Anyone else done with work but to young to retire?!

[tinyangel]

Simply, by brain and body do not want to go to work anymore. They want to flit about the house, do the school runs and not concentrate on the things they should do.

I work a mix of remote and in the office, part-time, but have worked solidly for the last 32 years (older mum 😉) and feel that my brain has just stopped wanting to do work stuff. Zero interest. I've looked at alternative roles in my industry and also looked at a complete change of career but my corporate oomph has gone.

Could be the menopause, could be post covid but I am never normally affected mentally by issues.... anyone else?

Incidentally while my partner has some very stressful days at work (quite high managerial role) he's consistently adamant that even if we won 100 billion pounds on the lottery he would still go to work because otherwise he would "get bored". This is an alien concept to me, I could quit tomorrow and never get bored without a job!

I worked part time the last few years before retirement. I enjoyed the relative freedom and was willing to sacrifice full time wages for that.

Now totally paid work free, and fortunately healthy enough to enjoy it - even on state pension only, although the rising cost of living will mean less frivolous spending - but pleasure still to be had, especially with using my bus pass! I can take snacks and browse different areas. A sit down with a coffee in a pretty cafe, people watching, and I am content.

I don't crave forrin holidays - done that! saving for a few days somewhere in England in Autumn - a small town will suit. I seem to live like someone out of a Barbara Pym novel of the 1950s and that's fine by me!

I’m the same. So unmotivated in a role where I can go weeks without speaking to anyone, and with no feedback. No one questions what I do and I just bank my wages every month biding my time to leave, but I can’t as the benefits are too good to give up. My OH has had a few long weekends when the kids have been in school. We have had some amazing days out walking to explore new areas, a lovely lunch with a bottle of wine, back home for the end of school. I wish I could do this everyday and be paid. To be fair, I probably could and no one would notice. That’s how invisible an employee I am!

I don't want to gloat but I'm retiring at the end of August. For at least 8 years I've had to drag myself to work. I am efficient and enthusiastic on the face of it but the cuts, post covid situation and lack of appreciation for this sector (care) have really got me down. I also feel - like someone above- that weekends don't even strart to give me enough time to de-stress and as soon as I get up on Sunday I'm depressed about the next day being Monday. I can't understand how I've stuck it out but at least I have a decent ( self funded) pension to draw.

Can I join the revolution please. 54 menopausal with own business with DH, it does very well & I'm in charge of Admin - I'm so very very bored. Everyday I just battle with our clients for payment and it soul destroying - Why can't you just pay you motherfu@kers !!!. Anyway I will be here for a few more years untill I have the courage to hand the admin over to someone else ....I'm a control freak so it maybe many years 🤭

You are me.
I resent working!! No redundancy packages available either.
Am 55, earliest I can leave is 58.
I am extremely well paid for a largely undemanding job but frankly I'd rather being doing anything else. Have reached the point where I feel I've worked long enough.

I felt like that at about 27. I find it baffling that anyone would want to work when there are so many more interesting things to do and books to read. It’s a waste of a life. Not sure why you’d blame the menopause🙂.

I get it. That was me 15 years ago. Early 50’s , menopausal, last child nearly ready for university, parents getting frailer and working full time teaching infants. Obviously had expected to stop at 60 but well, it all changed with the pension age changing.
I loved my job but after 30+ years of it I didn’t know how I was going to do another 15 years. Held on til youngest left uni and decided to cash in small teacher’s pension and go on supply. Working less days made me love it again.
Its such a hard decision to make isn’t it? When you still have dependent children, mortgage etc.
best wishes

I feel like a sulky teenager every evening before I have work the next day.
I've reduced the amount of days and hours I work but still feel the same so it's not that. I just hate working. I would rather be at home doing housework...that's how much I hate it😂

@Tilda77 yes, that horrid Sunday afternoon feeling. When I moved to supply/agency I made the decision never to work on Mondays

Oh yes. I really like the majority of my close colleagues, the annual leave allowance, the pension scheme. The salary is okay for me and 1 older DC.

But the job itself is shit. Utterly relentless negativity in my role itself, combined with constant changes to systems, strategies, processes.

And don't forget all the never ending meetings, surveys, and pilot groups, which seem like just another way of throwing around a million shite buzzwords.

