Age 56. Can't be arsed at work anymore.

@ClaireduLuney this thread is unlikely to attract women who love their work though so it's unsurprising it's full of women who are not enjoying work.

And yes it is great that women have access to education and paid work but equally how many of us see useless men advancing ahead of us at work because women are undervalued? How many of us have experienced sexism at work? It's hard to maintain enthusiasm for an environment where you are not valued

"Smile and nod" is my work mantra.

It was the corporate BS that started to get to me along with years of commuting to London. Due to various circumstances I started over self employed 15 years ago working remotely and that has made so much difference. I am now 61 and work flexibly with a very young remote team. I am old enough to be their grandmother but I love that I am learning new things and they seem to appreciate that I have a tonne of experience. I will try and hang on in there til 65.

Oh the grind is real, yes I can totally Identify with that at 43.

The corporate rubbish that is dictated is beyond annoying. I’m over it.

Isn't it tragic though that girls are far more educated these days than 100 years ago, more professions are open to women, we strove for equality, yet this thread is full of women who just hate their work.

What a waste. My gran (born when women didn't have the vote) would have given anything to have been educated and had the choices women today have.

If you're self employed can't you avoid all that crap and choose places that fit with how you want to work? It sounds more as if you're freelance rather than being truly independent and calling all the shots.

In theory, and yes I can stop working with really terrible clients and have done. But it’s an industry where you build up long-term relationships with clients so it would be difficult to just ditch my main ones, and the time-wasting and dicking about affects the whole industry.

I'm 50 self employed, have a job I love but I'm am still done!
Just putting money away & paying a family loan, when the loan is finished I hope to have enough investments to stop work but also have a retirement I like the look of along with my caring responsibilities

My people! Saving thread

Retiring early is fine if you can afford to.

And you need a good pension or a partner who's providing it.
And enough money for seriously old age and maybe care home fees.

Being retired and poor is not fun.

Far better to find something to do which you enjoy, part time, and which brings in some money too.

Yep - I am also a tired very nearly 56 year old who can afford to retire at 60, but is counting down the next 4 years...

I have always loved my career and feel very lucky that I've been happy in my work for the past 35 years, but the last few years have been a real struggle - mergers/restructures/redundancies and I've had personal struggles as well - divorce, kids leaving home etc. But I still need to work and try to not hate it until I'm 60, so this is what I've done so far:

1. Compressed hours - I can't afford to reduce my hours, so I now work a 9 day fortnight, having every other Friday off. Same hours, same pay, but that fortnightly Friday off is brilliant - has made a real difference to my state of mind!
2. WFH for 2 - 3 days a week. This is what we all do now, post-Covid, in my organisation, and I love it. Definitely wouldn't ever take a job that requires full-time office working!
3. I've taken up a new hobby that has given me something else to think about - and tires me out, which is helping with the sleep (although still too many 3am wake ups).

I'm hoping that maybe when I'm 58/59 I'll be able to go to 4 days a week, but until then, the compressed hours thing is amazing and I've let all my staff do it too - if you balance out the days of the week amongst the team it works really well.

Keep going OP - 4 years really will fly by 💪

And this is why my career stalled so early! I was a cynical 23 year old, in a department of cynical 40+ and could already see much of it was bollocks.

Learning not to care and just roll with it made me much happier and much more successful.

Oh, and if anyone's found a way of getting white, working class boys to read more, then we're still waiting. Even though I'm sure some initiative back in 2002 was meant to have fixed that.

60 feels too young to retire
😂 Feel free to crack on until your 70 if you want but that’s when I’ll be retiring.

I’m 44 and I feel like this. Im a manager and sick of endless conversations about objectives my team have no interest in and faux concern from the civil service about wellbeing 🙄. I’ve lost the love I used to have for work.

I'm late 50s and can't wait to retire. Fed up of the roundabout of restructures and objectives. I do like what I do but I'd just rather be doing something else. Like travel, Pilates or meeting my friends for afternoon tea.

