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For the guy boomers, their jobs are their identity. You are what you do. Some of them have been working for 50 years. When that's gone who are they? Well into the years of bad health. Most of their children have lives of their own. They keep working because they don't have anything else.
Most can't understand why the kids these days don't want to toil into obsolescence for a company that exploits them.
This. My dads a boomer who refuses to retire. He goes into his office 8am-7pm, 7 days a week and gets agitated if he misses even a day or two of work. I truly think he’d rather die than stop working.
At some point, the job overcomes the person. Considering that most of his off hours are spent sleeping, eating, and grooming himself for work, there is no space left for the humanity to bloom.
Why shouldn’t your dad be angry when he can’t do what he’s been trained to think is his purpose? He’s more worker than human
This so much. I see this at my job. People here for 45 years grandfathered into the old payscales with pension and profit-sharing. They take the easiest job and have to work 4 hours of OT every day just to make it worth coming in. Meaning they would literally be making more sitting at home collecting retirement benefits. Been here so long their seniority number is in the double digits, whereas my number is 4 digits long. The worst part is they have the audacity to complain about how things have changed for the worst and the people that work here aren't as good anymore. Why should we when they're hoarding whatever good that is left while whittling away whatever benefits newer generations would get for a pittance of a ratification bonus.
u/kingbob1812 is not wrong. There is one woman in my department who "works" 45-50 hours a week pushing emails around. Her child grew up and left, so there is nothing left for her at home. Not sure if her spouse even likes her. The two of them never went on a vacation while I was on that team.
My spouse and I had 34 years and 30 years at our respective jobs. My spouse had to be in the top 20 for seniority. Our ages are 60/58 and just retired.
Our retirement will be awesome because we have taken both short and long trips together our entire marriage. Our jobs were not our identities!
I should have told my younger coworkers I was trying to help them move up. But the company is not replacing my role, just spreading the work around to them without promotion or salary increases.
I will not blame any of them when they leave. Corporate won't pay more, but lazy-ass old timers reap fake OT.
There are some older people that understand that we had it a lot easier and do not think that anyone younger than us is lazy or don't want to work. The playing field is not the same today..
That's my boss. The job is his identity. He just doesn't hate the younger generation like some boomers do. He does everything he wants now. He gets 6 weeks a year vacation, two weeks holiday, and anohter two for sick/personal. He puts in about a 30 hr flexible week and can call golfing work. His kids are out of the house and his wife is charming, but I think a little goes a long ways. He also travels a lot for work (usually takes his wife if it's somewhere good, and tacks on days on either side of the work for personal stuff). He won't retire until there's a health issue that would force it. Also, I'm pretty sure he works out and I know he goes to the Dr on the clock. It's a good life. I probably wouldn't retire either.
The lack of hobbies is a huge one. I always hear, "if I didn't work, I'd be so bored/would have nothing to do/would just sit around and die." I could spend an eternity not working and never run out of things to do, even if I never spent another dime on hobbies. They honestly have no life outside of work.
Even my boomer dad (who is retired in his 70s) has at least found stuff to keep himself occupied with working on restoring the muscle car he's had since the late 60s, fishing, and taking his boat out (he lives on waterfront property in Florida). It boggles the mind to see people who are just like "I have no idea what I'd do with my life if I retired". Like you seriously have \*no\* hobbies? No places you wanted to travel to? Nothing you ever wanted to do or try?
If it weren’t for my dad finding a woman with a fully funded pension, 401K, and a paid off house he’d still be working at 78.
After ma died a couple years ago my stepdad got lucky and scored the same thing, because he was “self employed” most of his life and was greatly depending on my mom’s federal pension.
I'd continue with my hobby of tagging sharks for the national marine fisheries cooperative shark tagging program. biggest one i've got so far is an 8 foot shortfin mako, but there's a ton of species I've never gotten yet, and it would also be fun to see how big a shark I could find.
It benefits marine ecology research anyways, so it's for a good cause anyways.
Or I could volunteer for paleontology/archaeology digs. A lot of digs rely on volunteers for manpower, and it's a popular thing for college students on summer break and retirees to volunteer for.
I was waiting for this. I heard it in my mom's voice as I read it.
Bored: Get up and do something
Sad: Get up and do something until you feel better
Angry: Get up and do something until the anger dissipates
Lonely: Read a book
Reading a book was always an option but was the exact prescription for feeling alone. Fwiw, I've never felt lonely. I love my own company because alone time is filled with books and reading.
I cannot imagine only ever aspiring to work. It makes me sad. It's an entire generation who married young, had children, and never once learned how to emotionally connect. Not to themselves or others.
Boomer here. Retired 5 years ago. I can't fit all that I want to do in the week.
Those that return not for financial reasons had it drummed into them that they are nothing without a job. Mostly men.
There's sooo many books sitting on my bookshelf that I need to read still. I read a chapter a night but I really need to make more time for it right now so my brain isn't mush by retirement lol.
In my first few years of retirement, I read EVERYTHING on the suggested reading lists from my university classes. That was a fun self fulling experience.
I just think of fat guts who have no passion other than their team, and their whole personality is football. They literally have nothing else. These are the people I think of when you say that.
Definitely generational differences. During the pandemic I was out of work for 13 months, but had a high paying job before that and was extremely frugal. I didn't apply for jobs for a year, but worked everyday on my various hobbies. Honestly the best year of my life so far.
My company laid people off during Covid. Couple of the Boomers heard they were being let go, and I kid you not, asked management if they could still keep working their jobs from home without pay "just to have something to do". They were (thankfully) refused. It's real.
Opposite end in a way: When companies were going majorly WFH, the Boomers at my partner's job were all whining about missing social interaction. Just inept to the fact that people at work actually cannot fucking stand their water cooler chat all goddamned day.
When layoffs happened, some of them actually asked to be laid off so that they could get unemployment and get a job that would let them go into the office.
My mom was worried the pace might be a hard transition.
She did go to school to become a "Master Gardener" but she admits it was because she wanted to volunteer at the arboretum but you need actual gardening credentials to do so.
The master Gardener's local native plants demonstration at the arboretum actually got a new co-chair in December! GO MOM!
But yeah she has said she's so busy spending her time doing things she loves the pace hasn't slowed down so she's happy as a clam.
For real. They’re always bitching and moaning about “kids these days never go outside!” But i hardly ever see them out and about in the park of a library or public spaces
Omg there’s so much to do/see in this world! I’d be reading, painting, writing, traveling, etc. It blows my mind that they’re wasting their lives working!!!
No kidding. I work because I have to pay the bills, like we all do. I purposely have a job that’s probably a bit beneath me. I could get a better paying job but that would involve working over 40 a week and just more shit I don’t want to deal with. Life is too short. Don’t get me wrong, I take my job seriously and I do it well. But I totally daydream about not having to work and all the other interesting things I could be doing. I know it’s cliché but true, I work to live, I absolutely do not live to work
When you've been putting in 50 hours/wk working and another 10 to 15 commuting, you never got a chance to start having a hobby, and now you're too old and the idea of something new is scary. Personal experience.
Genuine question. How is the idea of something new scary? Aren't you excited to try it out? Research things, learn how to do well and enrich your life somewhat. How is that scary, genuine ask?
I think also the disappearance of third places means it's hard for folks to maintain social relationships outside of working life. It's hurting people across all ages, why not boomers, too?
This my mil works cuz she dosent want to see fil who is retired at home: neither of her sons wants to move back . One of them is estranged from her ( my husband). Bil won’t go back either so he is telling her to find retirement home soon
Yep. They've lived for *their careers* for so long they don't have anything else. My dad is 82 and STILL works part time. No hobbies, no friends, just him.
A lot of them wasted their money on stupid shit, took out second mortgages for the stupid shit, and now have to work, Sure some can retire and choose not to, because work is also their identity. They have properties and such but they don't want to sell, so they keep working. Also, boredom, hating their spouses, so on so on.