Just let us get on with our jobs and leave us be! (For the next 25 years)

@Knittingnanny2 Exactly that! Every Sunday evening me and DH have the same conversation. He says" you haven't got to go to work for long" I say "Yes but I still have to go!"😂

Yep ditto late 40s but younger kids so stuck on this hamster wheel for a few years longer than I want to be. PeriMenopausal is just that extra drain on energy levels that makes some days just SO F ‘hard I even said “ooff” hauling my tired butt out the swimming pool with the kids on Sunday 🫣exercise does help ideally outside daily, I walk the dog, Seaswim average 3x a week & cycle but the grind especially with elderly parents becoming an increasingly worry.

I don’t work Mondays though which is a big help mentally, I do 4 long days instead.

Feel the same way op. I have been piling funds into pensions with the hope of retiring in mid to late 50s.

for those pp who said that retirement age was 60 when they started work- surely that means you must have saved on that basis?

Perhaps the 4 day working week the governments are considering is the way to go to stop people feeling so burnout?

Im the same, highly paid, flexible non-job , wfh and bored …so bored !

I've started to feel the same recently too. I'm 50, most definitely menopausal and I just cannot be arsed any more. I did a degree in my late 30s which helped me get out of my dead end job, and for a while I enjoyed my current job and have worked my way up. But now I hate the responsibility, dealing with entitled, up their own arse people and I'd dearly love to go part time. We just can't afford it though :( I genuinely don't know if I can do this for another 17 years!

We paid off our mortgage in 2020 and I've been overpaying mortgage, and saving every penny for years.

We worked out when we could afford to retire, at 55 you can draw down pensions and for this year my OH is funding us, plus the rent from our house which covers our monthly outgoings.

We bought the house half each, with him using draw down for his and me using savings for mine. And in 4 months I can draw down my pension which when invested will give me as much monthly income as he gets.

We don't work in France, in fact we didn't want the hassle of setting up new businesses as it needs permission from the local prefecture of the need for that business in the area, before you can get your visa so we just retired.

I stopped work at 53 and he stopped at 56. So we have a decade or more before we can draw UK pensions.

We didn't want to wait as we'd be too knackered if we did.

My advice to anyone is, do some investigations into what your pensions are worth to see if you can afford early retirement.

Sitting here, in my garden in the South of France, and loving it. It is hot and sunny and absolutely beautiful. Even if there are more strange bugs here. It's worth the bug spray.

I worked full time until I was 35. I hated it.

I quit my job and went travelling for two years.

I've come back now, and due to the two year gap on my CV, I've found it hard to get a job.

I have been unemployed for 7 months now.

I hate not working!
I've loads of time to potter around the house and garden

But
I hate the lack of social interaction, the lack of money, the lack of adult conversation.

So I hated working but I also hate not working.

I just think I need to find a job that suits me better. My last job was really high pressured. I would like a shop or cafe job.

I think that post lockdown, many people have just had it with the bullshit involved in many jobs. Many people have been wfh, so back in the office, you kind of see it all with fresh eyes.
On top of that 0% pay rise and yet another round of random redundancies when the management board are being awarded $$$$ each year.
It's not menopause - the men in my office are just as bored as the women - it's just being sick of all the utter bollocks that is talked in corporate type jobs.

I felt like this when I worked in retail management.

I quit after a period of sick-leave (caused by stress) and now run my own business. I work around 25 hours per week and earn the same as I did working my 40+ hours in retail.

This week I'm working five days - my latest finish is 1.30pm and I'll be done for the week by 11am on Friday. I love it!

I'm 50 this year, have worked since age 13 including during degree and post grad. Older mum and when I think of the eye watering amount of money I've paid out for childcare etc over the years I just get depressed.

I'm just burnt out and completely meh.

Yep! Although a decent pay rise and change of boss has helped.

Yup! Decades to go and I can’t be arsed. I have a good job in my chosen field that comes with a good package etc but I’m done. I used to be really enthusiastic and driven but I’d rather spend my time gardening now!

I worked for myself in my dream job (author) for years until the pandemic and various other awful things meant that, financially, I had to get a day job.

That was last autumn and I resigned last month 😁 Corporate office work is soul destroying and I literally can't do it anymore!

I've got my writer and business head back on at last.

I would really recommend a book called How to be a Free Range Human, by Marianne Cantwell. It might give you some ideas of how to escape the rat race.