Life is so short and yet we're expected to work until we drop. I hope to go part time when I get to 60 and then it'll be the long wind down to 67. In the meantime, I'll keep doing the lottery and praying for a win.

They’re absolutely unnecessary and should not be mandated. Many many people do not subscribe to gender ideology.
l
Most of manage to get through life without announcing we are she/her/whatever.

Our company tried to make pronouns mandatory and 75% of the UK staff refused

If you're self employed can't you avoid all that crap and choose places that fit with how you want to work? It sounds more as if you're freelance rather than being truly independent and calling all the shots.

That’s the best answer. The others are “ well retire early and use your pension pot “ blah blah. I’m sure if that was an option OP would have done it.

I’m self-employed and it’s been a good (if not very well-paid) career but I’m also feeling a bit exhausted in my mid 50s. I’d like a change and maybe a part time job but all the DEI, forced pronouns/pride and pointless “training”, bureaucracy, targets and reviews etc puts me off.

It’s amazing that most people I know hate this stuff and feel it gets in the way of doing their actual jobs and wastes time and money. Yet governments and captains of industry are always handwringing and scratching their heads about why productivity is so low. Because workplaces are crippled by endless pointless training courses run by self-appointed grifters, diversity initiatives that achieve nothing, deckchair-rearranging that wastes time and achieves nothing, all just so that companies and organisations can tick boxes. I mean duh. If employees are spending most of their time on this shit of course not much gets done.

I also find that no one listens to me despite 30 years of experience meaning I do actually have valuable insights. I can tell if a project idea is ill-thought-out, I can tell exactly why it won’t work and I can usually fix it. Because I’ve been around the block and I know what works. But I get totally ignored as an older woman and freelance, what could I possibly contribute compared to young thrusting guys full of ideas. So I sit around while they fuck up and waste time and then often as not come to me to fix it after wasting loads of time and money. It’s exhausting.

I find it tragic that so many women on this thread hate their work.

Life's too short! Do something you enjoy! Be self employed and start small by running it alongside your day job, even as a hobby.

Best way is to work out what floats your boat, get some training (evenings, online courses, local colleges) and develop a plan.

I was working part time for around 20 hours a week in my 40s. I knew I could earn more per hour self-employed so I took the plunge.
That led to other things, with more training, and a couple of other income sources.

I know so many people who've done this whether it's become yoga teachers, counsellors, artists, etc.

Any chance you can go part time - might help you get through the next few years.

Yeah. Don't make yourself visible

I would consider a different job until you retire. Something completely different that maybe you would enjoy?

I know just how you feel OP. I was lucky enough to retire three years ago at 59. The last couple of years were getting pretty unbearable tbh and I got exhausted by the constant changes , re organisation etc etc. I was continually looking forward to retirement and got quite obsessed with ‘what I am going to do when I get the time’, this started to get me down too, felt I was wishing my life away! I decided that I would stop obsessing and try to start doing those things while I was still working, I don’t mean expensive holidays or anything like that, I just mean I cultivated some hobbies, tried new things when I wasn’t working and basically made the most of any time off I had and didn’t put everything on hold for when I retired. Of course I didn’t always feel like doing things after work, but I did push myself to do things for me.
I am glad that I made that effort as when I did finally retire I had plenty of things I was interested and involved in so I never feel bored or at a loose end now. Good luck OP , time will soon pass even if it feels endless now , carve out that me time if and when you can.

I began another career in my late 40s. I stayed there until I was 63 and really only left as I didn't see any viable routes for further progression. I loved my 15 years in that job and didn't want them tarnished by resentment setting in. I enjoyed mentoring younger colleagues, loved the clients and the work and it wasn't the kind of job that someone who couldn't be arsed should be in.
I left on a high to concentrate on self employment and in my late 60s work the hours I want to.
I've done a couple of jobs where I was truly unhappy but I don't think I've ever just felt indifferent.

Is there a mentoring scheme, volunteering scheme, something you’ve always wanted to do/change you can pitch as a project? Coasting is pretty debilitating - it’s worth casting around to see if you can do something to make life a little more interesting.