'Fuck it attitude' to everything work-related since hitting 50...

[YankeeDoodleWhat]

That's it. I can't say this in real life but since hitting 50 I just don't seem to care about work-related 'stuff'.

I do my job and am in a very senior role but I've lost all attachment to it. I'm more shocked than anyone as I used to love work and everything surrounding it. Now, I'm annoyed if I have to work an evening or weekend.

Not sure why I've posted, just a rant as I can't say this out loud in the real world 🙂

If anyone's been here and come through, please let me know how. I can't afford to retire or do fewer hours.

48 here and spent much of my working life worrying that i was not good enough, did not work hard enough but now I actually know that I am good at what I do, i do not need to prove it to anyone anymore. So I do my job but have no time or interest for all the extra bits. I have been there and done that. Its not quite an F you attitude but bit far off!!

@PhamieGowsSong Those of you who retired early how much did you have in your private pensions when you took retirement?

When we first stopped working in a corporate environment DH and I started a small gardening business and did that to make ends meet for several years. We're still not state pension age but take our private pensions. Because we downsized we have no mortgage so we are very lucky in that respect.

We live a full, but very contented life - allotment growing our own food, camping, walking, gardening, free exhibitions and museums, charity shop and home made clothes, wild swimming, second hand bikes, clothes, library books, and car that could only be described as a piece of crap. The two of us live on about £18k a year all in, bills, food everything. That comes from private pensions (his and mine) and a little bit of gardening and antique dealing (both are hobbies so not like work) that we do for beer money.

It really wouldn't suit many people I'm sure but we don't want cruises, meals out and stuff. We're pigs in muck and I'm sure most of our friends, family and neighbours think we're drop out hippies/peculiar/worse, but they are too kind to say so and we are pigs in muck.

Something we've found is that when you leave the corporate ladder the world you step into is full of lots of people living interesting and satisfying lives well outside of the norm. And I say that as a person who was driven careerwise and in my 30s would have said I would never retire.

It's amazing how little money you can live on if you are content with very little.

Corporate Awayday events with stand up buffet lunches.
Networking.
Coffee breath and seeing bits of food stuck in peoples' teeth.
Tiny grey-green cup and saucers to hold a thimble's worth of luke-warm tea or coffee, from a large thermos dispenser (that always has run out by the time you get there).

58 here gave my job up 4 years ago due to covid and ill health not regretted it in anyway.The government don’t like me as I am one of the non working not claiming benefits.

So, would you all retire if you could afford it.?

I'm 50. Two DC ages 11 and 12. Neither happy at school. I'm stale and bored at work. And chronically ill. I can probably (although I'd have to apply) get ill health retirement. With a lump sum and decent pension.

I've clung on to working as I feel I should but increasingly wondering why on earth I'm bothering.

@AprilHandiwork Retire!
I genuinely don't know why I spent so many years so tied up in this bullshit, thinking it was so important and wasn't I great to have such a shiny job.

And one more thing- I think I saw a message on here where someone said 'not surprising people don't want to employ over 50s' (and it may have been said without any snark).
None of us said we are bad at our jobs, we're experienced and extremely good at them, could do them in our sleep good. We're just tired of the merry go round.

🤣 @SixtyandGrumpy
Don’t forget the role of Post-It notes in an away day activity, or individual team whiteboards to pop your ideas on. Repeat and repeat since the late 90s, under different themes and branding for the away days, but the same old methods, the same types of executive leaders giving presentations and sharing with you the ambitious/exciting/leading/challenging thing in the pipeline (whilst skirting around the issues of reorganisation strategies etc) Plus, nowadays, there’s the enthusiastic, bright young thing internal comms colleague who wants lots of pictures for LinkedIn, so you have to pose for pics with people you have literally nothing in common with- except maybe your lanyard branding- looking excited to be at the away day, when it’s the last place you want to be.

This sounds very familiar @ILoveSalmonSpread

I have recently come to the realisation that the job I started doing in early 2000s is never going to be what it was then. It's changed so much and not (in my opinion) for the better.

In the next 6 months I am going to take my pension (I'll be 55). I'll still have to work and I'll have to take a drop in income but I think it will be worth it. I hope I'm right but I don't want to carry on like this.

So delighted to have found you all.

I'm 47 and have felt like this for decades 🤪 no one would ever know though.

I'm v senior in a management Comms role..I do it purely for the money at this stage.

I had a month off in between jobs last year and it was an absolute DREAM.

