For those retired....what do you enjoy most?

[tcreeley]

I have taught for a number of years and just retired. Sick time is given to teachers as a way to avoid raising pay. We were up to 14 days a year. Every year the district bought back anything over 120 sick days. The state gives retirement credit for 90 sick days and the district will buy back 30 days on retirement. The purpose of that is to decrease the likelihood that teachers planning to retire will call in sick 1-2 days every week in their last year, disrupting the education of the students. (This used to happen prior to the buy back provisions.) Minimum retirement age is now 62 and is going up to 65. I used 6 days this past year of sick time -dr.,retirement paperwork appointment, flu illness.
Re loyalty, I owed the school and state nothing, I owed my students everything.

 

[jaotguy]

Loyalty is a two-way street. Management, and employees, have a responsibility to each other.

Neither respects the other, business and people should respect each other. One does not have to like or agree, but one should respect.

too few companies realize that employees are people and not "slaves" ... just because I work for you, doesn't mean you own me ....
and if you don't respect and take care of your employees , they won't give a rat's ***ss about your company ...

most management today takes the attitude "use them up , throw them away and get a new one" ...

unless there are hundreds of "qualified applicants" , they fail to consider the training required and learning curve before the "new ones" are ready to do the job by them selves .... lost productivity for 2 people ( trainer and trainee ) ...

worked in a few shops where they started off doing things "right" by the employees, and the workers had no problems going the extra mile when the company needed it ....
sadly , all of them changed to the "modern" version/view of "I'm the boss , do as I say , you work for me, OR ELSE, this is costing me $$$$ " ...

when they switch and lose respect , the employees also take the view of "you got your 8 hours out of me, I'm going home now... no I don't want the overtime." ... "no, I won't be in early either" ...and sorry you over extended yourself, but it's not my problem, you're running the company and should have known better. ...

eventually , everyone gets fed up and finds another place to work ...., leaving the company wondering "why did they leave us like that ... after all we did for them ..." they remember the "good times" and the workers are left with "how could they treat us like that? "...

selective memory on both sides ...

but if management thought it through ... no one leaves if they are happy and well paid ( unless you are one of the deadwood ) ... if people are leaving, management must be doing something wrong.

actually overheard the phrase being used " thought I was wrong once , but I was mistaken " ( actually his own words )

 

[MacLawn]

My epitaph: "Here lies a true piddler. He never did a thing, but had a heap of fun".

 

[brin]

My epitaph: "Here lies a true piddler. He never did a thing, but had a heap of fun".

Not bad at all...congratulations...I feel like I have and am living life to its fullest...we all need to count our blessings.

 

[ultrarunner]

The problem with loyalty is those where loyalty was earned come and go... as I have found out.

I made a fundamental shift in my thinking this year and decided what ever happens will happen and it has greatly reduced my overall level of stress.

It was liberating to realize I will be fine with or without the job and if the new CEO deems my services are no longer needed... it's OK...

Funny thing is the founding CEO told me shortly before retirement... "God help the company if so and so is ever in charge" well, 2 years later that person is in charge and the prediction rings very true...

 

[jaotguy]

a lot of people equate their "worthiness" with the job they do ... give it their "all" , while others coast and let the hard workers hold the company together ....

The true workers often feel lost without a purpose , while the dead wood hope and pray they aren't noticed...

there comes a time when you finally have to say "enough is enough" , I did my best but nobody really cares ... resign yourself to that fact and that you may have to change companies if necessary .... "liberating" isn't a strong enough word for that feeling , more like electrifying, exhilarating , life changing , epiphany .... as the WHO said "I can see for miles"...:laughing:

let the "new management" implement their wondrous plans and let them fall on their face ... we've all seen it done and there is nothing you can do to stop it ...

 

[newbury]

Just spoke to one of the best Medical Gas guys I know... a real company man that knew what he was doing and took care of the customer...

After 19 years he resigned because his territory kept expanding and hiring was frozen... when he signed on it was one week travel a month... when he quit, he was living in airports and the last month slept in his own bed a total of 4 nights...

It't the good ones that burn out.... he has no regrets other than waiting so long in the hopes the situation would get better... it was his wife that made him realize it was time to leave.

That struck a chord.

Worked in/for the Army for 37 years. From the start to the end I was involved in training courses in aerial photo interpretation and then GIS and computers. With additional "war time" requirements from 2001 to 2011 we went from averaging being on the road about one week a month to three weeks. There were several periods where as lead trainer I was expected to be on the road for two week stints in Germany, Hawaii, Korea all back to back. Travel was almost always on weekends with courses running two weeks Mon thru Friday. The last few years I was "lucky" to spend a full two day weekend at home in a month. These were courses training soldiers in GIS and systems on the back of a Humvee outside, not all inside a nice dry air conditioned classroom. The management 2 levels and more UP had devolved to either unmarried or people without children who saw nothing wrong with going on travel from their 1 bedroom apartment to spend two months in upscale hotel rooms going to meetings and conferences. Home and family life meant little to those managers. With a hiring freeze and a pay freeze we were being told we were not needed. I got the message.