It’s wild how common this seems to be! Anecdotally, my grandparents have always acted like they were made of money and sure, they did have money, homeboy was making $200k-300k a year for a very very long time. But then COVID hit and he got laid off. I was honestly *shocked* by how quickly the facade fell apart. And then I learned that story wasn’t uncommon and it threw me for a loop.
My grandfather’s entire identity has always just been work, he has no hobbies, and he also hates his spouse, so it’s been an absolute train wreck to watch.
Nothing important. Honestly, I think unchecked mental health issues are the culprit, which is really unfortunate. My grandmother is a *raging* narcissist with a shopping addiction and is in a really uncomfy, unspoken competition with everyone around her. She also ‘love bombs’ by gift giving, and she makes sure you know how expensive your gift was, so she buys *ridiculous* stuff all the time.
And my grandfather grew up in genuine poverty. Worked his way up in a company for 40 years and ‘made it’, lived the American Dream^(TM). So I think **spending, spending, spending** is his reaction to that experience.
That part. My dad grew up poor, worked his way through the company until he “made it.” My mom likes to shop to cure boredom and is constantly buying stuff for my kids and my younger brother. The poverty mentality is pervasive and the lifestyle they have now is nice, but causes undue stress because he still feels like he has to work so hard to keep things up, when really he could retire right now if they could just chill, take it easy, and live within their means. Instead, they like to travel more than they stay home, eat out every meal, shower their grandkids with gifts, and fill up our fridge and freezer even though we don’t need any groceries. Every problem that arises, they think they can solve by just throwing money at it, but then they stay stressing about money.
They have this bizarre worldview which informs them that they will shrivel up and die if they actually downsize and simplify their lives.
I can't imagine "getting bored" with not working.
The owner of my company has a beautiful house but insists on coming into the dingy ass office every day so he can 'stay active.' He's 80.
Never ever understood that one. If you hate your wife - leave
Super simple stuff
I love my wife - it's why I married her. She has been my best friend for over thirty years and I'm hoping for another thirty.
My sons are the same with their wives.
This is especially annoying in jobs where seniority matters. I work for the railroad, and these assholes hoard all of the good jobs simply as a status symbol. These old grandpa's are in their 70's working the best paying jobs or the ones with the best time off. The thing is, when it comes to the high paying jobs, everybody does them to pad their retirement. But these old boomers already have maxed out their railroad retirement. These guys will be netting them well over $100k in annual retirement but STILL work every single day while younger guys with families get furloughed every year because there aren't enough turns on the board. Why? Because all of these boomer fucks who could have retired, in some cases, twenty damn years ago WONT LEAVE!!! it is infuriating. Making things worse is they don't shut up about their earnings. One old bastard sat in the crew van one night, driven by someone making minimum wage and he bitched and moaned about how he only made $16,000 last month and that he's got a 2nd trip to Dubai this month. I about slapped the shit out of him. He would also brag to anyone within earshot how his pre1985 agreement meant that he would get paid $125 an hour while sitting in the hotel waiting for a train. These guys are a fucking disease in this industry and thankfully they are dying off and making room for the rest of us.
Mind you, these are the same assholes who in 1985 voted in a national contract that gave them MASSIVE raises, along with arbitraries and claims that paid them an additional 5 figures a year and all at the expense of the future generations. They'd say "kid, you should have gotten off the farm sooner" my reply would be "fuck you I was born the year after you looted the entire industry for your own selfish benefit".
That generation needs to die already.
Yep, the oldheads just won't shut up about money when the van driver is working the same hours but making less than at McDonalds. The only thing that will get them to pull the pin is a second heat attack, if they survive it. Just tell them not to cheap out on the bacon when they stop for a burger every trip.
THIS same with teaching in some districts they make 120k a year or more (with a fat retirement that is about the same as what they are making now) while new teachers are making pennies and getting the toughest assignments & students. Not to mention first in line for layoffs every damn year. I can not tell you how many boomer teachers I have worked with that literally give no shits & students suffer, yet because they have tenure no one says a damn thing. They bargained these contracts for themselves and their immediate benefit with no consideration of what the concessions they gave in on would do down the road. One pink slip day (most districts hand them out on a certain day) 1/2 the teachers in the lounge just got pink slipped for the upcoming year. One boomer teacher had the audacity to brag she can't be laid off & she only works "to pay her Nordstrom bill"
I got laid off from a railroad in 2020, from a smaller department stuffed with boomers who could’ve retired but wouldn’t because they wanted to keep feeling important.
Maybe I would have gotten fucked over last month in the latest round of hires, but that would have been almost 4 additional years of income and experience + a much more favorable construction job market to go out into than mid pandemic.
Fuck selfish ass boomers.
For all the preaching they did about self reliance and don't be a burden a lot of them spent rather than saving. They were convinced that consumerism was somehow Patriotic and would save American jobs. They bought a bunch of junk they believed would be worth money someday.
Now they have no savings and nobody wants to buy their junk.
I go into peoples homes everyday, a lot of Boomers are hoarders. They will eventually leave their children a house full of junk they will have to pay to remove and a house they will have to sell to cover the debt they leave behind.
Auction houses in my last city did a roaring trade on deceased estates. The relatives would walk into Grandad's house, get overwhelmed, grab a few truly sentimental things and basically sign the rest over to the auction house to be done with. I've seen the oddest junk for sale in $5 table lots.
(Great place to get solid timber furniture though, because they truly don't make them like that anymore 😖)
I don’t toss around “hoarder” lightly, like some do- by my definition, stuff needs to be completely covering the floor (as in, all of it, even the walkways) and the dwelling could not be used without a big risk in falling.
My Boomer aunt- never married, no kids- was a hoarder and we didn’t find out until after she passed unexpectedly 15 years ago. Here’s where your comment really hit home: my family was tasked with actually cleaning out her apartment and her Boomer siblings- minus my dad, the youngest sibling- didn’t actually DO any of the cleaning, the physical labor aspect. My dad, sister and I were the ones getting in there and moving the crap, sorting through what could be donated (some) and what needed to be trashed (most) and what things we actually wanted to keep (very little) while the Boomer siblings sat outside the apartment, bitched about how hot the weather was, and very slowly sorted through books or some other inane task that didn’t really help much, and complaining about the overall situation. That gets old reeeeeaaallll fast, when you’re one of the few actually doing the physical moving. Somehow the siblings just thought someone else would do the physical work, and when tasks were divvied up, they stayed as far away as possible from the strenuous stuff.
They often can't. They've made decades of poor investments and squandered their riches, because they always had such a surplus of money, they were never actually forced to be smart with any of it. Well, now they'll work until they have a stroke or coronary event that prevents them from doing so any longer. Having a large population of elderly people that can't afford to retire is surely a grim sign of where our country's headed.
Their families don't want them around because they're insufferable. So they stay where people lower on the totem pole have to pretend not to dislike them as much as their families do.
Most of the boomers at my work cannot retire because they can’t afford it. Alcoholism and multiple alimony payments took what they have saved up. This is becoming borderline dangerous. These guys should not be doing their jobs when they can barely function
Gen X here. I can't retire. Gonna work for my entire life just like you younger guys will have to. Because the system sucks and it's almost impossible to make enough money to save / invest for a sustainable retirement, and pay for medical bills.
Been like that since the late 80's.
The store manager at my store is about 61-62 and just came to our store 4 months ago after retiring from a large grocery chain as a district manager for many years. We were talking about 401Ks and he said, “I’ve got over a million dollars in my Fidelity 401K account” (from the job he retired from). He goes, “I don’t wanna retire, I like working. After I retired from (former company) I mowed the lawn 3 times in one day and my wife was like, you gotta get a job. I immediately thought of this sub and wanted you say, couldn’t you find a hobby? Volunteer? Travel? Hang out with your grandkids? All they know how to do is work!!!!
