My father, whom I love dearly, is retiring from a very long career today.
Thought #1: I'm incredibly proud of him -- he has given many years to this company and I hope the higher-ups know how much of his life he's poured into this place.
Thought #2: I would love to know what percentage of my father's cohort back in 197X are still working with his company? He has been through so many layoffs and reorganizations. He is, in some real sense, the living avatar of "survivor bias."
Thought #3: Whenever I tell folks that my Dad is retiring after 30+ years on the job, people always smile as if to say, "That will never happen to you, or to me." I sincerely hope I get to become a 20+ year person at a single company, but my thoughts are "nope, that'll never happen." Sigh.
Congratulations, Dad. Well done.
Thought #1: I'm incredibly proud of him -- he has given many years to this company and I hope the higher-ups know how much of his life he's poured into this place.
Thought #2: I would love to know what percentage of my father's cohort back in 197X are still working with his company? He has been through so many layoffs and reorganizations. He is, in some real sense, the living avatar of "survivor bias."
Thought #3: Whenever I tell folks that my Dad is retiring after 30+ years on the job, people always smile as if to say, "That will never happen to you, or to me." I sincerely hope I get to become a 20+ year person at a single company, but my thoughts are "nope, that'll never happen." Sigh.
Congratulations, Dad. Well done.
Congratulations to him. My father made it to 19 years before the first layoff. It seems like each subsequent position has been shorter each time.
ReplyDeleteMy father is retiring this year as well. He will have a higher salary in retirement than I currently make working full time with a PhD. He worked his way up from a trade and always wanted me to go to college so I could "make lots of money and take care of him in his old age". Jokes on you, Dad - move the boxes out of the basement, cause I'm moving in!
ReplyDeletePension and comfortable retirement won't happen to us. After two decades of trying to make living as a chemist, I am now crippled by paranoia and philosophically opposed to work
DeleteLOL! Agreed about the work. Might as well work as little as possible and play video games. I think they young man in Japan are on to something.
DeleteI've been philosophically opposed to work since third year of grad school. Still, if it's fun and I have a shot of publishing in a glamour mag, then I can work a lottish... But you made more than six figures for a bit at TSRI for a while there, if I remember the info from your blog comments correctly. If anyone paid me that much to work on their ideas, I'd at least work a 40 hour week without checking the Internets once an hour.
DeleteLow pay, crappy bosses, and grossly overpaid administrators/managers CEO's. F*ck work.
DeleteThought number one. I doubt they even know his name. See how long the high muckemucks stick around the party.
ReplyDeleteOne or two of them made a nice, generic speech. Not so personal, but whatever -- it wasn't about them.
DeleteMy father (a chemical engineer) made it all the way from a college internship through retirement with the same company, only to see that division of his former company sold off shortly after he retired. So he's now a retiree of a company he never worked for.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, congrats to your father. I hope he enjoys retirement.
Congratulations to your dad. I hope he gets to see his grandchildren a lot in his retirement!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to your dad. My dad and father-in-law both retired really early (51 and 52?) because they had state jobs - probably why people like Walker have gotten elected and had political traction, because with few other employers would anyone have those opportunities. (And everyone knows the Gilded Age was our golden era. Right?)
ReplyDeleteI am in a fortunate position now, but I'd settle for just being able to do something useful for a working lifetime (I hope not mid-40s) with the education I (and everyone) paid for. That might be optimistic.
Congratulations to your dad! Our generation would be lucky if we have stable jobs for five years at a time.
ReplyDelete