Sadly I have bills to pay.

As others have said I practice a lot of gratitude and genuinely feel joyful about my work: but mainly really in what it enables me to do: ie have a lovely life.

👏

Previous senior role in NHS. Left to do well paid but not challenging job elsewhere. I'm so bored! But need the money. I used to love my job. Possibly should have delayed my mid-,life crisis!

@SomersetTart that sounds like utter heaven! I actually snuck up to the allotment for an hour or so this afternoon instead of answering emails, and I feel SO much better for it. I reckon your life is what DH and I will be aiming for in the next 5 years or so.

Trouble is, whilst I think I'm quite good at making do and mending etc, DH is a bit more of a spender (holidays, meals out, theatre etc) so whether we could make it work or not I'm not completely sure!

Just need to get ds through university and then we can re-evaluate. One thing's for sure, I'm not working fulltime until I'm 67!!

Meetings that could have been emails. Enough said.

56 here and just don't want to work any more... OR rather I'd like to do something completely different! I'm a lowly paid Special Needs TA so the money is shocking. Still love the kids (mostly!) but since an Academy chain took over there is SO much bullshit... pointless courses that most of us have done several times over, loads of wellness bollocks, when what we are actually suffering from is lack of staff, lack of resources and lack of any decent leadsership.

I've gone part time to look after my grandchild, but really I just couldn't face doing it 5 days a week any longer. I want to dig my allotment, walk the dog and be FREEEEEEE!

When I reached peak 'fuck it' I even gave up my volunteering role for the National Trust because they wanted me to do on line wellness, H&S and safeguarding training courses each month.

So that I could pull weeds in the garden for two hours a week.

Nah, I'm off.

bright young thing internal comms colleague who wants lots of pictures for LinkedIn

I see your LinkedIn pics and I raise you 'I know you're super-busy but would you mind pretending to throw this ball to someone just out of shot whilst saying something inspiring and corporate-values-aligned for our TikTok account?'

Sure! How about 'go fuck yourself and the horse you rode in on?!'

Part of it is the loss of oestrogen which makes you less of a people pleaser and more inclined to think about what suits you. A good thing!

64 and longing to stop. Worked so hard to get where I am, but now would walk away tomorrow if I could.

Yes I don't give a shit now about career, promotion, fitting in.
As a result I'm happy and relaxed at work, and do the work without giving the slightest tiny fuck.
☺️

This was me in 2022, aged 55.

I handed in my notice and have a small part time role of 1-2 days a week.

I don't regret leaving full time work in the slightest but my life's been taken up largely running around caring for my Dad, who was widowed suddenly in 2022. I still have quite a bit of spare time and haven't got myself into any sort of routine outside of work. After a year of "retirement" I've just started a weekly art class and joined a gym.

Something we've found is that when you leave the corporate ladder the world you step into is full of lots of people living interesting and satisfying lives well outside of the norm. And I say that as a person who was driven careerwise and in my 30s would have said I would never retire.

It's amazing how little money you can live on if you are content with very little

I agree with this. When I freelanced for about a year I found a whole new community of people and businesses I didn't know existed. And I agree you can live on less money than you think (although now probably isn't the time to try it out with the cost of living).

I've been a prolific people pleaser all my life, but about the time I turned 50, and inline with menopause I simply stopped and now I don't give a shit. So many friends have fallen by the wayside as a result and I'm so much happier in myself and my life - it's like a breath of fresh air

It was when I saw someone take credit for all my hard work and knowing that management knew this person had done sweet FA was the turning point for me and the day I quietly quit .

So much of what I've read has resonated. I'm retiring in a few years. In my 30's I set a date, began working out what I would need to self fund the years between when I stop mid 50s and when can I can feasibly draw my pension. I adjust this regularly. I can't emphasise just how much I love going over those numbers. It's like the best promise I've kept to myself ever.

I'm good at my job. Like some others here, I'm in a senior role. Although I'm nearly officially menopausal I do still get occassional hormonal fluctuations when i feel full of dread and self doubt, but aside from that I don't care anymore. I'm lucky to have been in the same team for ages and have previously been very conscientious, so I'm well thought of and I hope to ride others' impressions of me for a long as possible. Once I get to the 12 month countdown though I'll be pretty much checking out. Half my job is long term projects and those will be winding down ages before i stop. But I've also learned how to look like I'm working just as hard whilst doing less, and when more senior stuff ask if I want to do something (that could lead to career development) I just say no.