I'm not sure how many of you can relate to the title of this page, but it does go on and on, Now that I've been retired for too many years, I have discovered that, at least the coffee break isn't as taxing in cash or energy as the much loved wine at happy hour that I started with!.
As mentioned in an earlier blog, many of my friends I have met through my work including a couple who are my very best friends. My oilfield friends and I get together when possible, our numbers range from 2 to 4 or 5 at a time. Our conversations vary from who we were to who we are now.
Most of us chose our retirement dates, but for some it wasn't their choice due to the downturn in the industry. Some of the group that I socialize or chat with, myself included hadn't really absorbed the true meaning of full retirement when we chose to do so and now would like to break up this retirement gig a bit, I have done so by starting the blog, following a very much appreciated suggestion by my oldest daughter Elana, and a lot of help from my young, still employed friend, Cindy. I am quite happy feeling the stress and panic as each publishing day comes up and I haven't gotten things completely together yet - its a bit like being at work, I thrive on pressure and time-lines and there isn't a lot of that in retirement unless it rains on a gardening day, so this is my savior!
Many of our conversations are about our days at work. the people we worked with, the things we learned and the things that either really made us laugh or really irritated us. Our "coffee breaks" are never boring and our laughter often causes others to look with a questionable or wistful glance at our table.
(past and present pictures of some of the coffee pals)
"In retirement, I look for days off from my days off"
One of the conversations that came up a couple of times in the last couple of weeks was the much talked of staff shortages that we hear of almost nightly on the evening news, it seems many companies are suffering with this same problem but as a couple of people in our group have discovered, these same companies will not consider any candidate over a certain age , the term retired seems to scream DO NOT HIRE. We pondered their reasonings, perhaps they felt that "retirees" were a health risk due to age or.... incapable of remembering how to get to work or forgetting who they were working for while answering a telephone. It was thought that if one was hired to answer that phone, a more sincere and welcoming message could be heard by the caller in place of the ever present recorded message by the same voice that we've all heard "Thank you for calling, unfortunately we are currently dealing with a larger volume of callers than usual, please call again" . The people I know that are interested in going back to work aren't interested in the Presidents position, they are just interested in, for example - the vacant receptionist position.
I hear the same comments from some of the retired men, all very capable of relieving a bit of the staff shortage issues,
Of course companies need to continually look for and hire the qualified young, up and coming professionals to be added to their workforce, those with fresh ideas and hopefully years of continued dedicated service for continued growth and success of the company. We retirees are aware of that - we were those up and coming at one time..
תגובות