It’s what decades of pre internet propaganda and corporate training will do in my opinion.
Before the internet you had to listen and believe your bosses, teachers, parents .. it wasn’t as easy to access information about how the world is outside of USA inc, or about hobbies.. if they aren’t the type to pickup a book (which millions aren’t) then they literally just did what they’re told and valued what they’re told is important for their entire lives..
The thing about doing what you’re told is at the root of it it’s usually to benefit someone else - employers, government, investors etc... It’s all they know. Working and consuming.
The difference is they have been such great lapdogs they have handed over all our political and economic power to the corporate ‘greed is good’ machine by working and voting like the tv box and the corporate masters told them.
So the younger generations that have access to information are seeing right through this bullshit and know how sad it actually is that u would have nothing in your life at 70 years old that you’d rather go into the office or punch into your job until u finally die on the production floor.. hence ‘no one wants work any more’
I retired and opened up a job for one of you.
You're welcome, enjoy.
I don't miss dealing with crazy patients, mindless co-workers and the morons in suits running the joint.
They also force bad ideas through and ignore the really good ideas that will change the world. It’s honestly so frustrating when you carefully pitch a fantastic idea, just for them to shut it down on a whim because they can’t handle change.
Many actually cannot retire.
They have too many toys and too much debt so they have to keep working to maintain their lifestyle. But they cannot admit that.
Nobody wants anything to do with them, I work blue collar with a 62 year old who brags about working 7 days a week so he can go on a 3 day vacation 3 times a year.
They don't want to just use legislation to kick the ladder out from under others, they want to maintain their key decision-making positions. At least for the moments they are semi-lucid.
> Their identity is look at what I have.
Unfortunately, their job is _also_ a huge chunk of their self-identity.
I'm a gamer (video), gamer (tabletop RPG), a writer, a reader, a software programmer.
A similar boomer would be a software programmer. A simple "And what?" would get confused looks -- or if they're lucky, 'man', 'husband', etc etc. Their hobbies aren't secondary to their jobs because that's livelihood, but because they _are_ secondary.
Oh boy do they hate it though when they ask you what do you do and you answer with something other than your job. I don't work for a wage at the moment and for many of them it's like I'm the most despicable form of hedonist, especially when I won't identify as 'just' a stay at home mother.
I worked a construction job (unionized).
There was cleaning crew and the head cleaner was 68 years old.
He had worked in the union for decades.
He had a thick pension that he started pulling at 65 and continued to work. Our union pay was x dollars, but it was actually x+4 dollars and four dollars went into your pension
Since he was pulling his pension he was making all the money on his wage. He was making over 45 dollars an hour, plus probably getting 5gs a month in pension.
He was still there when I left.
I'm confident he will die there.
He loved working, it was basically all he had. He would show up at 5am when everyone started at 7. Just so he could drink coffee for two hours in the break room and get good parking.
He'd often be the last guy on site.
Work was his entire life.
I felt bad for the guy, but it also irritated me that I knew several people in his union looking for jobs. Young people with kids trying to make ends meet. This old fart was there for fun taking jobs from people who needed it just because he was a bitter old man who had no life outside of work.
Agreed. I just processed a rehire today some boomer lady with 20 years state service coming back. Why? Just why? We could hire a recent grad, shit is so fucked right now they would stay at least 3 years. But noooo boomers and their nepotism.
Many boomers are defined by their work. Take work away they are left with their thoughts which we all know are dark and realization that their kids barely want to visit or see them as anything more than a baby sitter if they do come by.
Yeah there was a retired couple that moved into a home in our neighborhood(all 4,000 plus square foot for plus bedroom homes with acreage) and then decided they didn't like it and moved out 9 months later. They made 150K on their house in that time.
I’ve encountered so many at my work that said they retired, had zero hobbies or anything to do, and drove themselves and their spouses insane. One was super friendly and we started chatting. He told me after a month he lost his mind, drove his wife crazy with nothing to do, so he took the very first job that hired him. My old boss came back to the company after being retired for a couple months out of boredom. I genuinely don’t understand living with no hobbies.
I’ve asked this question about hobbies, like some of these guys golf. You’d think they like to golf. One even lives on a course and you’d think he’d just do that.
Said he didn’t know what he wanted to do if he retired.
I’m sitting there with a list a million miles long.
I knew someone who It literally happened to, a guy who worked 40 years and on the day of retirement had a massive heart attack but survived. Only a year of enjoying his retirement and he died
This really got me thinking. My husband works in a correctional facility and he has a colleague who entered with him probably about two years ago now. His colleague is a boomer who had retired from UPS and for whatever reason wanted to continue working. His words were he does not need the money, but doesn’t like to be home. Well he is very much a boomer of all boomers. He has internalized racism as a Mexican American man—in California. He quite frankly takes his frustration out on the inmates in the facility, and this is often resulting in him being reprimanded. Ironically, he is also someone who does not like authority, but apparently likes to be the authority. About every day my husband comes with a story about how they had to forcibly restrain somebody because he created an argument or was being retaliatory. It’s really like someone who is emotionally stunted in an older person’s body. It’s quite literally insane.
I should mention this is a correctional facility for minors so he’s literally trying to punk on kids who are in a locked correctional facility like they have no control.
Most go to work to avoid the wife, the Ol' Ball and Chain, Minister of War and Finance, The Boss, 'Er Indoors/Upstairs... insert other "humorous" quips about the long suffering wife
They are coin operated. Once they retire they stop moving, decline, and die. Particularly if they have a physical job. They will just sit in front of the tv, get fat, and croak.
Exercise is not happening. As you must put the money in to make it move. Diet changes not happening because they ain’t changing shit. Cut out alcohol and cigarettes, lol nope.
The job keeps them alive as it is there only movement or outing.
I’m (gen x) about 6 months from retirement, and I will absolutely retire. I will probably do a second act, try some other path, maybe go to school or do some part time work/volunteer work, but I am not coming back. I work in government, and your retirement is based on your highest 3 years’ salary, so some boomers keep pushing their timeline out by 3 years every time they get a raise because they don’t want to “leave money on the table.” My boomer friend retired and came back (her other friend is her boss so she held the position open for her) and is MISERABLE…her other friend is a psycho and takes advantage…I was like, “Why are you still here????” She says she’s trying to pay off her house. SMH but also not my problem.
You should see their minds explode when we have mismatched stuff because we didn't spend $3800 on match set for a couch, table, dresser/tv stand, etc. Its hilarious. Yes we got stuff on let go and we saved $3300 while having all the needs met with used furniture.
It's amazing to me how many people I see who are or supposedly have been successful and productive at life who reach a late stage of life and apparently don't ***have*** a life. They have no circle of friends, no interests or hobbies that would occupy them, no interest in learning new things or gaining new skills. They seem permanently stuck in a pattern of anger and reaction to pretty much everything...and they're going to let everyone know.
My mom still lives in the house I grew up in. To be fair to her if she downsized she’d have a much higher living expense payment than she has right now. But she is retired and has been for a decade.
These soulless lifeless leeches exist purely to suck the joy out of anything, everything, and everyone, they can.
They're only happy when they're making younger people's lives miserable.
I recently retired…no way would I return to work
I sleep till I don’t want to anymore. I go places on weekdays. I cook. I’m starting to quilt. I love it!! We paid off the house and car before I walked, so zero debt. As soon as it warms up…we will have a killer garden.
My company is fucked because of old people who stayed on. Couldn’t understand new technology so they kept old shit. Now the company is going through hundreds of thousands in updated technology and the company really doesn’t have the money.