And there were the little things, I was expected to ace 80 hours of training every 6 months in contract management/acquisition, even when I was about to retire. I had to attend days of briefings on Security, sexual harassment, ethics and safety EVERY year for about the last 20, and they usually were just repeats of the year before. You can tell it's bad when the audience in a security briefing has the slides memorized and can read ahead outloud like the audience at The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

I have taught for a number of years and just retired. Sick time is given to teachers as a way to avoid raising pay. We were up to 14 days a year. Every year the district bought back anything over 120 sick days. The state gives retirement credit for 90 sick days and the district will buy back 30 days on retirement. The purpose of that is to decrease the likelihood that teachers planning to retire will call in sick 1-2 days every week in their last year, disrupting the education of the students. (This used to happen prior to the buy back provisions.) Minimum retirement age is now 62 and is going up to 65. I used 6 days this past year of sick time -dr.,retirement paperwork appointment, flu illness.
Re loyalty, I owed the school and state nothing, I owed my students everything.

Some of my better "joys" were to train a student as a PFC, train again as an E4 or E5 on new equipment, have him come to assist me as a trainer as an E6, watch him/her go thru Warrant Officer School, then see them excel. That made the job "fun".

Now all is family life, just got back from a relaxing dinner with relatives, looking forward to "puttering around" for several weeks to several decades or more.

I've probably seen more of SWMBO in the last month than I did in the last two years BEFORE I retired. And that's a GREAT thing.

 

[OldMcDonald]

Quite a few posters have criticised their present or past management. I worked and studied my way from office boy to the most senior management posts over time (Directorships and Deputy/Acting CEO) and with a few exceptionally good managers, I agree with those who criticise.

I think much of the problem lies in the idea (which came about at various times in different countries) that university graduates or those with the requisite professional qualifications can start at middle management level and be rapidly promoted. They have never learned that whilst it is tough at the top (and it is) it one helluva lot tougher at the bottom. How can they know when they have never been at the bottom?

I was often told I was too soft with my staff. Balderdash. Treat people with respect and they will work much better because they know they are valued. It is often not possible for a particular manager to do anything about pay for their staff, but I found that whilst many people would like a pay rise, job satisfaction was also important to them.

 

[jaotguy]

part of ANY university diploma should be a mandatory course in "people skills" ... flunk that and you don't get that piece of paper ....

too many of the "new boys" .... [most come from privileged families with friends in high places] ... go to the "right" club houses and watch the elders mistreat staff ,,, bully their employees "to keep 'em in line", and act like spoiled brats ... entitlement of sorts... then daddy calls a friend to get them that first good paying job and they never have to see what really makes the company tick or how the real world works ... no people skills at all

one boss had a really stupid plan and used the line " I've got an IQ of 126 ... when you have a higher one , then you can tell me what to do .....so I started to explain why it was a bad idea ... "didn't you hear me? was his answer .. ... I said yes , and as far as I recalled , 149 was higher than 126 ... now back to the reason why it will fail ..... his jaw dropped and he flapped his lips and stammered out "prove it" ... I said OK and brought in the test results the next day and put up a copy on the wall behind my desk ( he was then a very unhappy boss ) .... he had very few "bright ideas" after that ...

not every bright person goes to university ... not every person in management knows what they are doing ( sorta like some simpleton servants rhyming off rules and regulations without understanding them ) ...

the old saying "treat others like you would like to be treated" is lost in many companies ...

the best places to work (and extremely productive and innovative ) are the ones that treat the employees with respect ...


now for the "Rocky Horror picture Show " .. sad but true for a lot of these courses ... and we've seen that person 3 rows down 5 seats to the left , that is always 3-4 seconds behind the rest of the audience ... yet he still makes it to the end of the movie too... then you file out of the show, get on your bike and go for a drive .....

5 of us had to take "mandatory" training every year ... same 5 , same teacher , same room ... every year we all aced the test ( super simple , never changed ) on the last test the instructor walked in , dropped the sheets and said fill'em out, picked them up and marked PASS on all of them without looking , handed us the certificates ... I asked why ... said he was retiring in a week and was playing golf that afternoon with his son and he wasn't going to be late for either of them ...

 

[houstonscott]

Colleges don't teach anything, they just present information, you have to learn it yourself, and parents teach people skills. Universities today are a hindrance to learning. HS