this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025
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I've had a weird arc. A number of months after I graduated college and started working, it finally sunk in that there wasn't always something I needed to be studying or working on, as had been the case for like my whole academic career. I had a job that I wasn't allowed to do outside the plant, so when I went out the gates I was done. Over the years I got promoted to positions of more and more responsibility and, even though I tried hard to keep work and home separate, at some point it was unavoidable and there was always something I needed to be doing, always emails I should be answering.
Then, after 40 years, I retired earlier this year. I had a lot to go through with selling a house and stuff, but it's just starting to get to the point where I don't have something I need to be doing, as had happened 40 years ago.
I think that's a pretty normal arc. You work your butt off to get through school, then when you start working, and you have limited responsibilities, you don't really ever work outside of work. As you become more senior, you will have more to do than can be done in the ~8 hours during the day, M-F and you start feeling like you need to work while you're at home or whatever.
Then when you retire, every thing falls away.
I probably won't get to retire, so, I'll never get there. I'm glad you get to experience that again.
I just dropped from a lead position to non-lead because of this. The only work time is office time+travel for work. Outside of that work does not exist.
That's a big quality of life change. I wasn't super enthused about going up the chain for a long time, but then found I really enjoyed the strategic planning and organizational stuff, so went up a couple levels of management. The money was a quality of life change, too, of course.
Eh. I could make more at work but the that stuff doesn't drive me, actually triggers severe burn out. I have a savings/debt paydown/investment strategy that gets me where I need to go.
It was also a company switch to one with stability, steady raises, better benefits, and more interesting work. So while it's a significant trade off in salary, quality of life is vastly improved.
It for sure sounds like the right decision for you. And to be sure I was clear, when I eventually went up a leadership ladder, I was more motivated by the job than by the money, it's just that the money was nice too. I was at the same company for just short of 40 years. I moved around some within the company to keep things interesting, and then realized my experience would be pretty useful for strategic leadership, and that I'd enjoy that kind of thing.
I think that makes sense. Having stability in life is going to be a different world tbh. 20-40yrs is a long time in personal development