Oct 14, 2022
Why would anyone want to retire?
The most miserable people I know can’t wait to retire, aka not work, and “enjoy themselves”. When I ask why, they point to an overbearing boss and workload, a skewed and unfair salary policy, and that elusive bit of corporate chicanery ‘office politics’ that they are tired of playing. Then I ask to explain ‘enjoy themselves’ and they hem and haw and end up saying ‘don’t worry, I can find a lot to do that’s more enjoyable than working’.
Strangely, not one mentioned that they hate their job. In fact, most say that they like what they do; they just can’t stomach the environment in which they do it. One close friend puts it this way: “I love my job description, I hate my job execution.”
I will never forget a golf buddy who couldn’t wait to retire from being a bank manager and play golf every day. He did and I watched as he contracted he worst case of ennui imaginable and died in about six weeks.
I think that planning to retire without a plan to replace work with pleasure is suicide, even if it’s work under a different guise. One pleasure might be spreading your expertise gained over the years to a younger generation, as did a former VP marketing who, in his seventies, found fun and satisfaction teaching marketing at a local university. As did a former VP HR who wrote a popular book about his experiences and based his consulting business on it. As did I, a former writer of corporate gargle who now, at 89, writes books that explain how and why to write corporate gargle.
