What you will miss least upon retirement?

[Mola]

Maybe this kind of question has been posted before.  But I was thinking today that the thing I will be overjoyed to not have anymore after retirement is email.  Its a wonderful thing that has become cursed through excess.  I get 200+ messages a day and spend a good deal of time managing it and devising better ways to manage it.  Its gotten so hateful that I don't even like logging into my personal email account anymore.  I long to sit in a cabin or an RV or a tent or whatever and not have any email.  None.  Back to the ancient 1990s.

What will you miss least?

[limeandpepper]

Not having to wake up at any designated time in the morning and then rushing to get ready, take public transport to work, etc.

[Nords]

I don't miss rush hour(s) one bit.

[Zikoris]

Having to coordinate time off for travel between me and my boyfriend's employers. Pain in the ass.

[footenote]

I capital-H-Hate commuting. (And I'm retiring tomorrow btw. : )

Goodbye to all that.

PS Lest the IRP pounce on me later, I do anticipate taking on entertaining consulting / volunteering / other "work." But only when it pleases me to do so.

[Paul der Krake]

Walls.

[smalllife]

Office politics.

[Rural]

Women's dress pants. They come with no pockets, or useless shallow pockets that only work if you never sit down (because stuff falls out).

[Dibbels81]

I'm not anti-social by any means, but I look forward to interacting less with people that I don't like.  When I retire, I will have much more control over the people I socialize with and interact with.  Annoying coworkers will become annoying, broke ex-coworkers. 

[destron]

I capital-H-Hate commuting. (And I'm retiring tomorrow btw. : )

Agreed on commuting. What a waste of my life (although podcasts made it more palatable in the last few years).

And congrats on retiring. Today was my last day at the police department, although I am moving to a software dev job. Bonus -- new very short commute (cut down from 22 miles, previously 27 miles).

[Frankies Girl]

Will not miss working hours and hours late trying to push out a project because someone else didn't do their job. :(
(I'm salaried, so I'm getting screwed to hit a deadline - every. single. month.)

Or I guess - deadlines in general. Will do things on my own schedule after I retire!

[Jamesqf]

It's strange, but I've been working for years (and plan to keep on doing so) without any of those things, except occasional deadlines (and I'm not on salary).  I do get emails, but maybe a tenth of that 200/day.  A lot of them are obvious spam, too, so maybe 10 a day worth reading (stuff from mailing lists, etc),  3-4 from work or friends.

So the problem you folks have might not be the work, but the way you let people arrange work for you.

[totoro]

I won't miss my cell phone.  I will probably give it up.

[imustachemystash]

All the paperwork.  I just want to work with my students and not have to deal with the endless paperwork!

[keith]

Not having to wake up at any designated time in the morning and then rushing to get ready

Same here for me, can't wait to not require an alarm clock on weekdays anymore.

[DreamingofFreedom]

Answering to the whims of bosses.

[DocCyane]

I spend about 20% of my work week in meetings or preparing for meetings. We discuss things that could be decided in the hallway in 5 minutes with 2 people, yet we have full meetings with everyone. Handouts and PowerPoint slides are mandatory.

I tell myself that I get paid the same whether I use my time well or they waste it in meetings, but it's difficult to be held responsible for a mass of work when your time is frittered away by senior managers and business consultants with nothing better to do than talk.

[jrhampt]

Annual Performance Appraisals, Self Evals, and Annual Performance Objectives. 

[Heather]

Trying to be smart at 2:00pm

[EK]

Getting disproportionally stressed out over tasks that are really of miniscule importance, but that I have to do as part of my job.

[GuitarStv]

Having no control over my life.

The thing that makes work insufferable is that if I'm feeling extra tired one morning, I can't just sleep in.  If there's a snowstorm blowing and traffic is backed up for miles, I can't just say 'screw it, I'll do something else today'.  Having to do work (that I usually enjoy), day in/day out to someone else's schedule, that can change at the drop of a hat is annoying/frustrating and drains much of the fun out of what I do.

That and pants.  My retirement policy will be to avoid wearing pants until after noon most days.

[ace1224]

having to wake up before 8, i think i my first day in retirement will be spent sleeping all day!

[jrhampt]

That and pants.  My retirement policy will be to avoid wearing pants until after noon most days.

I frequently declare no pants days...I find the pants problem is solved by working at home as often as possible, along with the windowless cube problem and the no private bathrooms problem.

[footenote]

I capital-H-Hate commuting. (And I'm retiring tomorrow btw. : )

Agreed on commuting. What a waste of my life (although podcasts made it more palatable in the last few years).

And congrats on retiring. Today was my last day at the police department, although I am moving to a software dev job. Bonus -- new very short commute (cut down from 22 miles, previously 27 miles).

Congrats back to you! I read your story in a different thread and found your life change very inspiring.

[nktokyo]

I don't miss offices and pretending to care about stuff that is utterly meaningless.

[Nancy]

I will not miss having to sit inside 8 hours/day 5 days/week.

[maryofdoom]

Bullshit office politics and weasel co-workers who only think about their own schedules, not how things will affect the rest of us.

(I got SCREWED out of working for a good guy with a good group of people because one person on the new team decided that he simply could not suck it up and deal with being in the office from 9 AM until 4 PM every day. But that is another rant for another thread.)