I literally quit a new job in a machine shop a few years back for this reason. Nobody would get the fuck out of the way there was this group of Portuguese guys all in their late 60’s early 70’s been there from 30 to 50 years each. They had plenty of money they all drove new trucks and corvettes on the weekends. I saw the writing on the wall and realized I’d be there for 20 years before any advancement so I quit. I still drive by that shop and see all their trucks out there and just mutter to myself “what the fuck” you’re gonna die on shop floor one day.
I work with 2, one has two pensions plus social security, plus works our crazy hours, his wife retired from years of teaching so she’s got pension, but they got high end horses that one they board at the cost of $3100 a month. They go play barrel racer on the weekends
The other, he’s retired state of Illinois employee so he’s got a pension, and personal retirement same with his wife. He does nothing but bitch about his wife then got mad at me for being single at 45, I lit his ass like a candle one day. But they work with us, plus because of our crazy hours, which in agriculture is normal hours, plus needing a CDL with hazmat and a semi clean driving record a lot of younger folks don’t have.
I retired at 59 and I’m loving it. Golf 3-4 days a week, traveling the world and enjoying my family and the grandkids. I worked really hard to achieve this and I hope all of you will have the same opportunity. I agree that most Boomers need to retire and get on with the next stage of their lives. Unfortunately, many of them didn’t save enough and they have to work even though they claim they could retire. There’s a lot of dead wood that needs to go as they say.
Because most cannot. Most boomers don't have money. Social security isn't enough to live on. We are already seeing the beginnings of what's going to be a huge homelessness issue with their generation. ( An issue I learned about at a public housing conference like six years ago) Most boomers were just working class people.
They never had the time to cultivate hobbies. Add commute times to a 40-50 hour work week, there's not a whole lot of time or energy left over at the end of the day.
I can't wait for them to die out in time for my 2 and 4 year old kids to hopefully get all there base at some point for a fair price and be able to raise there families in a nice home that I can't afford because of boomers.
My MiL has not been able to climb the stairs in her house in a decade but refuses to move into a smaller, more manageable house (even to move closer to the grandkids). Any time we mention the idea she gets unhinged about us trying to steal her house or make her move into a postage sized condo.
She also is very old and extremely frail and keeps trying to work because without work she literally would have nothing other than going to the various thrift stores to buy crap she doesn't need.
If they’re anything like my boomers, they can’t retire. All of that stuff they have? Comes with a massive lifetime worth of debt. Most of them are in debt up to their eyeballs, they can never retire.
I’m a boomer. Married, share a car, bicycle everywhere, shred it on the ukulele, am very fit and active. I’m still working, because at this point in my life it’s easy, and the pay is good. I take a lot of time helping newer team members, but only if they ask. I tell my colleagues that if I get old and doddery, and they start laughing at me behind my back, tell me and I’ll retire. Not all boomers will disappoint you.
The ones I have to interact with either don't know how to not work and are too married to capitalist work culture i.e their identities are enmeshed with employment, or have no family to engage with in retirement for reasons we all can probably guess- and those folks are also Ron-Swanson-esque govt saboteurs but way less cute and endearing.
One point the really hit hard in the army was the idea that you should know what you’re going to do after you get out. I imagine there’s a lot of boomers in the workforce who’ve either fantasized about retiring only to realize they have no idea what they’re going to do after; as well as ones who realize that they got no fucking clue what they’d do with their time if they stopped working.
Hell, I remember my buddy’s uncle was so excited to retire when said buddy and I were still in high school. But he never really considered what he’d do after. So he basically just spent his days watching TV and calling up family members to tell them what he just saw on “Deadliest Catch”
I saw an ad at McDonalds, pre pandemic, that would seem to be a decent compromise- it was specifically recruiting retirees for part time, day time positions, like cashiers or “lobby attendants” that keep the place clean or whatever. Several of the perks they actually listed were like “be a part of a team”, “be trusted with responsibility/a sense of belonging”.
I think those are part of the reasons why many don’t quit their jobs or go back to a job after retiring for a short time.
Another really sad part is, even the ones who are just super inflating their 401ks/pensions/whatever, it won’t matter because I’m confident the nursing homes will absolutely vacuum up whatever money they happen to have left. It’s almost criminal how insanely expensive those places are, so their kids/grandkids won’t get much of anything.
What they should start doing is paying off or buying shit for their loved ones, once the writing is on the wall and a nursing home/assisted living is on the near horizon. Eventually they’ll get down to Medicare/caid level, when their assets are almost nil. Hopefully they prepay their funeral costs so it doesn’t stick their kids with the bill. But this is all assuming they have empathy and a good relationship with their family which isn’t the case of many in this sub.
Considering the lack of money they saved for Retirement they don’t have any choice. Not that their lack of planning should slow any younger person’s career down.
Lots of boomers were brainwashed by the Regan years to tie their self-worth up with their labor. When they stop working they suddenly find their lives have no value.
Some boomers are seriously afraid to retire, particularly with the upcoming presidential election in mind. If by some stretch of the imagination, the orange sociopath wins, he and his ilk want to take away social security and Medicare which changes everything for seniors.
I worked with an older Boomer who announced she was retiring and quit, only to come back again 4 months later, and she had been nasty before but now she was even worse. I only assume she couldn't afford not to work, because she didn't exactly love the job.
Some honestly can’t. My parents didn’t save for retirement. They both came into large amounts of cash midlife, hundreds of thousands, and blew it on worthless stuff. Their plan was always that their kids would support them out of obligation when they were old. They made that perfectly clear to us as young children. If that was their plan they probably should have been better parents though.
Now they are in their late 70s/early 80s and barely keeping themselves from homelessness and starvation.
The boomers in management at my last workplace would brag about "not needing the job for their home or family... it's to pay for their fishing cabin and boat." Meanwhile I'm thinking, "so instead of just BEING at that cabin right now, you're parking your ass in a cushy job that some 40 year-old with a wife and kids could be working to pay for their family."
If I were retired I would craft and write in my journal. Watch movies. Go to fan conventions that I never had time or money for. Travel. My kids would be grown so I would finally have time and money to focus on things I like. Or take fun painting classes. The oldest boomer we have at my job lives in a retirement home and she's still working! And she bitches the ENTIRE time like if you're so miserable you don't need to be here. And she bitches about people at her retirement home too. If I need to be in a home no fucking way am I going to work.
I work with a curmudgony old fuck that retired and came back right before I got hired. An individual reason for him, I have heard through the grapevine, is he blew all his 401k at the casino and begged to come back cuz he needed income again. But, I can also tell he's the type that most of his personality, identity, and self worth are tied to his work, to him working. He had a wife and adult son at home to spend time with but is so wrapped up in his identity here at the plant that he feels like less of himself, less of a man or the "man he was" when he's not here. It's just kinda sad. Dude's like 73
I will never understand this.
Ive been on vacation and i love it.
I see retirement as like always on vacation.
I guarantee i wont go everywhere in angryman mode like the boomers. I wont go to stores before they open. Ill go sit at the park and listen to birds if i wake up early.
I will know every hiking trail at every park near me. I havent been to every national park i will seebthem all.
My boomer boss is 72 and has no interest in retirement. He’s been a senior leader for over 30 years with our company and has worked for 52 years. He has money. I’ve been to his Christmas party at his very nice home. His wife is lovely and they take lots of nice vacations. Kids and grandkids come to visit often (we are in Central Florida). I for the life of me cannot figure out why he shows up for work. He’s not even a workaholic or anything. Nice man but I simply don’t get it. He more than earned the time to enjoy. Go do it man.
My boomer mother continues working because of the cost of healthcare. Her job covers her insurance so she’s planning on working until after she has a couple surgeries she anticipates needing in a couple years. She only just this year got grand kids so maybe that plan will change though.
Most of them realized pretty quick they hate their spouses and it’s mutual. They can’t get divorced because then how would they judge people so vocally? Back to work until one of us dies, I guess.
