Anyone just done with work at middleage?

[Peterbear]

I've got 25 years left before I can retire. (At 75)the problem is I I honestly don't have 75 weeks left in me. Every job I've had has been a disaster (last 30 years ) with the odd great experience/team. Now I'm 50 I just can't take people and their stupid shit and since covid I have no tolerance for anything. Hate wfh but also feel really anxious and self conscious in an office. Anyone else? Please be kind having a terrible few weeks at work. My boss is now old enough to be my daughter which isn't helping.

I'm 57 next week and although 10 years off official retirement age I will be leaving the office behind in the next year.
I am training to a be a specialist foster carer ( already an adoptive parent)
No way at 50 would I resign myself to another 25 years of misery.
You haven't explained why you cannot retire until you are 75.
There will be other options

I'm 58 and had enough, been in tears today as my joints are killing me (osteoarthritis, tendonitis and hypermobility) i'm a cleaner and seamstress and being self employed cant retire for a very very long time but just wish i could have a couple of days off atm

Have you thought about claiming PIP?

Yes I feel the same, I'm in my 50s

Yes I can relate to that

I'm counting down to retirement. Now 50 so a while back would have only had 10 more years to go. Now it's 17!

Hoping it will be better once mortgage is paid off. However both kids early teens so have to factor in uni costs.

I too am done with all the nonsense and never feeling good enough, changes because someone comes in as a new manager & they want to show their impact.

My sleep isn't great and so by the afternoon I really could do with a nap rather than working.

Anyone feel that once you become older your experience and opinion is often not valued in the same way , despite being up to date with everything?

I'm 32 and feeling this already.

Fed up of the same shit over and over again. Pretending to care about things I dont care about.

Our department lost a lot of staff in the last few years and training in the new staff is so hard and repetitive.

I dont know what to do.

Doubt id get it tbh, rheumatologist gave me 2 options 4x years ago, fuse my ankles so i couldnt bend them, or take drugs which would make me really dizzy as side effects are lower blood pressure, and i already have low blood pressure.
Plus i live by myself rurally, so if i didnt go to work, id never see anyone!
Just gotta keep going until i really really cant anymore...

I'm early 30s so still have almost 40 years of this shit ahead of me 😭I'm not ambitious at all and would rather spend my days alone amongst my plants. I enjoy simple living and when the DCs are older I'll definitely be planning on cutting back at work.

Yes, I absolutely feel the same.

It is not the idea of working itself that bothers me but I simply can't deal anymore with all the pointless meeting, dealing with another useless boss, annoying colleagues, another report to write, IT problems and the admin overload that seems to always come with any office job. It just all feel pointless.

I also have a long term health condition and trying to manage it while working has been a nightmare and it just kept getting worse. So I ended out my resignation two months ago. Because at this stage it is either this or losing my mind/health...

In a way it is a massive relief to have done this, even if that means having to job hunt. I am just planning to find a part-time role with a minimum of responsibilities and focus on the small business that I run alongside my office job.

Looking at moving out of the city too to cut outgoings.

Frankly when your health isn't great you realise that life is short and there is no point in spending it doing something you hate with the years you have left. That's where I am at at the moment.

Yes, I must say I feel like I need a long, long holiday, but I couldn’t do without the money.

I took early retirement at 55 from the pharmaceutical industry. I was sick of conferences away from home, driving 4 hours a day and the pressure of all the work at the end of the day on the laptop. I started my own small business and although I work bloody hard, I work for me so I love it. I have no staff I do everything myself. Suits me down to the ground.

This should read ''I handed out my resignation''...

Your user name 😂🏅

My team are all much much younger than me, I just can't be bothered to interact as some of the new girls are v cliquey, I don't need that shite in my life.

Other than that I'm sitting here with a spreadsheet trying to work out how I can cut down my hours without impacting on income/pensions....10-15 years to go...ugh...

Seems to be a common thread. Be nice for all women to get a funded gap year to reassess their lives (or just have a fecking lie down away from people and their work shit).:)

I'm 42 and thinking about promotion but my career didn't really take off until I was 33. I've worked since I was 18 but in lower responsibility positions until my 30s so I feel I have a lot of career left yet!

Yep. I'm 45. Spent the last 23 years planning deliverables, agreeing dates that are never going to happen, putting it all in a deck, then another deck to explain why the dates didn't work....so fucking bored.

I feel your pain.. the politics, repeating things, turnover, long hours - all sucks

I’m convinced that one of the reasons women used to be able to retire at 60 is because of the menopause, but somewhere along the way this has been forgotten about. I’m 56 and have reduced my hours to 4 days a week due to meno symptoms. I’m just counting down now. Only 11 years to go…

Yep. 50 next year and SO OVER working. Have gone down to 4 days a week, mainly WFH and a less full-on job than before, but still wake up every day wishing I could walk away from it all.

I'm making very slow plans to work for myself but that in itself is a slog and a pressure. But at least I'd be free of the bullshit that goes along with working for other people.

Fuck work. I just want to faff in the garden, swim, do yoga and read books.

Good job, well paid, not particularly stressful, like the people I work with. I’m 54 this year and would give it up without a backward glance. I’m going to drop to 4 days a week next year. …

@Peterbear - why can’t you retire at 67/68 ?

I got so sick (literally) of work that I resigned at the age of 51. Took a year off and lived on savings and now I just do temping work. I can manage about 3 months before I get fed up/ bored/ sick of the people I'm working with, so temping suits me down to the ground.

Best decision ever. I have time to do all the hobbies I had to put into storage. I think a combination of the menopause plus a new unsupportive boss and a coven a nasty co workers all came together and made me decide enough is enough. I was lucky - mortgage was paid, I had enough in the savings to prop me up for a couple of years if needed and the kids have flown the nest.

My work was my life. Now my life is my life.

Late 50s. Another decade of work to go, working full time, 55-60 hours a week in a stressful professional career I used to love and now still like, but am exhausted by. Menopause, long Covid and the resulting chronic fatigue leave me struggling to cope and pace myself. I'm lying in bed at the moment, aware I should be asleep if I'm going to cope tomorrow.

DH on PIP after a long career of self employed manual work and he has no pension or savings at all. I took time out for DC, did pt work and subsequently my pension won't be enough for the pair of us to live on. Still got a mortgage, still got a teenager in school. Fuck knows what I'll do if they want to go to university.

it's very difficult not to just feel resentful of all the responsibility. I have parents in their 80s making demands too. I'm just tired and I want to be able to retire. I sympathise with all of you feeling the same.

I am genuinely in a job I can't imagine being able to do effectively when I'm 67. I can't afford to stop.