Being 50

Yeh,  been there & got the T shirts & a pension to make the old bones smile.  

I had an enviable job in my last 10 years in that I was the chief real world technical guy outside the R&D peeps & had a line mngr who lived on the other side of the planet - literally & metally  - had aspirations to get a job above the CEO level & knew diddly skwat about my job.  Truth be known I wrote my own objectives & set my own targets - but with a genuine push on the envelope for my own satisfaction. Some years inflation+,  some years +++,  but sometimes with bad corporate years, inflation minus.  Fat bonuses paid to a bank account did make the bad years better.   

Only problem is it was painfully obvious I was a Jurassic overstay,  +50 in the corp handbook required a retirement & succession plan,  whoops.  But I lived it out for another 10 years before making the required plan & interviews. 

BEWARE 50,  the rest of your life creeps up from behind.  

Meanwhile ENJOY,  smell the roses, milk the exp acc & assume a persona of older statesman .  while it lasts

Um! 57 year old public servant with 0% increase for the last few years and now limited to 1% max for the next three years and never had a bonus in my career I find it interesting that we are told to keep quiet as things are worse in the private sector when apparently some are getting final salary pensions and above inflation pay rise and a bonus.  It would be interesting to know which employers are so generous.

My job became redundant when the ConDem scumbags weaseled their way into power. It took nine months where we all sat around doing nothing at full pay for them to offer early severance and early retirement.

Half salary pension and a very nice tax free compensation package later and being paid for not working is BRILLIANT!

As per my profile my other half retired at exactly 50 from a very well paid job in IT. My mistake which i regrett big time is not jacking it in when she did.

Now about 3 mornings a week i get in the car and have a 15 minute drive to my sports club to play tennis. I am going against the traffic watching all these muppetts sitting in their stationary cars going nowhere fast.. Then its a few jars in the bar whilst these poor sods are thinking about the same crap journey they have going home at nite.

Let me think about this,who is the mug them or me !!!!

Mista H

3% rise + 8% bonus. Lucky you. Working in the NHS with same pay restrictions as Forester. In the private sector some insurance companies are reducing professional fees and last year I had a 10% drop in income. So yes you are lucky.

Anyone finding they make an involuntary grunting noise when getting up off the sofa these days?  Tim Dowling recounts this in today's Guardian and, sad to say, it strikes a chord here. G

Indeed. Plus the "Aaaahhh!" When you have a sip of tea...

Yup! G

Is age really the cause or is it that soft reminder of good living?

I turned 50 a couple of years ago. No great shakes, I still feel 25 (in my head).

However, the last couple of weeks have been interesting. The company have decided that they need to get rid of a few people so I asked for a figure for voluntary redundancy. The amount was more than I expected and whilst not retirement material, it would keep the wolves from the door for a few months. After discussing the situation with my wife, I decided to sign on the dotted line.

The thing I didn't expect was the roller-coaster of emotions. Half the time I'm thinking it will be a great chance to start a new job with a new company. The rest of the time I'm thinking it's the end of the world and I'll never work again. I'm not after any sympathy. I have some good contacts in the industry and expect to find something sooner rather than later. My colleagues say that I am doing the right thing, in fact, there is some envy that I have been given the option and they haven't (yet).

Has anyone else been through this recently ? Did it work out ok for you ?

@Redmires, I hope it works well for you and you manage to get a new interesting job soon. However, unfortunately it might not be that easy. I turned 50 earlier this year and lost my job last autumn due to restructuring. First I was quite optimistic having gained a broad experience over 20 year’s time in international environment and I also had a full support from my previous boss (he even used some of his personal contacts for me) which I thought should have helped.

Now five months has gone without any luck – not even a single interview although I have made 3-4 applications every week and most of these to the job which I am well qualified for (and frankly some of the reposes received are even not that nice which is kind of depressing). At moment I still keep trying but I also fear that there is a chance that I won’t work ever again which is a pity since I should have another 10-15 good years still ahead of me.

First it felt nice to have an opportunity to take a breath, see the neglected friends more and of course listen to music more . But now it is starting to get boring so sometimes I feel quite useless.  There is also the danger that I get used to this situation and then there is really no coming back. I try to enjoy little things of life and sometimes it works. Past week has been very nice here in weather wise and I spent some of it in the countryside doing some outdoor activities (sun was shining and there is still snow on the ground which made the scenery very bright).

This is my story so it might be completely different for you but the roller-coaster effect you mentioned certainly is familiar to me too – good luck!

Consider reading a book called "What colour is your parachute" the South American river shop stocks it. It will give you some ideas of different directions to seek employment and doing useful things.

Good luck

I find the easiest solution is to quote my age as "42 ex-VAT"

Osprey

Thanks for the reply. It adds some realism to the situation and I hope things turn around and work out for you (and for me). I know it's still early days for me but I've just been reading the "lyrics" thread that you've been contributing to. For the last few days, the Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush song (Don't Give Up) has been going round in my head. Sometimes lyrics don't register until you're in that situation yourself. And that's probably why almost all of us are moved by one sad love song or another.

Derek - the book is on my shelf but I never got round to reading it. Perhaps it's time to do so.

Redmires,

I will hit that milestone in June and have been made redundant twice in my life, the last time 2 years ago. I would call around any companies that you have dealt with either as customer or supplier you maybe surprised at the reception you get. I did just this and ended up with a 25% pay rise to do a very straight forward job whilst working for a much nicer company.

Just don't sit still too long!

Jono