Shelford wrote:Congratulations Darka.
I'm about 12 months ahead of you (left full-time work in July 20). My learnings so far:
-I don't miss work at all. But I do miss the company of some of my colleagues, and working with bright young people. My sector is predominantly 25-25 year olds, and one upside is it keeps you young. I've compensated for this in part by voluntary work which provides a sense of wellbeing and social engagement, especially during Lockdown
-it is acceptable to feel a gap in your life, largely because of the lack of structure hitherto provided by the daily grind of commuting etc. This is both nice, and weird at times. I still keep the railway text service advising of train cancellations, if only to remind me of what I'm not missing!
-Having some 'projects' to do is a good idea. I created a bucket list in my last year at work and am enjoying doing some of them/avoiding the more boring ones.
-for those in high pressure roles, the process of decompression from work can take some time. Having worked at my employer for 20 years, I realised this might be a bigger task, so took 3-4 sessions with an executive coach. This was a luxury, but enabled me to talk through the transition, offload the burden (it was a highly stressful role), and to give myself permission to take a decent break. It would be easy to do the same with a sympathetic friend down the pub with you buying the drinks, but it was helpful to have someone completely impartial asking intelligent questions
-I have ended up doing a portfolio of voluntary/part-time paid work. The latter being 3 NED roles. These have proven to be a bit more onerous than I expected, but provide mental stimulation and keep the gin cupboard stocked
-my main concerns at present are not financial, but health. I won't be the only person on this board to have spent more time on accumulating savings than on maintaining an adequate level of fitness. The latter is now a priority as I head into my late fifties.
Good luck!
Shelford
Thanks Shelford,
I do think decompressing is very important and often overlooked, I think the executive coach sounds like a great idea.
I've been winding down my role for a couple of years and delegating more and more as I knew this was approaching, but my team is going to have some fairly serious problems going forwards but not much I can do about that as they are massively under resourced, especially now that I am leaving.
I'm fairly fit as I enjoy running and have used it to cope with the stress of my thankless role but I intend to do more strength work going forwards too as I want to work on that once I have more time. I also live by the sea so plan to work on my open water swimming too.
I won't miss the commute, the office and to be honest won't miss my colleagues either - in the couple of weeks since I handed my notice in, no one has mentioned it or even talked to me very much at all, I work for a very weird company and can't wait to get out.
I'm not even sure my manager has told anyone apart from HR, very odd.
regards,
Darka