What's your day gig?

[Avatar]

..my actual work has ground to a slow crawl. But dont tell my boss that...

Haha, know the feeling, although the few clients I'm still working with are making enough work for 5 times as many it feels like...

--A

[sgt.null]

That sucks. How's your PPE situation?

After some inmate won a lawsuit getting all inmates
Masks in sanitizer we experienced a sea change.

The first masks were made of inmate white tee shirts.
New we hope. Then came masks made of employee
Grey shirts. Now we have the mass produced blue masks.

We fought the sanitizer for inmates on two fronts. First, it
Is alcohol based. Drunk inmates in lockdown? No fun. And
It could be used to help burn things. Second, soap is cheaper
And more effective. But liberal judge is foing to liberal.

We also can get sanitizer bottles refilled at the warden's office.
Small, personal use bottles. And they set up foot powered hand
Washing stations in the halls. Those are cool.

They moved inmates to our region because we are close to
Hospital Galveston. But they failed to notify the local authorities.
So that is getting ugly.

And we moved from 10 hr days to 11 or 12 hour days.

[aliantha]

I'm glad you have PPE at work, Sarge. I was hoping you did.

Old and wise Watchers know that I've been at my current gig -- legal secretary at a BigLaw firm (WilmerHale, for those wondering) -- for 20 years this past November. I turned 62 in December and could have retired then, but chose to hang on for another few months, mainly to collect the sabbatical I'm currently on. I go back to work (or else dig out the firm laptop and firm iPhone and work from home) on June 17th. Then, if all goes well, I'll retire July 6th and move to Santa Fe.

I've also got a side job writing novels, which I expect to continue after retirement even though Social Security pays better...

[Skyweir]

My day job mmm my business ground to a halt with the bushfires and now COVID 19.

I been heavily involved in wildlife search and rescue .. set up a veterinary triage clinic .. we were cooking with gas but alas the sponsors got cold feet given COVID 19 risks

Even though in reality our work outdoors is low risk re COVID 19 and we had robust protocols in place

So now Im having a week off

[Avatar]

Nice to see you around Sky.

--A

[Skyweir]

Cheers dude always great to be here at the Watch

[Phantasm]

Scottish prison service manager, currently deployment manager which has been bloody stressful during the Covid time.

29 years in and counting. 4 years, 5 months until retirement age, although I'll probably go part time, half hours same pay.

[Avatar]

You're a screw? Damn, I don't know if I ever knew that...

--A

[SoulBiter]

..my actual work has ground to a slow crawl. But dont tell my boss that...

Haha, know the feeling, although the few clients I'm still working with are making enough work for 5 times as many it feels like...

--A

Here we are two years later and the work has definitely picked back up. In the meantime I have had to start over with new teams (twice since then) and train them for what we do. I am hoping this is the last time. Still working from home. My wife and I have May 2023 targeted for retirement (right after bonus payout).

However with the Market being stupid right now, we still have the luxury of working another year if we have to. But dont want to get stuck in the "just OMY" groove where you keep putting off retirement and end up not retiring at all. We should always keep in mind that you can usually cut your budget if needed but you cant buy a single second of life when your time is up.

[peter]

Everything is in too much of a state of flux at the present to be thinking too much about retirement. You have to be damn sure about your finances - and I mean damn sure.... almost Elon Musk sure - to be putting too many faith in it.

There is (in the UK at least) simply too much uncertainty about where this is going to land, to be considering giving up your source of income, however enticing the prospect might be.

Maybe the US is better placed than us to meet the economic tsunami that only a fool would dismiss as a very real possibility (think rising interest rates set against unprecedented levels of debt - both national and domestic, inflation and stagnant economies in combination, the effects of printing money as if there were no tomorrow waiting stage-left to make its entrance) but I have my doubts. The western economy is a bubble waiting to burst and the moment you retire you are (the Musk's among us excepted...... perhaps) drawing a line under your involvement. Flexibility is going to be key to surviving this, and keeping your options open, no matter how unpalatable, is part of this.

