Did you find yourself mentally switching off coming up to retirement

I was one of the first to take early retirement (on a good financial deal )in the late 80s.
We had taken a new way of life (religious) so had a lot to plan for.
But I had loved my job, and the social life with my colleagues.
25 years later, I'm still in touch with many of them.
After retirement I was still able to continue with several voluntary jobs related to my past profession.

We retired three years ago from our family business my husband worked there nearly fifty years. He had worked elsewhere for his required apprenticeship. I worked with him part time for twenty two years.
It was the end of the business that my father in law had started. Our children went their own way career wise so we closed.
I had started helping with our grandchildren so was occupied. My husband knew he would have to plan his days. The only let down was not long after retirement Covid arrived. Two sets of our friends retired the same time as we did not a great start!

Definitely Yes. Time to enjoy a different way of life best wishes

I loved my work in the NHS but the politics, the nastiness of the SSN, well it was just the straw that broke the camels back. 12 hour shifts coming up at 63 , I was off like a shot.

I retired a year ago on my 66th birthday. I was anxious at first only because of money. I did hum and arr for a while but was so fed up with the politics which spoilt a really nice work environment. I also noticed that HR always came down on the side of management. So I was happy to leave and havent looked back. I did wind down, did my job but knew it would soon end and couldnt wait to go.

I retired because of Rheumatoid arthritis at 62, two years earlier than I’d planned. I woke one morning with a dreadful flare up - totally out the blue. Couldn’t hold a cup of tea, never mind drive. I expected a week’s rest would sort it. A year later, medical assessments convinced me I wouldn’t work again. It was hard to accept and tough to be unable to properly take work to its conclusions. Not to have endings/goodbyes with children and families or colleagues.
My health gradually improved, not least because of my wonderful consultant and new meds. 11 years on , feel fortunate and love retirement

I decided to go and left very quickly afterwards. I worked in a university, and I put in my notice in July and had gone by September, so I left when there were no students around and a lot of staff were on leave. It was a bit odd not being able to say goodbye to many people, as I'd been there for a lot of years, but in many ways I think that was for the best.

Instead of preparing everything for the oncoming academic year I was able to do a very thorough handover to my successor. I was 57 when I left. I did go to a professional body meeting before I left and was asked to do some consultancy work and dissertation supervision for a different university, which has eased me into retirement. I will do that for as long as they want me, or until I feel that I am too out of touch to do it well. I enjoy it, as it makes me feel relevant, gives me the buzz of working with and around young people, and supplements the meagre pension that I have to live on until the state one kicks in.

I am also able to go in (literally or via the Internet), do the work and go home, rather than manage or take charge of anything other than day to day things within my limited remit, which took a (very little) bit of getting used to but is actually liberating. I have no regrets at all - the job I left was a million miles from the one I went into. Political changes, public attitudes, the massive threats to free speech and the denigration of expertise have made universities quite toxic places to work, but teaching and being around young people (which was always the best part for me) is as rewarding as I've always found it, so the new arrangement has worked out well. I also have lots of free time to indulge my own interests and get involved in things that I enjoy doing.

I retired early at 60 from teaching three years ago. I knew I had to go as I was constantly exhausted. So from the February that year everyone knew I was retiring at summer. That meant I didn't have to do any forward planning or attend any meetings relating to the new session. I spent the time gutting and organising the book store which had got into a dreadful guddle. It was my gift to the department who moaned about it all the time ? I also set up folders in the department space online and downloaded all my lessons and resources. I had spent a lot of the last few years preparing lessons on smartboards so all those went on too. I was still teaching classes in between so, no, I didn't give up the brain work! I think it helped me actually, as it gave me a purpose to finish effectively.

Fairly simil

I was made redundant a year before I was 60. I would have continued working in FE, reaching mainly Access students, a job I enjoyed and my students weren't too pleased when they heard of the redundancy.I had made it a condition that the College would foot the bill for me to take a course in TEFL and I was able to work for a further year teaching refugees and asylum seekers which was one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. I downsized during that time and in the past 20 years have done some tutoring of teenagers whose parents were anxious about their prospects for GCSE English.

Oops!
Fairly similar for me, Grandmabatty. I did not need to get involved in finding about forthcoming changes in the syllabus, but there were still classes to teach, allocation of rooms and resources for the next year and a lot of sorting. I had not long overseen the move of the department into a different building, which gave us plenty of storage space, good facilities and scope to expand, so there was a lot to manage, to leave things ship-shape for my successor.
Sadly she was of a different way of thinking and in no time she dismantled much that we as a team had built up, then moved on.
I was sad to leave, but glad I was not around to see what happened next. I had plenty of new things to fill my life. I can’t say I switched off before I retired though, and I spent a few more weeks of the summer in school sorting out before I could switch off.