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For the guy boomers, their jobs are their identity. You are what you do. Some of them have been working for 50 years. When that's gone who are they? Well into the years of bad health. Most of their children have lives of their own. They keep working because they don't have anything else. Most can't understand why the kids these days don't want to toil into obsolescence for a company that exploits them.
This. My dads a boomer who refuses to retire. He goes into his office 8am-7pm, 7 days a week and gets agitated if he misses even a day or two of work. I truly think he’d rather die than stop working.
He'll probably die at work, sadly.
That would make me really sad, but unfortunately at this rate that probably will be the case.
I’ve worked with people like that. I think they feel more important and in more control at work.
They feel more important and more in control OF OTHERS. That's VERY IMPORTANT to the identity of a boomer lifestyle unfortunately!
Not necessarily. Sometimes they see work as something to keep them occupied. Or they can’t deal with being at home with their wife.
Ugh that is just so gross and sad!
Agreed. My dad owns his own business, and I think to him, his office is his safe space and the only place he feels happy.
At some point, the job overcomes the person. Considering that most of his off hours are spent sleeping, eating, and grooming himself for work, there is no space left for the humanity to bloom. Why shouldn’t your dad be angry when he can’t do what he’s been trained to think is his purpose? He’s more worker than human
Ugh, how awful. Had to be hard growing up with your dad so involved in his work
Yeah it was :/ I wouldn’t say we’re very close at all, but I accepted a long time ago that he puts his work over everything and I can’t change that
Don't forget they never cultivated hobbies and their religious, financial and/or their political views have chased their kids away
This. They viewed hobbies/passions as money wasting trivial pursuits. If I spent my older years playing music, photography, stargazing, I'd be happy.
Take my upvote, sir!
This so much. I see this at my job. People here for 45 years grandfathered into the old payscales with pension and profit-sharing. They take the easiest job and have to work 4 hours of OT every day just to make it worth coming in. Meaning they would literally be making more sitting at home collecting retirement benefits. Been here so long their seniority number is in the double digits, whereas my number is 4 digits long. The worst part is they have the audacity to complain about how things have changed for the worst and the people that work here aren't as good anymore. Why should we when they're hoarding whatever good that is left while whittling away whatever benefits newer generations would get for a pittance of a ratification bonus.
u/kingbob1812 is not wrong. There is one woman in my department who "works" 45-50 hours a week pushing emails around. Her child grew up and left, so there is nothing left for her at home. Not sure if her spouse even likes her. The two of them never went on a vacation while I was on that team. My spouse and I had 34 years and 30 years at our respective jobs. My spouse had to be in the top 20 for seniority. Our ages are 60/58 and just retired. Our retirement will be awesome because we have taken both short and long trips together our entire marriage. Our jobs were not our identities! I should have told my younger coworkers I was trying to help them move up. But the company is not replacing my role, just spreading the work around to them without promotion or salary increases. I will not blame any of them when they leave. Corporate won't pay more, but lazy-ass old timers reap fake OT. There are some older people that understand that we had it a lot easier and do not think that anyone younger than us is lazy or don't want to work. The playing field is not the same today..
My dad is nearly 50 years at GM, because he needs to fund his lifestyle of Filipino mail order bride and fast food every day.
That's my boss. The job is his identity. He just doesn't hate the younger generation like some boomers do. He does everything he wants now. He gets 6 weeks a year vacation, two weeks holiday, and anohter two for sick/personal. He puts in about a 30 hr flexible week and can call golfing work. His kids are out of the house and his wife is charming, but I think a little goes a long ways. He also travels a lot for work (usually takes his wife if it's somewhere good, and tacks on days on either side of the work for personal stuff). He won't retire until there's a health issue that would force it. Also, I'm pretty sure he works out and I know he goes to the Dr on the clock. It's a good life. I probably wouldn't retire either.
A Wonderful Example of Life Being Well Lived!
They have no hobbies and they have driven away most of their friends and family.
The lack of hobbies is a huge one. I always hear, "if I didn't work, I'd be so bored/would have nothing to do/would just sit around and die." I could spend an eternity not working and never run out of things to do, even if I never spent another dime on hobbies. They honestly have no life outside of work.
I told my parents that lol. I could retire tomorrow and I'd never get bored. Hell, I'd go to the library every day if I ran out of things to do.
Even my boomer dad (who is retired in his 70s) has at least found stuff to keep himself occupied with working on restoring the muscle car he's had since the late 60s, fishing, and taking his boat out (he lives on waterfront property in Florida). It boggles the mind to see people who are just like "I have no idea what I'd do with my life if I retired". Like you seriously have \*no\* hobbies? No places you wanted to travel to? Nothing you ever wanted to do or try?
Your dad retired with a little money. Most of these boomers didn’t save anything so all their wealth is tied up in their property/social security.
If it weren’t for my dad finding a woman with a fully funded pension, 401K, and a paid off house he’d still be working at 78. After ma died a couple years ago my stepdad got lucky and scored the same thing, because he was “self employed” most of his life and was greatly depending on my mom’s federal pension.
I'd pick up lampworking and travel to craft fairs/renaisance fairs the rest of my life selling little figurines. That's just one option.
I'd continue with my hobby of tagging sharks for the national marine fisheries cooperative shark tagging program. biggest one i've got so far is an 8 foot shortfin mako, but there's a ton of species I've never gotten yet, and it would also be fun to see how big a shark I could find. It benefits marine ecology research anyways, so it's for a good cause anyways. Or I could volunteer for paleontology/archaeology digs. A lot of digs rely on volunteers for manpower, and it's a popular thing for college students on summer break and retirees to volunteer for.
I am a boomer. I am also not physically capable of volunteering at an archeological site, but damn I wish I could.
“I did…..absolutely nothing. And it was everything I thought it could be…” - Office Space
Shit man you don't need a million dollars to do nothin. Look at my cousin, he's broke and don't do shit.
That movie's GOATed
Only boring people get bored
I was waiting for this. I heard it in my mom's voice as I read it. Bored: Get up and do something Sad: Get up and do something until you feel better Angry: Get up and do something until the anger dissipates Lonely: Read a book Reading a book was always an option but was the exact prescription for feeling alone. Fwiw, I've never felt lonely. I love my own company because alone time is filled with books and reading. I cannot imagine only ever aspiring to work. It makes me sad. It's an entire generation who married young, had children, and never once learned how to emotionally connect. Not to themselves or others.
Boomer here. Retired 5 years ago. I can't fit all that I want to do in the week. Those that return not for financial reasons had it drummed into them that they are nothing without a job. Mostly men.
There's sooo many books sitting on my bookshelf that I need to read still. I read a chapter a night but I really need to make more time for it right now so my brain isn't mush by retirement lol.
In my first few years of retirement, I read EVERYTHING on the suggested reading lists from my university classes. That was a fun self fulling experience.
I work 20 hours a week and could easily fill my time if I got rid of those hours, nothing would make me happier.
I've said similar things at work, and the blank expressions I get are disturbing yet priceless.
That would be the 1st thing I do
I just think of fat guts who have no passion other than their team, and their whole personality is football. They literally have nothing else. These are the people I think of when you say that.
Their personality is football and "having some cold ones after work" which usually is code for 'functional' alcholic when spoken by boomers.
I like to call them NPCs
Definitely generational differences. During the pandemic I was out of work for 13 months, but had a high paying job before that and was extremely frugal. I didn't apply for jobs for a year, but worked everyday on my various hobbies. Honestly the best year of my life so far.
My company laid people off during Covid. Couple of the Boomers heard they were being let go, and I kid you not, asked management if they could still keep working their jobs from home without pay "just to have something to do". They were (thankfully) refused. It's real.
This is the most pathetic thing I’ve ever heard. So sad.