My advice to anyone considering retirement is to think very carefully as to whether this is a good time to quit work (if your health and options allow you to do otherwise). Even in the 'good times' I've known many people who have done so confident that they are well placed, only to see inflation and other factors eroding their income to the point where they, after only a few years, find themselves scratching around trying to make ends meet. This is fine if you are prepared to slash your living standards, quit having the options that you have enjoyed while working (like going on holiday, buying new stuff when you want to etc) - but it isn't what most people have in mind when they picture the sunlit uplands of retirement. But this is very often the reality after a surprisingly short time.

[inkinen]

Seasoned software developer working as a contractor. Been doing remote work for two years but lately started visiting office affair.
My dreamjob before going to uni was to work in a bookstore.. we had a wonderful store in the suburb I grew up in.

[SoulBiter]

My advice to anyone considering retirement is to think very carefully as to whether this is a good time to quit work (if your health and options allow you to do otherwise). Even in the 'good times' I've known many people who have done so confident that they are well placed, only to see inflation and other factors eroding their income to the point where they, after only a few years, find themselves scratching around trying to make ends meet. This is fine if you are prepared to slash your living standards, quit having the options that you have enjoyed while working (like going on holiday, buying new stuff when you want to etc) - but it isn't what most people have in mind when they picture the sunlit uplands of retirement. But this is very often the reality after a surprisingly short time.

Agreed Peter! For us we have been planing for this for a long time. So we have no debt except the house which will be paid off by the end of this year. So we would enter retirement zero debt. Funny enough, when we went debt free after the 2009/2010 crash, we found that although we had the discretionary income to buy just about anything, we lost the urge to do so. I would suggest to anyone out there, that being debt free is freeing on so many levels. Once you free your income from being taken by payments, you find that you can start generating wealth, rather than making financial institutions more wealthy.

But all that is off target. My wife and I work for the same company and both work from home. Neither of us miss the office environment.

[SoulBiter]

Seasoned software developer working as a contractor. Been doing remote work for two years but lately started visiting office affair.
My dreamjob before going to uni was to work in a bookstore.. we had a wonderful store in the suburb I grew up in.

That is a great gig for being able to WFH if that is what you prefer. I know a number of people in IT (various parts of IT) that have transitioned to a different locale they always wanted to live in, and work from there now.

[Spiral Jacobs]

Freelance translator working from home

[peter]

Freelance translator working from home

That sounds like a good gig. I'm envious of anybody who has a second language under their belt. I have a desire to begin learning Cornish (of which there are only about 1000 speakers left in the world). Problem is I'm mid-sixties and the old grey cells are exactly that - old! New neural pathways are not formed with the same speed and agility at this age, so it could be an ask too far.

SB, absolutely agree on the debt point. I carried debt as a burden around my neck for years and it was ruinous to my ability to function properly. I'll always remember the day, after ten years of trying, that I eventually cleared it. It was a most liberating feeling to know that at last, I had zero money in the bank..

More seriously, in the face of what is going on economically, I think being debt free will be the key to surviving it. Owning every stick of the place you rest your head is the greatest security that a person can ever have - so important. My advice to our younger family members recently has been to clear any debt and double down on their mortgage payments.

[Phantasm]

You're a screw? Damn, I don't know if I ever knew that...

--A

I've had discussions with sgt null about it before

[sgt.null]

Nice to see you Phantasm.

You will appreciate that after 21 years I have moved into administration of the kitchen. I am second to the kitchen major. I deal with paperwork, aca, inspections, liason with other departments and whatever else comes up.

[Khaliban]

Work from home database developer and introvert. I was aware of the existence of COVID, but...

[Avatar]

You're a screw? Damn, I don't know if I ever knew that...

I've had discussions with sgt null about it before

LOL, maybe vague recollections are surfacing. I probably just blocked it out.

Gotta say I'm grateful for the whole pandemic thing...not doing the office work thing is great.

After 16 odd years of getting up at 05h00 every weekday, being able to roll out of bed at 07h59 means...uh...actually what it means is I just go to bed a lot later instead.

--A