Personally, I would get an inordinately-large amount of satisfaction knowing that long after I left, the people who are making my job unpleasant will still be slaving away to pay for the $1m house, $100k car, and $500 suit, while I sit on my front porch in my pajamas and flip flops, reading a book and sipping a root bear float at 10:00 in the morning.
I saw in another thread a reminder that "the best revenge is a life well-lived."
So true Zolotiyeruki! They are the sort of personalities that would probably see my retirement as "going hippie" and wasting the best earning years of my career. I won't change them, so I've given up trying.
+1 for don't give a shit - this is my number one strategy for sticking it out in a job I used to have great passion for. I still take on things that I care about, just stopped caring about things that are someone else's show. I now put a priority on talking to people in the office about their lives, family members and etc. I used to be one of those people that was so busy I didn't know the names of half the people that worked on my floor (I am talking a cohort of ~20 people - so not knowing 10 names among 20 is pretty awful).
My problem is that I'm not good at not giving a shit. I feel that I have an obligation to my clients to do the right thing by them, which often means going into bat for them against what the hierarchy wants. My husband has tried to get me do this too, but I just don't know how. I think I've got the hang of it until a situation occurs when I need to step up for the sake of my client. I have definitely started spending more time at the coffee machine over the last few months, and you're right, there are some interesting people that work for my organisation that I never spoke to before now!
I went home that day and did what all true geeks do in a crisis: I started a spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet tracked how much money I was adding to our net worth for EVERY SINGLE DAY I managed to continue working. I strategically scheduled time off for every 3-4 weeks and coded those special "free days" in a different color. When things would get really bad, I would just remind myself " only x more days until I get a free day!" and that was usually enough to keep me going. I did have a few days where I took an originally unplanned mental health day or "worked remotely" so that I could keep from sending in my resignation. In the meantime, I applied for a fellowship I knew I had a good shot at -- that was my exit strategy. I resigned the day I learned I had received the fellowship but gave an extra long notice period. All told, I managed to hang on for about 9 months after the day of that horrible meeting, Earned about another $50k toward our stash, and I did wrap up my projects and also signed some critical contracts (which psycho boss later ran into the ground -- not my circus, not my monkeys at that point, though....)
So, if you share the spreadsheet fetish, consider it as a coping strategy -- I found it highly useful.
But I agree with the commenters above -- if you are this close to FI and really miserable to the point it is affecting your sleep (and by extension your mental and physical health), consider quitting sooner rather than later and finding another, less stressful and painful way to make up the cash. No job is worth making yourself miserable for, however close to FI you may be.
I love it! A spreadsheet! I already have a retirement spreadsheet which details the investments, withdrawals etc and I also have a "days to retirement spreadsheet, but I guess I could upgrade it to include holidays, public holidays, work from home days and the odd planned mental health day.
Not much option for getting another job - I'm in a specialist field and if I left my employer, I think the best I could hope for is another job getting half my salary.
Some one asked why the job is so bad (sorry, can't find the post to quote it - my forum skills need work). For me its more the politics - the self promotion, the idea that you have to belittle some one else to get ahead, the inability to have an honest conversation - even in a performance review, lack of respect etc. Add to that a few co-workers that clearly have issues with women (either being at work or being in senior positions) one of whom would clearly love to be my boss, but just can't wangle it, but is starting to act like he is. And I'm part of a business unit that has for lack of a better way to put it, lost its mojo and facing an uphill battle to get back to where it should be. So everything is much, much harder than it should be. Others that I work with are really lovely, and I know I should just focus on them. I don't have a good ability to let go and just not give a shit.
But ultimately, people are right, its not that long in the grand scheme of things. And others have it far, far worse than me. A girlfriend of mine volunteers on a mobile outreach van for marginalised, homeless or those at risk of being homeless. It's amasing some of the stories she hears - people can be just one bad decision away from losing everything and having the roof taken from over their kids heads.
Thanks all for your input, it does help to hear other peoples stories. It helps reinforce that others are in, or have been in, similar or worse situations than me and have survived, prospered and FIRED!!