Wow, just catching up on the awesome departures and updates from folks these last couple of weeks -- so amazing! Congratulations to those who pulled the plug!!
I wanted to update because a funny thing happened. After leaving my job mid-May (under the auspices of "I've been here long enough, I'm burned out, I'm taking an indefinite break to hike + volunteer + chill" -- all true), my old employer reached out to see if I could help out on a contract basis doing roughly the same job I used to have for roughly twice the pay (while there are no benefits, there are also no useless team meetings). It's a short-term gig for just one month until they (at long last) get my replacement in place and another person comes back from leave. Great project, my favorite supervisor, flexible hours (20-30/wk, WFH, on my own schedule). Heavenly by all objective measures.
So I've been doing this for 1.5 weeks now, and a few takeaways:
(1) I don't miss it. I knew when I left that I had an awesome gig, which is what made it hard to leave. But I have not once missed it. The parts of my job that I liked (writing, editing, researching), I've been able to do on my own terms since leaving anyway. Doing it all again (maybe because it's so soon?) has reminded me that... nope, I was happy when I wasn't doing this anymore.
(2) Even telling myself this will be "fun money," I can't get myself to spend much more than we usually do. I did tell my spouse to buy an extra couple of video games. We're not super frugal, but apparently we have our set-point.
(3) The money doesn't really matter to me. I know, I know, we're FI. But my spouse still works, so I thought I'd feel more motivated to help him get to his exit date sooner. Not sure if this is a failure of imagination, compassion, or what, but even with the doubled rate I'm not inclined to put in any more hours than I absolutely need to. So I guess I'm feeling more financially free than I realized (yay?). (Also, to be clear, he wasn't super excited about me working for these folks again. I have a hard time with boundaries sometimes. Work in progress.)
(3) Leverage is awesome. Intellectually I knew I've had it for a while now. But when I can say, "yes I'll do parts A and C for X hours/week, but no to part B," is super satisfying. What's that word... control? Control is nice. :)
(4) Even limiting my work to the very best parts of what I liked about my old job (which this fortunately is), it's shockingly hard to feel motivated. I still don't need to be doing this, and that's a huge loss of motivation right there!
So, you may ask, why on earth am I doing this? Three reasons. First and foremost, I'm young. I'm 33 and have no idea if I'll want to work again. (To be clear, I was off for barely more than a month when this gig started, so haven't exactly decompressed yet.) It seems prudent to keep my options open. I work in a small specialty field and the place I worked (work? oh no!) is one of the best in the business. So if I wanted to be able to dip my toe back into things in a year, they'd be who I'd go to for contract work. Taking them up on this keeps the door open (and let's me see what the life of a free-wheeling contractor is like!).
Second, and I know this will sound pollyannaish, but I like and respect both the person I'm working for and the client we're helping. I want to help them out. The small amount of motivation I've been able to find (aside from bribing myself with extra coffee) has really come down to that. I know they're a company, and I despise family metaphors in workplaces, so it's not about that. I just feel good being helpful. So really, I'm doing it for me. :)
Third, ego. It's nice to be wanted. ;)
TL;DR: RE fail after 1 month to do 1 month of PT contract work for old job twice pay; not regretting it, but also feeling validated that leaving was the right move! Still, will be back on the 2021 FIRE wagon after this. Hopefully this helps reinforce the "you never know what will happen" mantra I've seen so often on this forum!