[Zaga]

I have a few:

Being inside all day - also I hate the frigid temp they set the a/c at.  I mean, why should I need to wear a sweater in July?

Waking up before the sun comes up.

Dress clothes, especially the women's dress pants.

Limited vacation time.  Human's are not meant to work constantly year round.  There is a natural cycle that we ignore in the modern world.  Rain days should be stay in pj's and read, sunny nice days should have at least some outside working in the dirt, winter should have less work, etc.

[mustachecat]

Oh, man, all of the above and more.

Also, I am really, really grateful that this was posted towards/at the end of the week. Reading this on a Monday would have been unbearable.

[MrsPete]

Arriving to work in the wee hours of the morning, while it's still dark. 
Dealing with high school seniors (both those who've checked out mentally and those who aren't going to graduate) in the month of May.
Grading papers, which students think is a subjective thing, but really it isn't. 

I really like most things about my job, but these small things kill me. 

[KMMK]

Making phone calls.
The poor air quality in the office and being cold all the time when I'm at work in the office. I shouldn't have to wear long underwear under my office pants 7 months of the year. And sweaters/pants the rest of the time.

[Catbert]

People. Phones.  Politics.  Pantyhose.  PowerPoint.  And that's just the stuff starting with "P."  (I've been retired 4 years.)

[Zaga]

I thought of another one.  Not seeing the sun at all for a month in December.  Arrive at work with the sun just coming up and leave with it going down.  Hate that!

[Rural]

People. Phones.  Politics.  Pantyhose.  PowerPoint.  And that's just the stuff starting with "P."  (I've been retired 4 years.)

No job is worth pantyhose. I just say no. PowerPoint is less avoidable, but Prezi is even worse, and it's becoming harder to avoid.

[jpo]

2' deep desk, 8 hours a day. Either get carpal tunnel or go blind.

[mc6]

Asshole coworkers (not all of them are of course but the real jerks stick out). 

[Mola]

Wow, that snowballed quick.  Reading all of these really brings home the homogeneity of worklife in America and it's antithetical relationship to savanna bred humans.

I'll add to emails that my second least thing to miss is a particular disease in my company: a meeting for 3 people becomes 30 people by forwarding and then 29 of them sit in the meeting multi-tasking on their laptops generating emails (some of which go to me) and not listening thus necessitating either more emails or meetings.

And I agree with a previous poster that its how the work is arranged for us rather than the work.  I like what I do, just not how its done.  Unfortunately changing corporate culture is tough and you're constrained by it until you leave it.

[ozzage]

The feeling that starts at around 8pm on a Sunday evening...

[BPA]

The alarm clock.

I capital-H-Hate commuting. (And I'm retiring tomorrow btw. : )

Goodbye to all that.

PS Lest the IRP pounce on me later, I do anticipate taking on entertaining consulting / volunteering / other "work." But only when it pleases me to do so.

Congratulations, footenote!

[Spork]

Being on call...  I hate being woken up at 3am to sit on a conference bridge (silently attended by every VP in the company) ... especially when the problem isn't something I can even do anything about and I just have to be there as a token of support.

[Jon_Snow]

Won't miss the feelings of nausea and dread upon being awoken at 4:45am by the alarm clock. Yes, I hate my job this much. Not much longer, thankfully...

[savingtofreedom]

Microsoft Office Suite - Excel, Powerpoint, etc.

Conference calls

slow talkers

alarm clocks

no paid vacation

[little_owl]

This is an awesome thread.  I don't want to sound complainypants, because my job is pretty great in the scheme of things, but in no particular order:

- Sunday night blues
- Alarm clock that goes off about 2 hours earlier than I'd like it to
- Business Travel
- People not saying what they really think!!!
- Meetings you have to have about the super-important internal meeting with the super-important boss type people.  YUCK.

[nktokyo]

I think I might win this thread right here...


Pre-meeting meetings.

God...

[starbuck]

Getting disproportionally stressed out over tasks that are really of miniscule importance, but that I have to do as part of my job.

Oh man this 1,000 times over.

[brewer12345]

- business travel

- having absolutely no control over my schedule

- the profound feeling of depression most mornings when I get out of the truck in the light rail parking lot to go to work

[SugarMagnolia]

Constantly being pressured to contribute to birthday parties, baby showers, retirement dinners, Girl Scout cookies, holiday gifts, and on and on and on. Generally I refuse to participate, but his does not make me well liked. I can't wait to get away from these people.

[savingtofreedom]

I think I might win this thread right here...


Pre-meeting meetings.

God...

I'll bite - what do you mean when you say God....

[matchewed]

If nktokyo has a Flying Spaghetti Monster at his workplace I'm going to be insanely jealous.

[Ozstache]

Oh, man, all of the above and more.

Also, I am really, really grateful that this was posted towards/at the end of the week. Reading this on a Monday would have been unbearable.

Lucky you. I'm reading this for the first time on a Sunday after two weeks off work, ready for work tomorrow expecting hundreds of mindless emails, a full calendar of crappy meeting requests and my boss expecting me to be up to speed on everything that's happened while I've been away the instant I walk in the door. Arrrrgh! Bring on ER!