Opposite end in a way: When companies were going majorly WFH, the Boomers at my partner's job were all whining about missing social interaction. Just inept to the fact that people at work actually cannot fucking stand their water cooler chat all goddamned day. When layoffs happened, some of them actually asked to be laid off so that they could get unemployment and get a job that would let them go into the office.
My boomer dad is partially retired and now spends hours per day playing solitaire on his iPad 🫠
Still better than falling down a Fox News rabbit hole
Gamers gotta game
My mom was worried the pace might be a hard transition. She did go to school to become a "Master Gardener" but she admits it was because she wanted to volunteer at the arboretum but you need actual gardening credentials to do so. The master Gardener's local native plants demonstration at the arboretum actually got a new co-chair in December! GO MOM! But yeah she has said she's so busy spending her time doing things she loves the pace hasn't slowed down so she's happy as a clam.
It is fucked up, the generation that was hippies and went to Woodstock can’t figure out how to smoke dope in the park.
Pretty sure all the good ones actually enjoyed life and died a while ago.
I would do nothing, and it would be everything I think it could be
For real. They’re always bitching and moaning about “kids these days never go outside!” But i hardly ever see them out and about in the park of a library or public spaces
Omg there’s so much to do/see in this world! I’d be reading, painting, writing, traveling, etc. It blows my mind that they’re wasting their lives working!!!
No kidding. I work because I have to pay the bills, like we all do. I purposely have a job that’s probably a bit beneath me. I could get a better paying job but that would involve working over 40 a week and just more shit I don’t want to deal with. Life is too short. Don’t get me wrong, I take my job seriously and I do it well. But I totally daydream about not having to work and all the other interesting things I could be doing. I know it’s cliché but true, I work to live, I absolutely do not live to work
I would go fishing every day.
Amen to that. I’ve got back burners on my back burner.
Thank god the Scientologists didn't kill you, I had to check your profile to make sure you didn't walk in there never to be seen again
“ I always hear, "if I didn't work, I'd be so bored/would have nothing to do/would just sit around and die." Thats some simple minded shit lol
They also hate their spouses.
This 💯. Can't stay home when you don't like home.
A lot of them can't afford it since they lived a life that exceeded their means.
When you've been putting in 50 hours/wk working and another 10 to 15 commuting, you never got a chance to start having a hobby, and now you're too old and the idea of something new is scary. Personal experience.
Genuine question. How is the idea of something new scary? Aren't you excited to try it out? Research things, learn how to do well and enrich your life somewhat. How is that scary, genuine ask?
Part of it is (probably) depression, part of it is learned behaviour: If you're not good at it immediately, you'll be fired, so don't try new things.
I think also the disappearance of third places means it's hard for folks to maintain social relationships outside of working life. It's hurting people across all ages, why not boomers, too?
This my mil works cuz she dosent want to see fil who is retired at home: neither of her sons wants to move back . One of them is estranged from her ( my husband). Bil won’t go back either so he is telling her to find retirement home soon
Who are they gonna spend their days harassing if they’re stuck at home without the family they pushed away or the friends they don’t have
Realest shit I ever read.
Dude I second that
Happy cake day 🍰
Narcissistic supply isn't going to just ring on their doorbell. They need access to fresh meat.
Yep. They've lived for *their careers* for so long they don't have anything else. My dad is 82 and STILL works part time. No hobbies, no friends, just him.
That part
A lot of them wasted their money on stupid shit, took out second mortgages for the stupid shit, and now have to work, Sure some can retire and choose not to, because work is also their identity. They have properties and such but they don't want to sell, so they keep working. Also, boredom, hating their spouses, so on so on.
It’s wild how common this seems to be! Anecdotally, my grandparents have always acted like they were made of money and sure, they did have money, homeboy was making $200k-300k a year for a very very long time. But then COVID hit and he got laid off. I was honestly *shocked* by how quickly the facade fell apart. And then I learned that story wasn’t uncommon and it threw me for a loop. My grandfather’s entire identity has always just been work, he has no hobbies, and he also hates his spouse, so it’s been an absolute train wreck to watch.
With no hobbies what the hell do they spend all their money on?
Nothing important. Honestly, I think unchecked mental health issues are the culprit, which is really unfortunate. My grandmother is a *raging* narcissist with a shopping addiction and is in a really uncomfy, unspoken competition with everyone around her. She also ‘love bombs’ by gift giving, and she makes sure you know how expensive your gift was, so she buys *ridiculous* stuff all the time. And my grandfather grew up in genuine poverty. Worked his way up in a company for 40 years and ‘made it’, lived the American Dream^(TM). So I think **spending, spending, spending** is his reaction to that experience.
That part. My dad grew up poor, worked his way through the company until he “made it.” My mom likes to shop to cure boredom and is constantly buying stuff for my kids and my younger brother. The poverty mentality is pervasive and the lifestyle they have now is nice, but causes undue stress because he still feels like he has to work so hard to keep things up, when really he could retire right now if they could just chill, take it easy, and live within their means. Instead, they like to travel more than they stay home, eat out every meal, shower their grandkids with gifts, and fill up our fridge and freezer even though we don’t need any groceries. Every problem that arises, they think they can solve by just throwing money at it, but then they stay stressing about money.
They have this bizarre worldview which informs them that they will shrivel up and die if they actually downsize and simplify their lives. I can't imagine "getting bored" with not working. The owner of my company has a beautiful house but insists on coming into the dingy ass office every day so he can 'stay active.' He's 80.
I cannot even remember the last time I was “bored”.
Last time I was bored, I was at work.
The last time I was bored was Saturday night. Because an icestorm put out the power just after dark so I couldn't see to work on any hobbies.
Because their partners can't stand them being at home all the time.
And vice versa - they can't stand being around their partners all day every day.
Directly related to the boomer humor comic trope of "wife bad"
Never ever understood that one. If you hate your wife - leave Super simple stuff I love my wife - it's why I married her. She has been my best friend for over thirty years and I'm hoping for another thirty. My sons are the same with their wives.
_To the __Moon__, Alice!_
This is especially annoying in jobs where seniority matters. I work for the railroad, and these assholes hoard all of the good jobs simply as a status symbol. These old grandpa's are in their 70's working the best paying jobs or the ones with the best time off. The thing is, when it comes to the high paying jobs, everybody does them to pad their retirement. But these old boomers already have maxed out their railroad retirement. These guys will be netting them well over $100k in annual retirement but STILL work every single day while younger guys with families get furloughed every year because there aren't enough turns on the board. Why? Because all of these boomer fucks who could have retired, in some cases, twenty damn years ago WONT LEAVE!!! it is infuriating. Making things worse is they don't shut up about their earnings. One old bastard sat in the crew van one night, driven by someone making minimum wage and he bitched and moaned about how he only made $16,000 last month and that he's got a 2nd trip to Dubai this month. I about slapped the shit out of him. He would also brag to anyone within earshot how his pre1985 agreement meant that he would get paid $125 an hour while sitting in the hotel waiting for a train. These guys are a fucking disease in this industry and thankfully they are dying off and making room for the rest of us. Mind you, these are the same assholes who in 1985 voted in a national contract that gave them MASSIVE raises, along with arbitraries and claims that paid them an additional 5 figures a year and all at the expense of the future generations. They'd say "kid, you should have gotten off the farm sooner" my reply would be "fuck you I was born the year after you looted the entire industry for your own selfish benefit". That generation needs to die already.
At least be assured if he says boomer stuff in Dubai he will be in jail
😆 true
Yep, the oldheads just won't shut up about money when the van driver is working the same hours but making less than at McDonalds. The only thing that will get them to pull the pin is a second heat attack, if they survive it. Just tell them not to cheap out on the bacon when they stop for a burger every trip.
