Hi @Holly Saunders , your procrastinating. I know because I did it for years, just as you are. You've been arguing with yourself over this for some time. Your body is screaming at you. Listen to it! It's angry. I know it is hard to stop being a really needed and productive employee and bread winner, but you also know you'll adjust to whatever income you have remaining, or you wouldn't even be considering retiring. And, I can promise you that your job will replace you, and forget about you in a short period of time. Many times a job will make you think that they really depend on your abilities, but that's because it's to their best interest and concern for themselves, not yours. You know that six month after you leave, you'll just be a memory to them, and they will have no concern over what damage your body has received at their need. I know that sound mean, but it true. So, please be your own advocate. Be a lady of leisure! Besides, you've never been a lazy person, so I'm positive you'll fill your retirement with all the things you've dreamed of doing. Go for it my friend.
The one problem with going back or continuing in the work force versus retirement is a thing called commitment. We "older" folks were taught that when we accept a position we also accept the commitment to that position and the employer. Very often, I have talked to my wife about going back into the things I love to do but then I have to respond to my own part of the conversation with " but I do not know how much time I can commit to that position". I have even talked about opening another small food service facility but again, do I want to spend all of my waking hours to realize a measure of success and for how long will I really want to try to enjoy it? Many of us have work records with a single employer that span years of loyalty but when we are at retirement age that work record comes back to haunt us for we know that it would be debatable as to that record applying to anything in the near future. For most of us, it isn't a question of our willingness to go back into the work force but how long are we ACTUALLY willing to commit. Retirement is cool and if all that is needed is a little something here and there to put a little more jingle in our pockets and feed our ego at the same time, there are a multitude of things we can do to produce that without totally disrupting the wonderful feeling of final independence.
@Bobby Cole Think you summed up my feelings perfectly. The 'commitment' thing is something most of us have learned over time. I work in the hospitality field now and the commitment time seems to be in months, not years. Hard to get used to that thinking. I have had one job for 21 years and the other for 15 years. Have been with this group for 5 years. Plan to leave at the end of this year. If I accept another position, it will be on a very short commitment on my end. And I won't feel guilty...
Whew! You went from the frying pan into the fire! The hospitality field is my secular calling and to me it's the roughest industry there is. Sooooo many facets and they all center around pleasing John and Mary Q. Public. That said, yes it is a short term type of industry and employers are used to their employees doing the circuit. In restaurants the back of the house is a lot more loyal than the front and in hotels, food and beverage directors are a dime a dozen. Finding longevity with an employee is rare and finding one who doesn't take his daily anxieties and douse them with alcohol and or drugs is even more rare. Now do understand, as I have always taught my employees, if you love the hospitality industry you can go world wide or in the smallest town and find a job. I know, even at my age, I can walk into 3 restaurants or hotels and within a couple of hours land a position for as long as I want it but I know I would not wish to provide the loyalty and committment that my resume' indicates soooo.............I'm retired uh,......again.......I think.....uh maybe.
I see what you mean about the front of the house and back of the house. Enjoy my interaction with guests when I perform a fix in a room. I know how I want things when I travel and try to keep to that standard. Why I have held on as long as I have. I also put the 'maybe' in my decisions.
I retired some years back, and I think the idea of leaving a busy lifestyle for what seemed like unlimited empty days was what frightened me the most. My husband being the perfect picture of the strong silent Marine that he was, never mentioned any fears of retirement, but I noticed the lost look he carried after we shut our business down. At least I still had him, our son, and our small farm to care for daily, but Michael didn't seem to be able to see a future for himself. I wonder how much that had to do with his becoming ill. Michael was a man that never even had a headache, much less any kind sickness until he was 69, then in only three years he was gone. So many of us work toward having a financially sound retirement that we forgot to plan and make arrangements to make those days as fulfilling as our working careers.