I was coming up to 66 in a job I had loved with no firm idea of when I would retire. I just had a moment then when I thought why would I continue? I was able to retire financially and couldn’t think of a compelling reason to stay. Time to go. It was very strange to lose some of the energy and commitment knowing I would not be in work to see plans come to fruition - or not as was increasingly happening due to lack of staff and budget. My frustration meant I lost some ability to hide it. ? I decided that I had had a really good innings up until nearly the end so it was time to try something else. If I had stayed I think I would have become even more of a ‘loose cannonball’ which would have tarnished all the many happy years I had spent in the job. My line manager probably felt the same ??? There’s another world of opportunities out there, some big, some small and I intend to make the most of it.

After looking after my mum, who had Alzheimers, from March 2020 to July 2021 when she gained her wings, struggling with the grief of losing her as she was my best friend as well as Mum, I just can't get my head together. I read somewhere that grief is a type of PTSD. Obviously not on the same level as that which soldiers get after being in war conditions, but I do often get flashbacks, up-days, down-days, days when I just can't get her out of my mind and I get weepy. I still have 18 months to go before SPA so I really need to earn a 'wage' but I really struggle to do even the simplest of tasks at the moment. Even things like following a recipes is difficult. I keep tryinng to get back into painting to focus my mind elsewhere but the days go past and I'm still no where near to putting paint on paper.

effalump my heart goes out to you, it will get easier with time; be kind to yourself

Effalump - you did good for your Mum, right through lockdown.
It will get better ❤️‍?

At age 61 I’d had enough of my job.

I did what I had to do- but nothing more.

Boss noticed and I was made redundant, I went off sick immediately with ‘work related stress’.

It’s been tight financially, but health wise it was the best thing that could have happened.

effalump I hope this is not insensitive if I don't put it properly, I don't mean that at all but this helped me a lot. Maybe someone will have said it to you already. My friend said to me 'Look at it as a good thing you miss your mum so much, it means you meant a lot to each other and wanted to be in each other's lives. In my case', she said, ' I don't miss mine at all'. She was so right but how sad for her. I don't see that friend much these days but she turned my grief into a positive thing and I'm grateful to her.
If you can do any work it might help if only to provide a distraction and interaction with other people (the most important thing to me). My doctor told me to go straight back to work. I thought it was harsh but he was right.

I retired 2 months after my 60th birthday on NYE 6 years ago after a 42 year career in the financial industry. I had intended to retire the following summer but jumped at the offer of early release from my Director which gave me 6 months full pay. I really didn’t have much time to think about going as I literally left within 3 weeks of receiving the offer on Xmas Eve with a weeks annual leave to follow. I was one of 2 women in a team of 12 all Senior Managers so you can imagine how competitive that was. I do miss the craic and my colleagues but have no regrets about leaving. It took quite some time to acclimatise to not going to work but it was a no brainier really. I waited until the new financial year to apply for my OP and lump sum and then had to wait until my 66th birthday to get my SP and have been fortunate not to have any financial pressures.
I’ve never felt more liberated than being able to delete 10k emails at the click of a mouse on my last day.

I knew I just could never work in my job to 65. Not the sort of job where you can 'switch off' - well I suppose you can, but if you love it, and the youngsters you teach- then you know you just can't. So I resigned- without pay, and switched to a different way of teaching and started my own business. Best thing I did although it did affect my pension.

Aged 55 then.

I'm finding the last few months very difficult. On one hand I'm frustrated by this job, all the problems in this sector resurface on a regular basis for all of us in this line of work. Our customers can be quite difficult to deal with, and the degree of responsibility is very high. On that basis I can't wait to leave. But on the other hand I like a challenge, have a really nice group of colleagues and I'm not sure I will be very happy with lots of time and less money. DH has a great part time job, 2 days a week doing exactly what he enjoys. I'm thinking of starting a little business to occupy myself as the only part time jobs I could do in m sector or anything else I'm qualified for would be grim.
I'm finding that in this run up to leaving I'm very anxious, worried about leaving the team and battling away flat out to tie up all the loose ends.

There is a lot of satisfaction in knowing that you did your bit for the community through the work you did and the taxes you paid over those years. Its not selfish to want to do something "for yourself" with the remaining years of your life - regardless of what that something may be. Older people are no longer valued in our society. That doesnt mean we can value ourselves.

Covid retired me from the job I loved doing at 70. I feel a bit better nowadays but it was a shock.

It's a wonderful feeling Beswitched - just enjoy it

I retired last year at 67 after 43 years of teaching. I prepped for retirement by doing 4 days in the penultimate year and 3 the last. Unfortunately this coincided with lockdowns and remote teaching, which is far more time-consuming. I certainly switched off from the department politicking. Just as well, as I was routinely ignored by people who hadn't lived as long as I'd taught.

Apart from the teaching, and your brain never stops with pupils, I loved the union work. Never a dull moment. I resigned from the union last week, and its considerable fees will off-set my gym membership.

I heartily recommend the graduated exit, if it can be afforded, and second the poster who said you'll wonder how you ever had the time to work. I miss some colleagues, but we meet anyway for drinks and gossip.