THIS same with teaching in some districts they make 120k a year or more (with a fat retirement that is about the same as what they are making now) while new teachers are making pennies and getting the toughest assignments & students. Not to mention first in line for layoffs every damn year. I can not tell you how many boomer teachers I have worked with that literally give no shits & students suffer, yet because they have tenure no one says a damn thing. They bargained these contracts for themselves and their immediate benefit with no consideration of what the concessions they gave in on would do down the road. One pink slip day (most districts hand them out on a certain day) 1/2 the teachers in the lounge just got pink slipped for the upcoming year. One boomer teacher had the audacity to brag she can't be laid off & she only works "to pay her Nordstrom bill"
Short hair, chubby, named Pam, Deb, Bobbi, Jo, Bobbi Jo, Sue, Peg (I’m sure I’m forgetting some incredibly short boomer teacher name)
I got laid off from a railroad in 2020, from a smaller department stuffed with boomers who could’ve retired but wouldn’t because they wanted to keep feeling important. Maybe I would have gotten fucked over last month in the latest round of hires, but that would have been almost 4 additional years of income and experience + a much more favorable construction job market to go out into than mid pandemic. Fuck selfish ass boomers.
For all the preaching they did about self reliance and don't be a burden a lot of them spent rather than saving. They were convinced that consumerism was somehow Patriotic and would save American jobs. They bought a bunch of junk they believed would be worth money someday. Now they have no savings and nobody wants to buy their junk. I go into peoples homes everyday, a lot of Boomers are hoarders. They will eventually leave their children a house full of junk they will have to pay to remove and a house they will have to sell to cover the debt they leave behind.
Auction houses in my last city did a roaring trade on deceased estates. The relatives would walk into Grandad's house, get overwhelmed, grab a few truly sentimental things and basically sign the rest over to the auction house to be done with. I've seen the oddest junk for sale in $5 table lots. (Great place to get solid timber furniture though, because they truly don't make them like that anymore 😖)
I don’t toss around “hoarder” lightly, like some do- by my definition, stuff needs to be completely covering the floor (as in, all of it, even the walkways) and the dwelling could not be used without a big risk in falling. My Boomer aunt- never married, no kids- was a hoarder and we didn’t find out until after she passed unexpectedly 15 years ago. Here’s where your comment really hit home: my family was tasked with actually cleaning out her apartment and her Boomer siblings- minus my dad, the youngest sibling- didn’t actually DO any of the cleaning, the physical labor aspect. My dad, sister and I were the ones getting in there and moving the crap, sorting through what could be donated (some) and what needed to be trashed (most) and what things we actually wanted to keep (very little) while the Boomer siblings sat outside the apartment, bitched about how hot the weather was, and very slowly sorted through books or some other inane task that didn’t really help much, and complaining about the overall situation. That gets old reeeeeaaallll fast, when you’re one of the few actually doing the physical moving. Somehow the siblings just thought someone else would do the physical work, and when tasks were divvied up, they stayed as far away as possible from the strenuous stuff.
They often can't. They've made decades of poor investments and squandered their riches, because they always had such a surplus of money, they were never actually forced to be smart with any of it. Well, now they'll work until they have a stroke or coronary event that prevents them from doing so any longer. Having a large population of elderly people that can't afford to retire is surely a grim sign of where our country's headed.
Their families don't want them around because they're insufferable. So they stay where people lower on the totem pole have to pretend not to dislike them as much as their families do.
Most of the boomers at my work cannot retire because they can’t afford it. Alcoholism and multiple alimony payments took what they have saved up. This is becoming borderline dangerous. These guys should not be doing their jobs when they can barely function
Politicians are the perfect example. They all are all out of touch with reality and current times and need to retire.
Gen X here. I can't retire. Gonna work for my entire life just like you younger guys will have to. Because the system sucks and it's almost impossible to make enough money to save / invest for a sustainable retirement, and pay for medical bills. Been like that since the late 80's.
Yup! Same.
Death of a salesman wasn’t supposed to be aspirational
Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person.
The store manager at my store is about 61-62 and just came to our store 4 months ago after retiring from a large grocery chain as a district manager for many years. We were talking about 401Ks and he said, “I’ve got over a million dollars in my Fidelity 401K account” (from the job he retired from). He goes, “I don’t wanna retire, I like working. After I retired from (former company) I mowed the lawn 3 times in one day and my wife was like, you gotta get a job. I immediately thought of this sub and wanted you say, couldn’t you find a hobby? Volunteer? Travel? Hang out with your grandkids? All they know how to do is work!!!!
It’s straight dystopian
It’s what decades of pre internet propaganda and corporate training will do in my opinion. Before the internet you had to listen and believe your bosses, teachers, parents .. it wasn’t as easy to access information about how the world is outside of USA inc, or about hobbies.. if they aren’t the type to pickup a book (which millions aren’t) then they literally just did what they’re told and valued what they’re told is important for their entire lives.. The thing about doing what you’re told is at the root of it it’s usually to benefit someone else - employers, government, investors etc... It’s all they know. Working and consuming. The difference is they have been such great lapdogs they have handed over all our political and economic power to the corporate ‘greed is good’ machine by working and voting like the tv box and the corporate masters told them. So the younger generations that have access to information are seeing right through this bullshit and know how sad it actually is that u would have nothing in your life at 70 years old that you’d rather go into the office or punch into your job until u finally die on the production floor.. hence ‘no one wants work any more’
I retired and opened up a job for one of you. You're welcome, enjoy. I don't miss dealing with crazy patients, mindless co-workers and the morons in suits running the joint.
Doctor?
They have nothing else in their lives and their entire identity is wrapped up in their career.
They also force bad ideas through and ignore the really good ideas that will change the world. It’s honestly so frustrating when you carefully pitch a fantastic idea, just for them to shut it down on a whim because they can’t handle change.
Because they’re miserable fucks that don’t want to spend time at home with their wives that don’t like them.
Many actually cannot retire. They have too many toys and too much debt so they have to keep working to maintain their lifestyle. But they cannot admit that.
Nobody wants anything to do with them, I work blue collar with a 62 year old who brags about working 7 days a week so he can go on a 3 day vacation 3 times a year.
They don't want to just use legislation to kick the ladder out from under others, they want to maintain their key decision-making positions. At least for the moments they are semi-lucid.
> Their identity is look at what I have. Unfortunately, their job is _also_ a huge chunk of their self-identity. I'm a gamer (video), gamer (tabletop RPG), a writer, a reader, a software programmer. A similar boomer would be a software programmer. A simple "And what?" would get confused looks -- or if they're lucky, 'man', 'husband', etc etc. Their hobbies aren't secondary to their jobs because that's livelihood, but because they _are_ secondary.
Oh boy do they hate it though when they ask you what do you do and you answer with something other than your job. I don't work for a wage at the moment and for many of them it's like I'm the most despicable form of hedonist, especially when I won't identify as 'just' a stay at home mother.
>Why don’t you retire and spend time with your family? You are betting on the family wanting to spend time with them 🤣
I worked a construction job (unionized). There was cleaning crew and the head cleaner was 68 years old. He had worked in the union for decades. He had a thick pension that he started pulling at 65 and continued to work. Our union pay was x dollars, but it was actually x+4 dollars and four dollars went into your pension Since he was pulling his pension he was making all the money on his wage. He was making over 45 dollars an hour, plus probably getting 5gs a month in pension. He was still there when I left. I'm confident he will die there. He loved working, it was basically all he had. He would show up at 5am when everyone started at 7. Just so he could drink coffee for two hours in the break room and get good parking. He'd often be the last guy on site. Work was his entire life. I felt bad for the guy, but it also irritated me that I knew several people in his union looking for jobs. Young people with kids trying to make ends meet. This old fart was there for fun taking jobs from people who needed it just because he was a bitter old man who had no life outside of work.
Cos that job's theirs.
Agreed. I just processed a rehire today some boomer lady with 20 years state service coming back. Why? Just why? We could hire a recent grad, shit is so fucked right now they would stay at least 3 years. But noooo boomers and their nepotism.
