The Great Escape (not!)
Four years before I was able to retire, I genuinely believed that I was going to be successful in gaining voluntary early severance from my job. Unfortunately for me my application fell at a newly created final hurdle. That was disheartening because, several years earlier, the senior management ethos of the organisation had shifted from a collaborative one to one that was autocratic and authoritarian; something that was contrary to my modus operandi and that of most of my colleagues.
Being denied early severance was a blow that even a shift to part-time working never fully allayed and one result of it was that my performance dropped from ‘going the extra mile’ to being ‘just good enough’. But I shouldn’t have worried, because ‘just good enough’ was all our Director of the time wanted (see ALAW #132), so win-win for her!
Anyway, continuing on my recent theme of Vision and Mission statements in the style of a limerick, here is the third entry that I made to the competition organised by a senior colleague and one that is related to my endeavours to leave the organisation prematurely:
The Personal One
My Vision’s a life full of leisure
That’s something I really would treasure.
So the Mission for me
Is how to break free
And enhance my lump sum for good measure!
Postscript: Despite my failure to get time off for good behaviour, I do know how fortunate I was in being able to retire recently at the age of 60 on a pension based on my final salary. That is something that is less and less common in an era when too little attention is focused on the wreckers from both our major political parties who contributed to the downfall of final salary schemes over the last 30 years. Coupled to a neoliberal doctrine that fails to support anything other than poorly paid jobs for many and obscene salaries, bonuses, dividends and pensions for the few, I know just how lucky I was to be able to finish when I did!
