Retirement?

So what does it mean to retire?

People have been asking me about retirement for years and my response has always been that I retired in 1981 when I graduated. I actually had a manager at Mitel in the 80’s tell me that I wasn’t serious about my job because I was having too much fun. Is that not the ultimate goal for every employee?

I really wouldn’t know how to or want to count the number of extra hours that I have logged working on both home and work projects. Why do I do that? because I love what I do and there are so many more fun things to do every day.

Has my attitude about retirement changed?

Well I’m closing in on the big six-oh and I can see the attraction of being able to choose what I work on each day. I have several friends that have retired and a couple are working harder in retirement than they every worked when they were employed.  I guess I could see me doing that and taking a little more time to vacation with my wife. I actually bought an extra week this year to travel.

Why has my attitude about retirement changed?

I would suggest to you that working conditions in the tech industry have deteriorated over the last 20 years. I still have fun on my personal projects and I apply all of that learning in my day job, but the environment at work doesn’t have the shiny new sparkle that it did in the 80’s.

Is it time for a shift in employer’s attitudes?

If the predicted tech worker shortage is realized, I would suggest to employers that there are people with a lot of experience that would be attracted to a flexible work environment. What would that environment ideally look like? That would be a topic for another day [grin]

Stay tuned….

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