…but only 8 when I finished at 2:30 ❄️)
Gadgets are my downfall….need to check myself now, but that isn’t a bad thing….
I still marvel at how I found time to work 🤷‍♂️

cloud_dog

@ian16527 I have work colleagues who work 3 or 4 day weeks.  They are oftentimes asked to move their off days to accommodate client interactions.  The business really doesn't compensate for the reduced working time, in my opinion, and the role needs to undertake all the activities the role needs to.  As an example I work with two Product Managers (similar products, size, complexity, involvement), one working 5 days a week and one 3 days a week, and I'm unsure how that functions for the 3 day week person TBH.

I love the area I work in, provides me with a huge amount of personal pride, but we recently underwent a restructure and, well, the work environment is pants!  For a few years now I have been working towards achieving an earlier retirement date and the recent work environment change has really escalated my desire to retire TBH.  I have a decent DB pension at 65, and we have focussed on the pot to accommodate the early years before age 65.

I know the ideal day to hand my notice in on (31 May).  The actual year may change, we are currently approx 20% ahead of our schedule/targeted early retirement date.  Based on my experience of others at my workplace I am not considering reducing my working time, but simply stopping.  I intend for a period of time afterwards not to plan or do anything (I'm sure there will be loads to do), and if I miss personal contact, work rewards then I will look at a part time job that suits my requirements or I will look to volunteer.

longman27

Like others have said can you take an unpaid career/lifestyle break to test the waters? I have just finished a year unpaid ( I started taking my pensions, I'm 59) and I've decided I can make do and won't be going back. I was doing shift work/ nights/ weekends though so the decision might have been easier for me.

sheslookinhot

I thought of going April this year, but with restrictions and a late retirement factor, which added almost 9.5% to my DB decided on OMY. However I made a decision that I will go in May 22. Button is pushed on 6 December.

Every day continuing to work is a day less retirement to enjoy.

uss_tish

I think it depends how stressful your job is and whether or not you can truly switch off enough after your three days to enjoy your free time. I’ve recently fully retired (early) and do not regret the decision at all. I have not struggled with the transition as I feel like a weight of responsibility and burden has been lifted. I absolutely loved my job but it was all consuming and would have continued to be that way even with flexible retirement - work politics is just exhausting.

Sounds like you are planning carefully your finances so take the leap!

Anonymous101

I've long thought that some roles are well suited to working part-time and others really not. Any role which has flexible time / responsibilities has the potential to become very difficult to reduce the hours of. Businesses will almost always fail to organise the picking up of whatever element of work is dropped and their will therefore be pressure, whether direct or self applied, to carry out more work than the reduction in hours should allow for.

Someone noted doctors and nurses managing well here and that's because its not a role you can easily do at home. There's a very clear distinction between being in work and not.

Some people also seem much better at managing the transitions than others. Similarly with the new time. There really seems to be those that are able to handle the additional time very well, (I don't know how I ever found time to work) and those that need something external to provide structure. Its really interesting to observe and does make me think about my own aspirations of retiring early and how I will best manage that.

SouthCoastBoy

Anonymous101 said:

Some people also seem much better at managing the transitions than others. Similarly with the new time. There really seems to be those that are able to handle the additional time very well, (I don't know how I ever found time to work) and those that need something external to provide structure. Its really interesting to observe and does make me think about my own aspirations of retiring early and how I will best manage that.

I think the key is to have interests other than work before you retire. I have plenty, mainly sport related, but both my brothers have next to no interests outside of work and both work long hours, therefore for them to retire would be a big adjustment, for me it will just mean more time for me to enjoy the interests I already have before I am too old.

jimi_man

I've just had my part time application accepted for three days a week (Tuesday - Thursday) from January 4th. 2022 will probably be my last year so I'm looking at it as a wind down. 

I'm in the Civil Service so we don't tend to get five days work to do in three, at least not in the area that I'm in. 

Anonymous101

SouthCoastBoy said:

Anonymous101 said:

Some people also seem much better at managing the transitions than others. Similarly with the new time. There really seems to be those that are able to handle the additional time very well, (I don't know how I ever found time to work) and those that need something external to provide structure. Its really interesting to observe and does make me think about my own aspirations of retiring early and how I will best manage that.

I think the key is to have interests other than work before you retire. I have plenty, mainly sport related, but both my brothers have next to no interests outside of work and both work long hours, therefore for them to retire would be a big adjustment, for me it will just mean more time for me to enjoy the interests I already have before I am too old.

You're dead right. There is a large proportion of society that fill all of their time outside of work with recovering from work and don't really have many other interests.

I think I'll be ok here. I've always viewed work as something that takes valuable time away from the rest of my life and viewed work as a necessary evil. Whilst its worth working hard to make a career as worthwhile as possible (Well paying and not too boring) it doesn't form the mainstay of my life, although I do think that there could be some status attached to it that I haven't fully considered. 

I do wonder if this is hard wired and those that aren't innately thinking in this way can learn to enjoy all the free time. I suppose after multiple decades of conditioning to operate in this manor it would take some considerable undoing.

Albermarle

I've long thought that some roles are well suited to working part-time and others really not. Any role which has flexible time / responsibilities has the potential to become very difficult to reduce the hours of.

You are right. I had a very flexible job , with little supervision ( as they say the best boss is one who lives in another country and is very busy ) and no real back up .So I had to be always available if something cropped up , which effectively meant I never truly had a day off during the week, and would regularly have to deal with problems, customers etc on my days off . So going part time was always a non starter . My job was defined by its responsibilities, rather than the amount of time spent on it. 

On the other side the general flexibility , mainly working from home, overall not too mad busy, was very welcome, so I never complained about calls on holiday, but it was one reason to decide to retire with a definite cut off date and a planned wind down with a trained replacement in place. 

One odd thing though is because the job was so flexible and not that full on , that I do not feel that my life has changed that much since retiring . Certainly not as much as it must for some people.