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

[Whosaidthattt]

I'm a tired 56 year old. All these 'initiatives' and 'CPD'- I just can't be bothered anymore. Been there, did that 20 years ago. I have NO INTEREST in pretending to be excited/motivated by these 30 year olds and their enthusiasm! I get that they are young and excited about how they can change things but I just can't be arsed. Hoping to retire at 60 but that means another 4 years of excited puppies bounding about with their ideas. I'm not sure I can take it (or even care). How can I get through this final part of working life?? Help!!!

I hear you. We have an entire department devoted to this nonsense. It's soul destroying.

I just want to be left alone at work. No daily meetings, no buzzwords, no personal development, no happy bunnies, no team building, no 1-2-1's, no mandatory bldy e-learning, no having to 'be nice'.
Just let me log on, do my work, wiggle my mouse because I am not doing extra just what I am paid to do

This! A million times this. A colleague has been trying to arrange a day where we all make presentations to each other. It’s pointless but he reckons it’s a good idea. We can put it down under personal development on our appraisals!

Just fuck off Sunny Jim.
.

I know exactly how you feel OP. I was the same at 56. Don't give up hope. I got offered voluntary redundancy when I was 57 and I grabbed at it with both hands.
The payment kept me going until my pension started at 60.
Here's hoping you have the same sort of luck.

You can take a reduced pension at 55 not the full amount (to say nothing of losing 5 years pensionable service).

That's what stopped me going at 55.

I know former colleagues who have left the corporate world behind and set themselves up as independent consultants. From my perspective, that would be a frying pan-fire situation. Having to market yourself and network, negotiate contracts, deliver work solo with no colleagues to bounce ideas off, manage invoices and chase up the non-payers - nightmare! At least in the corporate world there are specialists to deal with all of the other stuff and I can at least do my actual work over 60% of the time.

And I still like and enjoy the actual work, it’s all the nonsense around it that I have very little patience for these days. Like Quarterly Town Hall meetings where we waste 90 minutes listening to VPs waffling on and answering questions they’ve picked from the brown nosers and not the ones people want answered (like whether any more redundancies are on the horizon).

Ive always presumed it was one of the silver linings to menopause, the realisation that I really do not give a fuck anymore about stuff that really doesn’t matter. Let me crack on with the tasks that are important and the rest of you can do the “initiatives”.

I feel like this at 39! God help me! Maybe we should work together 😂 Life is short and unless you really love what you do, than work pays the bills (only just for some).
My energy has taken a dip at40 approaches. Maybe I need my iron level checked.

At 63 when I have my annual review I tell my manager straight that I am happy to do any learning required to enable me to do my job better (there isn't any) but I am not interested in the least in furthering my career and will not be undertaking any further training for that.

I am happy and willing to do my job to the beat of my ability, but that's all.

And I'm going to frame it and throw darts at it.

I'm glad for the poster in question. And accept it's mostly entirely my own problem that I'm in the position I'm in. Everyone's different. The smallness of my 50s world is largely to do with unexpected widowhood which brings a surprising whiff of Typhoid Mary with it.

Getting to this age has given me a new perspective on matters and I wonder if so much of the ageism and sexism around middle aged women is that We Know Things, We Take No Shit and We Get Stuff Done. Sounds like a meme, but if you think of women over time like the Suffragettes, the WI, the Dagenham workers, the women who set up Rape Crises - how much did they rely on formidable women of a certain age?

The problem comes when doing your job to the best of your ability, and no more, becomes seen as under performing.

I don't know what your situation is like. But could you buy a flat, rent it out on air b and b., and live off that income? And retire abroad early

Me too, only this morning I thought…another few months of getting up in the dark, driving to work and sitting behind a desk for hours then driving home in the dark….5 days a week! Also trying to put together a packed lunch that actually looks nice to eat, I haven’t got the patience any more!
hopefully mortgage will be paid off in next 12-18 months……I’m early 60s so still got 4-5 years to state pension. Desperately trying to see if I can pool my savings to have enough to stick 2 fingers up at work and have enough to live very modestly until then. I’m done!

I think that "work" as a concept needs to evolve and change a lot.

It's not sustainable to work for five days a week, for 50 years. It's like being a slave.

My dad hated work so much that he retired in his late fifties.

Circumstances helped him a bit..so it does depend on people's circumstances.

He owned a small house. Then after a divorce he met a new girlfriend. He then moved in with her, and rented out the first house. And he lived off the rent.

He told me that he absolutely hated when he worked in an office.

The change to women's retirement age was hugely regressive, given everything else that women have to suffer. Those extra seven years are going to be very painful. I can't believe that it all happened without much more of a fight.

I don't think is humane really to expect people to work well into their 60s.

I'm 40 and I'm already knackered. I'm in hormonal pain a lot from peri menopause.

It must be even more tiring for people in their fifties and sixties.

If only they let people enjoy their lives a bit more

The argument I've heard is that it's only fair because we wanted equality after all.... hoist by our own blooming petard.....

I was just watching a documentary about Cristiano Ronaldo, the footballer.

In it, he asks his seven year old daughter what she wants to work at when she is older.

She says "nothing! I just want to chill at home".

:)

The clip is on instagram. Everyone in the comments is saying "that's how we feel!"

See also an attempt to balance the social care bill.

Well I can see why women wanted to work. Otherwise they would have no money at all. And would be completely dependant on their husbands money.

It's the concept of work that needs to change.
And retirement age needs to be lower.

Not always. Lots of people enjoy their work.

And I'm going to frame it and throw darts at it.

😂

I didn't say that no one enjoys their job.

I just think there needs to be a lot more flexibility with jobs.

And an earlier retirement age.

What has that got to do with work? Unless they're asking about your marital status.
OP, I'm in my early 30's and also bored of the corporate BS.
However you speak in such a derogatory way of young people trying to advance themselves. It isn't employees' fault that we have to play this charade to get promoted. We have lives to finance and mouths to feed (and no, I don't just mean children by that, I'm also supporting elderly parents for example).

You don't have to go above and beyond. But you don't have to knock others either. Smile, do your hours, go home. Fin.

There's nothing stopping people from retiring whenever they want.
If they can pay for it.
If you want the state to finance people retiring early... Nope sorry . There isn't any money. In fact even the current retirement age is looking dubious in terms of financing.

Agree with the job flexibility although devil is in the detail.