Retired -Yippee!

[rockershovel]

I haven't a clue, although I suspect that I am now drifting reluctantly into semi-retirement. Of course, I haven't worked a regular weekly schedule for decades, at least for more than a few months, and I haven't commuted since the early 90s. It's felt at home that I become unbearable after about three weeks, unless it happens sooner.

 

My wife retired about 18 months ago and I couldn't stand her routine for a week...

[Captain Kernow]

Just found this thread. I've now been retired from Network Rail (after 34 and a half years) for just over 5 weeks.

 

I thought that I'd miss the 'involvement/belonging to something bigger' aspect of working for the 'big' railway more than I actually do, which is interesting. At the moment, though, it still feels like being on an extended holiday. CTMK and I have just been away for a long weekend, and it finally dawned on me that I don't need to book B&Bs for a 'long weekend' any more, it's just as easy (and probably easier) to book mid-week.

 

I've started some voluntary work with a local charity already, which is great, as it involves reading stuff onto tape (well, a hard drive) for the RNIB. CTMK and I have also taken up some weekly sporty activity and are doing more walks locally. If the weather's good enough tomorrow, we may go somewhere high up on the edge of the moor and take some panoramic shots ('trains in the landscape').

 

I've also finally had to start work on the list of decorating and household DIY jobs, got to a point this morning where I found I had run out of excuses for putting it off any longer.

[28XX]

I never thought I would miss the "being part of an organisation " part of work, but it does get the day started.

 

It's too easy to have tea in bed at 7 surf the web till 8 have a shower, breakfast at 9 coffee at 10 and so on, then achieve nothing all day and go to bed cross with yourself.

 

This didn't set in for me until this last month, having now all but sorted out my late mother's affairs. There's plenty to do, but no one to say 'do this job today' and they will all mostly wait till tomorrow.

[Pannier Tank]

But, something crossed my mind the other day....how many of you, once drawing pensions, [or, retired, if you prefer?]....actually still continue on a casual basis, doing whatever it was you did during your 'working' life? 

 

Even on  a freebie basis?

 

Or, once retired do you spend your time having nothing whatsoever to do with whatever it was you did whilst working?

 

Unfortunately last October I was made redundant in my 20th year with the Company and just a few months before my 62nd Birthday. Having worked in the Industry (Induction & Dieletric Heating) for 40+ Years it would be difficult to find any work that would pay a comparable salary. I had a Company Car allowance so that I could provide a vehicle to do my job (Company Cars disappeared at the same rate as Final Salary Pensions). So left with a Car for which I had no use and was subject to an HP agreement, a fair amount outstanding on my mortgage I struggled to come to terms with it all. Here I am 6 months later, not having worked or had any income (living off my redundancy and the wife's income) I've just about finished sorting my finances and now consider myself as "Retired".

 

So going back to your original question, no I wouldn't go back to working in my old occupation.

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

I think everyone's retirement experience is as diverse as the occupation that one retired from.

 

I had a varied diet of occupations through my working life and looking back, none of the firms I worked for exist today in anywhere near the format that I worked under and some of them have disappeared completely into history.

 

I eventually retired just under 4 years ago as a coach and bus driver and even that is denied to me by changes in the vocational license system that has been imposed plus you are now not allowed to hold any form of HGV license beyond the age of 70. I think one can appeal this and retain a license beyond that age but it has been made expensive and not really worth it on a part time basis. I am fairly sure that there must be quite a few HGV and coach drivers who are still doing the odd turn without the benefit of a proper license.

 

I have nevertheless taken on a part time job as an internet picker in Asda and apart from being striped rotten for tax, that pays for things that the wife and I want. It is fun to return to the hurly burly of it all at a low level so that brain and physique are kept in working order and boredom is staved off. I only go for 24 hours a week and it is wonderful to know that if I can't be bothered with it, I can pack it in without going bust.

[Trofimow]

But, something crossed my mind the other day....how many of you, once drawing pensions, [or, retired, if you prefer?]....actually still continue on a casual basis, doing whatever it was you did during your 'working' life? 

 

Even on  a freebie basis?

 

Or, once retired do you spend your time having nothing whatsoever to do with whatever it was you did whilst working?

 

I much prefer to spend my time doing anything but what I used to do for a living. I'm certainly not going to go looking to go back into it.

 

But never say never. If someone offered sufficient incentive for sufficiently little commitment I might be persuaded. We all have our price!

 

 

 

Just found this thread. I've now been retired from Network Rail (after 34 and a half years) for just over 5 weeks.

 

I thought that I'd miss the 'involvement/belonging to something bigger' aspect of working for the 'big' railway more than I actually do, which is interesting.

 

I've also finally had to start work on the list of decorating and household DIY jobs, got to a point this morning where I found I had run out of excuses for putting it off any longer.

 

Long-term "belonging" to a stable employer largely disappeared from my field of employment at the end of the 1980's. Since then, I've spent many years as a freelance as well as a good few as staff employee. The pace of change is ever increasing and so many employers and operations have come and gone since then that I've only regarded work as something I have to do to live, not as something to belong to, though you do tend to see familar faces again from time to time as the circle goes round.

 

Alan

 

Edited for typo

[rockershovel]

A lot of truth in that last post. I became chronically mistrustful of my employers in the early 80s, having been redundant three times in five years, including being refused leave to get married (after several weeks idle around the office) and thereby, leading to an acrimonious redundancy with threats of legal action to get my "footage" (production bonus, around 50% of my year's earnings in those days) and STILL getting no redundancy, being 11 days short of 3 years...

