Ravi Speaks:
Reproduced and updated on 02.08.2022.
Life After Retirement.
When I was about to get retired, I maintained the following approaches so that I could leave an impression with all like the ‘good response giving’ and a mature employee of the company:
1. I used to be sincere and to the point always. I thought I should leave a great final impression. I tried offering a dose of simple appreciation to the deserving people in my team.
2. Similarly, refrain from gossiping about my seniors or co-workers during my final days. [Sure, there are people you’re glad to be getting away from. But you’d be better off keeping those feelings to yourself].
3. There’s no reason I should lose touch with the people I cared about most just because I was retiring. [In fact, you really ought to keep in touch with them. Also, you never know what the future holds. It will take some effort to maintain these relationships once you’ve moved on]. So, I tried every way to maintain that warm touch with at least my near and dear teammates.
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Loneliness in a Retiree. |
Still, after my retirement, I realized there was a sudden cut in the level of communication and contact with my earlier official teammates. It is commonly considered that persons after attaining the retirement age also get the loneliness with them as attached baggage to be borne in the post retired tenure at least immediately after the retirement. The same thing I also observed immediately after I was a retiree. I started realizing many things after I retired on 31st October 2019. Following are some of them: –
1. Sudden loneliness-Of course!
2. Feeling of Liberation at the same time.
3. Getting no work to do at all.
4. All the time in the world to plan for self and family.
5. Opportunity to take as much as possible-‘REST’.
6. No time-bound obligations to be met.
7. No communications related to any sort of assignment.
8. No time restriction for getting out of bed or retiring to bed at night.
9. All the time in the world to see the TV and read the dailies and magazines.
I Spend endless time with the family members, subject to their availability and response.
And I can go on like this for much freedom-related assignments and discipline-compromised works. As a human being, one goes on thinking without a stop to what would be a retiree’s life say after some time around a couple of years from the time of retirement. Since all this hunky-dory would not be lasting till that time-What I feel this time to be the magical things happening to a retirement.
Some of my friends who also passed through this phase of retirement- went in for a small four to five hours light job in the private sector and some started their small-scale businesses like Retail.
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Shops of the medicines or Ready-made items, etc. Few of them started their own privately manufactured products on the loan license basis and started marketing the same by hooking a few of their well-known doctors-who have agreed with them to liquidate their stuff on the regular basis with some incentive agreed upon.
But my case has been different. I did not want to either serve again in a private or any sort of office, since I realized that I had done enough of a private job. My temperament too did not allow me to serve under anyone since I had in a way developed an authoritative and senior managerial attitude where anyone dictating to me something would not be tolerated by me. I realize that this is a big drawback for a person of my level-where I retired as the National Sales Manager and I did not possess that many guts to work as a subordinate under someone else’s supervision.
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I also never wanted to do any business thinking that my job was, of course, a service class job but, it was never less than a business in a pharmaceutical house where we were creating the additional demand or the business for the house. So in no way a lesser than a business job. I have developed a unique type of human behavior-where I cannot tolerate anybody’s simple taunt or satire even and I suddenly react as a direct counter-attack or similar to that through the body language-Which I know is not good for me. That is why I am a misfit for any sort of job or business to carry on any further.
Freelancer Job for a Retiree.
Finally, I became a freelancer- which is a very broader term and covers everything from being an independent writer to even a creator of designs or even a consultant in the sales line itself where I had spent four decades of service.
One shocking thing which I realized after my retirement is the fact that those with whom I spent four decades of my life working together and even sharing so many aspects of day-to-day happenings suddenly turned their backs on the people like us who are retirees. Emotions get evolved when we feel that till yesterday we were so close to each other and suddenly there was a total cut-off. I don’t know whether the same thing happens to others in other offices, but at least with me, it has happened.
How do people assume a Retiree?
From my HO side-where, I was in direct touch being the National Sales Manager-there was not even a farewell that could have been organized for their long-associated senior member of the field. Thanks to my team-where my managers and other team members made me emotional by giving me a very good farewell party in Delhi. That was a memorable one and I cherish the moments still whenever those parting moment’s flash in front of me. These small gestures by the big company like “Himalaya” would add a feather to their cap, but maybe they think otherwise. I had a friend of the same stature with SKF earlier and later merged into Glaxo. He was given a memorable farewell and in that gathering, his family and his close friends also were invited. He told me that such a gesture would always be remembered by him and all who had taken part in it. What I wanted to convey is that all the organizations are not alike and some of them have placed their ethics and value system so beautifully that even the parting fellow remembers his vibrant past association with the great company he served.
All said and done- a retiree gets the lonely feeling afterward since there is a sudden cut from his office and office colleagues. The question arising out of this scene is amazing. As to why all the associates don’t call a retiree to know about his welfare or maintain their relations. The biggest and the quickest answer which comes from their side is they’re remaining over busy and hardly getting any time for the same. The fact is different, and that is merely out of fear some of them do not want to be in touch lest the office people would come to know about the same and they might be asked why wasting time and what was so special out of their remaining connected with those who had no business with the company matters anymore.
All days are equal for a Retiree.
A person at the time of retirement might be thought to be weaker on various factors. If you are older, you are likely to be less capable, less able to adapt, or less willing to roll up your sleeves and do something new than your younger peers. But the fact is nobody sits idle-he does some work or the other. Yes, he may not carry on with different jobs or different corporate assignments, but he can do his own business or he can become a freelancer-but he would continue working.
The myth propagated by the retirement industry is that people over the age of 65 should retire. Despite the billions of dollars spent convincing us that our “golden years” should involve travel, golf, and sitting around the pool, research shows that people who stop working and retire often suffer from depression, heart attacks, and a general malaise of not having as much purpose in their lives. Many people, particularly those who have enjoyed long and meaningful careers, do like to work. In the wise words of Stephen Hawking: “Work gives you meaning and purpose, and life is empty without it.” It represents an opportunity to give value to others and the community; it gives you a network of friends and associates to be with, and it gives you something to do with your intellectual and physical energy. So in no way anybody who is a retiree would love to remain free. He might do a lighter, not visible type of work-which may even be honorary-but never the less he would love to be active, and picking any sort of smaller or bigger job is essential.
An Ideal Aim For A Retiree.
I have seen so many retirees becoming frequent travelers and enjoying their life reaching the good natural spots with their better halves. I have even seen people going into various social works. Some attach themselves to the NGOs working in that segment. Some do the exercising regularly, with extensive gardening on their land and so on.
In my case, I feel satiated with my designing and writing job as a freelancer. I feel it suits me and helps me spend time satisfactorily. I have no bindings, and I do this job with the utmost comfort and ease, with no restrictions imposed upon me.
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