The
reason for the insane pressure at work and all the multiple deadlines
stacked on deadlines these past three months, which consumed so many
of my nights and weekends and even forced me to cut a vacation short after two
days up at the cabin (I'm happy about that, I can tell you),
finally became apparent this past Monday, when the company announced a divisional
re-org and cut my department in half. I, being the oldest, most
experienced, and most expensive employee in the department was the first
to be cut, of course.
I don't mind. Looking back on 40 years in the computer industry as a whole and the past 20 years here, all I see is a long litany of times I short-changed my family for the benefit of the company: recitals and plays missed, nights and weekends worked, vacations not taken or cut short, or worse, taken but while schlepping along a laptop and a wi-fi hotspot, because I was on call for last-minute work to make the deadline for some now long-forgottten software release.
I won't miss that at all.
The severance package wasn't great, but it's good enough for me to consider this my invitation to retire. As of today I have a lot more time to work on Stupefying Stories and Rampant Loon Press, so that's what I'm doing -- just as soon as I finish breakfast. If you've been waiting for me to reply to an email message, thanks for your patience. I have the time to do that now and will be getting back to you shortly.
Upward and onward.
~brb
6 comments:
Become a consulant? Set your own hours, get way more money for the same job & a lot less stress.
I am sorry for the changes at your old company. I am glad the Rampant Loon has a leader to steer it to a bright future.
Retirement is awesome if you can afford it! I hope you enjoy it.
A mixed blessing in many ways, but I hope this turns out to be what you want it to be. Hope the breakfast was great!
I retired earlier this year, at the end of March. Plans to mostly stay home, catch up on a lot of tv and movies, garden, do long overdue housecleaning & reorganization, and try to get more writing done, made it easier to deal with the Covid lockdown & restrictions.
Establishing new writing habits has been the hardest part. Retirement plan was to go the coffee-shop/library route to get writing time in. Trying to write at home instead has been a struggle; all distraction & other things to do, all the time. (Pre-retirement, most of my first drafts were written during idle moments at work; boss was okay, since it was graveyard shift and my writing kept me awake.)
But best wishes and good luck for your own retirement.
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