 

If I didn't enjoy the job itself, for the sake of the job, I'd have given up long ago.

[Sweeps]

Time does go an awful lot quicker when you're retired than when you were working. No sooner is it Monday and you can enjoy the peace and quiet then it's Friday again and folk are clogging up the place.

[Colin_McLeod]

So are you saying that Friday is the new Monday and vice versa?

[Colin_McLeod]

Life is like a roll of toilet paper

The closer you get to the end the faster it goes

[2mmMark]

I finally retired from British Airways on 31st December, after almost 40 years, 35 of which were in IT. There was a good offer on the table and I was eligible to draw my pension, having stayed in the old BOAC/BEA based pension scheme (I call it my Imperial Airways pension), so it seemed rude to refuse. The end result was that I left 27 months earlier than my normal retirement age. Among the reasons for leaving was a realisation that BA (or more correctly, its owner IAG) no longer saw IT as a strategic tool, instead it wants to outsource huge chunks of it, mostly offshore.

 

Because my leaving was a planned process and not a sudden departure, I was able to prepare for it and that made things much easier.  What I miss most now is the day-to-day banter with a terrific group of colleagues.  I don't miss the work which was becoming less absorbing as the months went by. It's very hard to stay motivated when everything you're working on is being dumbed down ready for transfer to a much less capable organisation offshore, in this case, TCS in Chennai. Even simple things like making yourself understood and trying to understand in reply was immensely frustrating and time consuming. I just hope that IAG management don't live to regret their haste to discard a world class in-house IT group. I think they will. Already I'm hearing worrying reports about how TCS handle things. Individually, the TCS guys are capable and knowledgeable, it's their culture and company structure that cause the issues, coupled with a "how cheap can we do this?" attitude from IAG.

 

Leading up to retirement, I educated myself on pensions matters, both company and state. What's become apparent to me is just how much a political football pensions are in the UK. I won't delve into politics too much here as it's frowned upon but when you dig into the "new state pension" being loudly trumpeted by the government, you see just how much of it is smoke & mirrors.

 

Former BA employees have formed a very active independent pensioner advocacy group and shortly after retiring, I co-authored a briefing on the effects of Guaranteed Minimum Pension which will affect you if your pension scheme was contracted out from SERPS (most were as it offered big savings on employers and employees national insurance contributions. That paper is here:

http://www.abaponline.org/styled-5/styled-10/index.html

Some of it is BA specific but as it affects very many schemes, your own pension scheme should be able to tell you how you will be affected.

 

We also did a more general briefing on the new state pension:

http://www.abaponline.org/styled-5/styled-11/index.html

and published a note from a lady caught in the adverse effects of pension reform on women:

http://www.abaponline.org/styled-5/styled-14/index.html

 

I hope this is useful information for people.

 

We used to have very good workplace pension provision in the UK but a combination of goverment policy and economic misfortune has ruthlessly eaten away at it. The current management at IAG/BA always refer to the defined benefit schemes as "generous pensions". The reality is that the average BA pension in payment is something in the region of £13k per annum.  In 2015/2016, IAG senior managers were awarded a huge amount in a share bonus scheme, something like £135million was spent by IAG on buying shares for them.

[alastairq]

 

 

I eventually retired just under 4 years ago as a coach and bus driver and even that is denied to me by changes in the vocational license system that has been imposed plus you are now not allowed to hold any form of HGV license beyond the age of 70. I think one can appeal this and retain a license beyond that age but it has been made expensive and not really worth it on a part time basis. I am fairly sure that there must be quite a few HGV and coach drivers who are still doing the odd turn without the benefit of a proper license.

 Where I work [for the Govt, as a specialist instructor]...we all hold cat C+E, D+E, etc....and there have been several peoples still doing hte job full time, way past 70.

 

Mind, the Govt. pays for the annual medicals [post-next renewal anniversary after 65]...if I decide to cease working for others, I will let my vocational licences lapse...as you say, the cost of simply keeping them up isn't worth the candle.

 

So, it's going to be the Govt's, [and this country's] loss when we all pack it in.....which will happen anytime soon....as there are no contingency plans to replace like with like.....a case of, the edicts not being matched by facts on the ground?

[RANGERS]

 Where I work [for the Govt, as a specialist instructor]...we all hold cat C+E, D+E, etc....and there have been several peoples still doing hte job full time, way past 70.

 

Mind, the Govt. pays for the annual medicals [post-next renewal anniversary after 65]...if I decide to cease working for others, I will let my vocational licences lapse...as you say, the cost of simply keeping them up isn't worth the candle.

 

So, it's going to be the Govt's, [and this country's] loss when we all pack it in.....which will happen anytime soon....as there are no contingency plans to replace like with like.....a case of, the edicts not being matched by facts on the ground?

And the answer is??

 

The number of medical referrals for licence renewals for those aged 50 is around one third of those at age 60. It's true the number of folks over 70 who retain their licence is so few that any meaningful comparison with younger age renewals is difficult but generally it's around twice as likely a 70 year old will be referred for investigation compared to a 60 year old. Roughly translated, that means that a 70yo is six times more likely to be suffering from a condition which could affect their ability to drive than a 50yo and in many cases they wouldn't recognise it themselves.

 

The Glasgow bin lorry case opened a whole can of worms and the current self declaration to a GP of your health, backed by very basic checks for signs of deeper issues, is likely to be replaced by a more probing examination both of the candidate and their previous medical history.