Is that our goal? I'm not sure that is winning more than surviving but it is a change of pace. I am thinking about this because a long time coworker just retired this week. I didn't want to but I felt a tinge of sadness at saying goodbye. This is a person I worked with in the same room for about 7 to 9 years. I pretty much drove the other lady crazy and she left, but this one put up with my bad singing and cursing at the tools, listened to my stories about my boys growing up, she taught me a bit about having a farm and the difficulties of having a few head of cattle, even when she moved to the miniature cows, which I just fell in love with the idea, but I don't have the stones to be responsible enough.
Ever since we worked together, she was talking about retiring in another three years. It came as a mild shock to hear her actually do it. In our last conversation, she mentioned to her supervisor that she was willing to put her head on the shopping block, if there was going to be a lay-off, hopefully save the job of her coworker. Instead, she was ignored and the other guy of a total of four was laid off. He was given a handsome retirement package, and for her efforts and years of work, she got nothing, but of course, that was her choice.
So now what? My Mom has been retired for the 2nd or 3rd time and she keeps busy with the grandkids. My Dad on the other hand, I'm not sure finds himself relaxed in his golden years as he seems a need to go to those shitty illegal casinos. Retirement seems to go well with some people, I feel like I would rather work than sit around the house, specially if it was going to be full of rugrats. My ex coworker says she bought a small-ish farm up in north Texas, mostly to get away from the allergies in central Texas. She still has a farm's worth of animals, she said she took her cows up on the last trip, so I am sure she gets to work outside more full time. She was good at raising her own food, frequently selling fresh eggs to our coworkers, and I remember her bringing vegetables when she grew more than she could eat and save.
I hate to think that we work until we stop being useful or cost too much on a balanced sheet, but I guess we aren't much different than the tools we run, to our supervisors. Most everybody there is near 65 or getting there shortly. I am still unsure if retiring is the golden goose or just a nice way to get out of the game. I do know it is a weird feeling saying goodbye to a long term coworker and being that I am one of the youngest, it is going to suck in the next few years as more and more of our older people sign off. For all I know, the company may go under tomorrow, but if not, most people there are near that age, I hope we all get the choice to do it if we want to.
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