March 17 is coming to a close. Most people associate this date with St. Patrick’s Day. For those of you who do, I hope it was a good one. I, personally, don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, nor do I pretend to be Irish to make an excuse to get wasted celebrate on this date. For me, March 17 is the anniversary of my first big girl job…the day job. I’ve held it for thirty-four years, and while that’s an accomplishment by some standards, for me it’s grown tiresome and depressing.
For the past couple of years I’ve been seeing the light at the end of the tunnel grow bigger and brighter, but my movement toward it is like running through a river of molasses in January. People say the last five years fly by. They haven’t been flying for me.
On the other hand, when I think about not having a day job I get a little freaked out. I’ve been getting up too early in the morning for too many years. What will happen if left to my own sleeping patterns? And my driving, will it suffer? I’m so used to driving in mental traffic it’s second nature to me. If I don’t drive through morning and afternoon rush hour will I turn into one of those people, scared to drive faster than forty miles per hour?
I don’t suppose I have to be concerned about those and other things just yet as I still have nearly two years before they’ll let me go with all of my benefits. Until that day I’ll continue to complain about not sleeping enough and get frustrated with people who don’t know the difference between merge and yield.
The weirdest thing about it? Today marked the beginning of my thirty-fifth year at the day job and I don’t even feel like I’m thirty-five years old much less have worked at one job that long.
I guess I’ll just keep plugging along and hope with all my heart they don’t decide to fire me ten minutes before I’m eligible to retire.
Auntie B's Wax 
Wow I have only ever stayed in the one job for no longer than eight years. I get bored but hey now Im not working at all. That is a massive achievement Sara. My husband was in the same job for twenty years and was well and truly ready to leave when we made the dash for the countryside. Never looked back. Change is good too but we gotta pay the bills. You must be such a good worker. How is your writing going?
Ah, Kath, you had to bring up the writing. I’ve been thinking about your comment all day today. The writing. I came to the conclusion during my daily walk today that my novel writing is suffering because I can’t devote huge chunks of time to it. I’ve been toying with the idea of going to the family cabin in the woods, on the lake, by myself sometime this year and devote the time I spend there writing and touching up the novel. That might not happen until autumn though, October at the latest.
The day job gets in the way, dang it all. Eleven hours of my day are spent getting ready for, doing, and coming home from the day job. That doesn’t leave a lot of time at the end of the day, considering I have a house to maintain and also a craft business to run. The writing is a strong desire in me though. I haven’t given up!
How’s that little boy in the nursing home doing these days?
I stay at jobs, too. Unfortunately,I’ve never had a job where that builds into anything at all. I worked at the Shamrock Bar and Restaurant for 21 years…had just built up to earning $3.50 an hour when I quit (giving three months notice). I’m back there now (after a thirteen year hiatus) working part time, back at the starting wage of $2.75 an hour. It’s not all bad…I know about those “soul-sucking” jobs, too…and easy to walk away from if things get bad. My Dad worked in the auto plant, as a very well paid electrician, with health benefits and a retirement plan he could not walk away from…and it sucked the life out of him. It all comes at a price, it seems. Hang in there, Sara!
Thanks, Cindy, for the encouragement to forge ahead. I come from a time when people kept jobs forever. Those are not the ways of today. My dad worked for the post office for over thirty years, and when he retired early at 58 he took a part-time job where he’s STILL working! He’s 81 years old now, and told me just yesterday he loves to work. Me? I don’t love to work for someone else so much.
My job has been good to me, but I haven’t climbed the ladder (so to speak) so much in my many years. I’ve held three different positions in the same agency, moving up a little each time, but definitely have not realized my potential. I think it’s because I don’t want to put too much of myself into working for someone else. There is a supervisory opening available right now, and I was sent an e-mail from someone telling me they thought I’d be perfect for the job considering my work ethic and efficient work habits. I was flattered, but at this point in my “career” I’m not going to undertake a supervisory position. Just riding the wave from here on out.
I think I’d like to surprise you someday at the Shamrock. Wouldn’t that be fun?! I’d let you wait on me without your knowing who I am, and then leave you $100 tip, just for fun. Then you could take the rest of the day off and show me around the island. Sounds like fun to me!
Sara it sucks when life gets in the way of our passions, it will happen…just the fact you have a cabin in the woods oohh that sounds dreamy to me. I don’t even work, just juggling half day home schools for my boy and chasing tween’s about…drop off here…drop off there and looking out for my mum who just had her hip done…all good valid excuses as to why the boy in the old folks home is going okay I’m editing slowly. BUT I want to do more……don’t we all…. one step closer each page I edit lol, only up to chapter 4 in edits but hey I will finish this year.
Yay for you, to know you’ll finish this year! Right now it’s nearly 9:00 p.m. and I have to get ready for bed as I need to get up at 5:00 a.m. for the day job. What did I do tonight? Not a dang thing except tending to my correspondence. I should probably head up to the family cabin in the woods right now, except I don’t know if I’d be able to gain entrance as it’s probably still snowed in.
I could totally do some writing tonight, but I know I have to go to bed to get my rest for that terrible job. Oh well, got to pay the bills I guess.
I sure hope your mom is doing okay. Mine is awaiting knee surgery this summer – I’m sure you’ll hear about it on the blog. The trials (and joys?) of being a caregiver, right?
Thanks for all of your support!
I have one year and six months to go. Having just returned from a 6 week medical leave, I can honestly say that one year and six months is one year and six months too long! That six weeks gave me an opportunity to actually step into the light at the end of the tunnel and it really was heaven! It also gave me a chance to consider what life might be like with half my monthly income (which will mostly likely be what I end up with after taxes!). Even though I may need to scale back, do without or eliminate some things (like eating out just because I don’t feel like cooking) in order to pay the bills, I will gladly do what is needed to leave the day job and not have to adhere to someone elses rules, someone elses mandates, someone elses vision and someone elses crap (at least 10 hours of the day, as I realize there’s always going to be someone I may have to answer to). Hang in there – it may not feel like it’s flying by but in one year and 8 months, it will!
Boy, when you say taking six weeks of medical leave is better than going to work – I guess you really want to leave your job! Better to be out sick for six weeks that put up with the bull? Yeah, I totally get it. The question is, will you retire when you’re eligible? So many people don’t where I work and I can’t figure it out to save my life. I knew someone at my job who was eligible to retire but didn’t. She was around my age, a little older. Her husband died unexpectedly, and immediately after she was diagnosed with cancer. She doesn’t work in my office anymore and I don’t know what became of her, but I think how terrible it would be to be working at “a job,” as opposed to something you really love, until the every end of a very short life. I hope she’s doing well, as I hope you are too.
If we both retire when we’re supposed to I think we should go out and party…big time.
I’m eligible to retire n Sept. 2015 (Sept. 24th to be exact, but who’s counting, right?). I will most likely finish out the year, but as of today am planning on calling it quits on Jan. 2, 2016! Even if I end up having to take on a part-time job to supplement my income, I’m still leaving. It’s time for a change!
And yes, we should definitely participate in a huge celebration together — maybe jet off to some tropical island and just lay around on a nice warm beach for a week, sipping appletini’s and reminscing about the crappy days when we had to go to work!
Yes! I’m all for having a little cabana boy wait on me while I lounge on the beach reading and watching the waves roll in. We’ve been through a lot in the last thirty-four years, eh? Glad to have you to share the good and bad with all these years and I hope we can share lots of retirement years together too!