I'm coming up on 28 years as a planner and 27 in my current retirement system. Not going to lie, I see the finish line (30 years if in a good position to do so) and may look at buying out some time. I work for a great municipality and have a zero complaint work schedule of 4/10 with two days WFH. I've often contemplated what my last day will be. Likely a get-together of staff and out the door by early afternoon. I also think wearing an Iron Maiden Piece of Mind or Live After Death t-shirt as a subtle meaning of the what the future holds.
That's a great question. I'm an "engineer" at a major corporation. I put that in quotes because for the last 15 years I've done work supporting the engineering organization, including equipment planning, cost estimating, proposal coordination and most recently manpower planning. Although the chain of command has evolved, my primary customer... the guy I work for... is a director of about 500 people. In my current position I'm part of his "integration office", doing stuff that benefits the whole org.
Up until last July when the integration office was established, I was a direct employee of said director. Now he's my boss's boss's boss's boss. My actual boss is a sharp young man the same age as my son, who went through the company's leadership development program and is developing into a fine leader.
At work I mention that in a a vague "coupla years" I'll be retiring but no actual retirement plan yet. I plan to work until 65 (two years from this fall) and then play it by ear. If I'm enjoying work I'll work maybe two years beyond then to the "full" Social Security date (assuming that's still a thing).
Which brings me back to the question. It seems like much of my career has been in niche roles, working unique products and/or doing something that no one else around me does. From that standpoint I could see my retirement as a low key affair. On the other hand, I support an organization of 500 people and work with roughly 40 managers and maybe 20 other key people, so maybe it will be a bigger event. I don't know, we'll see.
There's another option though. Although The Company is prospering right now, there have been lean times in the past. If we hit one of those lean times and I'm ready to go, I may take voluntary layoff (which would probably include something like a 6 month salary payout). That would be a nice way to kick off retirement. We could pay off the house if we still owe anything on it, maybe buy a new car (probably for the wife since I just got one for myself), maybe do a little travel or something. But if I take a layoff, my retirement might go largely unnoticed based on the corporate culture and what I've seen in the past.
The third option is to work until someone or something pisses me off, have an epic meltdown and storm out. I keep telling my current boss (the sharp young man) that I'm planning to leave that way.... "So don't piss me off
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I mean it would be nice to enjoy some comradery with my coworkers one last time but to be honest I don't envision staying in touch with any of them after I retire. They will immediately transition to my past. I imagine that will be something like when my younger son graduated high school and I was no longer a band dad. I've had almost no contact with those people since then. It doesn't bother me to cut them out of my life, there's other stuff to do and people to hang with.
In all likelihood though I probably will go along with the corporate sponsored retirement party and pretend to enjoy it. Maybe I really will.