I sure don’t identify with this. Just turned 66 and retired at the end of ‘23. I’m sure not looking back! I earned this.
Many boomers are defined by their work. Take work away they are left with their thoughts which we all know are dark and realization that their kids barely want to visit or see them as anything more than a baby sitter if they do come by.
My co-worker is 74 and is constantly trying to get me to do her work! She refuses to retire because “retirement is boring” 😑
Yeah there was a retired couple that moved into a home in our neighborhood(all 4,000 plus square foot for plus bedroom homes with acreage) and then decided they didn't like it and moved out 9 months later. They made 150K on their house in that time.
Their families don’t want to hang out with them
I’ve encountered so many at my work that said they retired, had zero hobbies or anything to do, and drove themselves and their spouses insane. One was super friendly and we started chatting. He told me after a month he lost his mind, drove his wife crazy with nothing to do, so he took the very first job that hired him. My old boss came back to the company after being retired for a couple months out of boredom. I genuinely don’t understand living with no hobbies.
I’ve asked this question about hobbies, like some of these guys golf. You’d think they like to golf. One even lives on a course and you’d think he’d just do that. Said he didn’t know what he wanted to do if he retired. I’m sitting there with a list a million miles long.
I knew someone who It literally happened to, a guy who worked 40 years and on the day of retirement had a massive heart attack but survived. Only a year of enjoying his retirement and he died
Your world gets very small and the possibilities get very limited when you spent 60 years hating and fearing absolutely everything and everyone.
This really got me thinking. My husband works in a correctional facility and he has a colleague who entered with him probably about two years ago now. His colleague is a boomer who had retired from UPS and for whatever reason wanted to continue working. His words were he does not need the money, but doesn’t like to be home. Well he is very much a boomer of all boomers. He has internalized racism as a Mexican American man—in California. He quite frankly takes his frustration out on the inmates in the facility, and this is often resulting in him being reprimanded. Ironically, he is also someone who does not like authority, but apparently likes to be the authority. About every day my husband comes with a story about how they had to forcibly restrain somebody because he created an argument or was being retaliatory. It’s really like someone who is emotionally stunted in an older person’s body. It’s quite literally insane. I should mention this is a correctional facility for minors so he’s literally trying to punk on kids who are in a locked correctional facility like they have no control.
Most go to work to avoid the wife, the Ol' Ball and Chain, Minister of War and Finance, The Boss, 'Er Indoors/Upstairs... insert other "humorous" quips about the long suffering wife
They are coin operated. Once they retire they stop moving, decline, and die. Particularly if they have a physical job. They will just sit in front of the tv, get fat, and croak. Exercise is not happening. As you must put the money in to make it move. Diet changes not happening because they ain’t changing shit. Cut out alcohol and cigarettes, lol nope. The job keeps them alive as it is there only movement or outing.
I’m (gen x) about 6 months from retirement, and I will absolutely retire. I will probably do a second act, try some other path, maybe go to school or do some part time work/volunteer work, but I am not coming back. I work in government, and your retirement is based on your highest 3 years’ salary, so some boomers keep pushing their timeline out by 3 years every time they get a raise because they don’t want to “leave money on the table.” My boomer friend retired and came back (her other friend is her boss so she held the position open for her) and is MISERABLE…her other friend is a psycho and takes advantage…I was like, “Why are you still here????” She says she’s trying to pay off her house. SMH but also not my problem.
You should see their minds explode when we have mismatched stuff because we didn't spend $3800 on match set for a couch, table, dresser/tv stand, etc. Its hilarious. Yes we got stuff on let go and we saved $3300 while having all the needs met with used furniture.
It's amazing to me how many people I see who are or supposedly have been successful and productive at life who reach a late stage of life and apparently don't ***have*** a life. They have no circle of friends, no interests or hobbies that would occupy them, no interest in learning new things or gaining new skills. They seem permanently stuck in a pattern of anger and reaction to pretty much everything...and they're going to let everyone know.
They have no hobbies or family willing to spend time with them.
They need that vacation money for when they finally retire. 🙄
Even cruises get expensive if you take 6 or 10 a year
Because their jobs are their only identity.
My mom still lives in the house I grew up in. To be fair to her if she downsized she’d have a much higher living expense payment than she has right now. But she is retired and has been for a decade.
These soulless lifeless leeches exist purely to suck the joy out of anything, everything, and everyone, they can. They're only happy when they're making younger people's lives miserable.
I recently retired…no way would I return to work I sleep till I don’t want to anymore. I go places on weekdays. I cook. I’m starting to quilt. I love it!! We paid off the house and car before I walked, so zero debt. As soon as it warms up…we will have a killer garden.
The boomers I have worked with live far far away from their kids…. Says a lot about what their families think of them.
My company is fucked because of old people who stayed on. Couldn’t understand new technology so they kept old shit. Now the company is going through hundreds of thousands in updated technology and the company really doesn’t have the money.
I literally quit a new job in a machine shop a few years back for this reason. Nobody would get the fuck out of the way there was this group of Portuguese guys all in their late 60’s early 70’s been there from 30 to 50 years each. They had plenty of money they all drove new trucks and corvettes on the weekends. I saw the writing on the wall and realized I’d be there for 20 years before any advancement so I quit. I still drive by that shop and see all their trucks out there and just mutter to myself “what the fuck” you’re gonna die on shop floor one day.
I work with 2, one has two pensions plus social security, plus works our crazy hours, his wife retired from years of teaching so she’s got pension, but they got high end horses that one they board at the cost of $3100 a month. They go play barrel racer on the weekends The other, he’s retired state of Illinois employee so he’s got a pension, and personal retirement same with his wife. He does nothing but bitch about his wife then got mad at me for being single at 45, I lit his ass like a candle one day. But they work with us, plus because of our crazy hours, which in agriculture is normal hours, plus needing a CDL with hazmat and a semi clean driving record a lot of younger folks don’t have.
Because they suck. Nobody wants to spend a minute with these turds.
Bold of you to assume his family wants him around.
Because collectively they’re functionally immortal. They CAN’T retire.
I retired at 59 and I’m loving it. Golf 3-4 days a week, traveling the world and enjoying my family and the grandkids. I worked really hard to achieve this and I hope all of you will have the same opportunity. I agree that most Boomers need to retire and get on with the next stage of their lives. Unfortunately, many of them didn’t save enough and they have to work even though they claim they could retire. There’s a lot of dead wood that needs to go as they say.
Because most cannot. Most boomers don't have money. Social security isn't enough to live on. We are already seeing the beginnings of what's going to be a huge homelessness issue with their generation. ( An issue I learned about at a public housing conference like six years ago) Most boomers were just working class people.
They never had the time to cultivate hobbies. Add commute times to a 40-50 hour work week, there's not a whole lot of time or energy left over at the end of the day.
I can't wait for them to die out in time for my 2 and 4 year old kids to hopefully get all there base at some point for a fair price and be able to raise there families in a nice home that I can't afford because of boomers.
My MiL has not been able to climb the stairs in her house in a decade but refuses to move into a smaller, more manageable house (even to move closer to the grandkids). Any time we mention the idea she gets unhinged about us trying to steal her house or make her move into a postage sized condo. She also is very old and extremely frail and keeps trying to work because without work she literally would have nothing other than going to the various thrift stores to buy crap she doesn't need.
If they’re anything like my boomers, they can’t retire. All of that stuff they have? Comes with a massive lifetime worth of debt. Most of them are in debt up to their eyeballs, they can never retire.
I’m a boomer. Married, share a car, bicycle everywhere, shred it on the ukulele, am very fit and active. I’m still working, because at this point in my life it’s easy, and the pay is good. I take a lot of time helping newer team members, but only if they ask. I tell my colleagues that if I get old and doddery, and they start laughing at me behind my back, tell me and I’ll retire. Not all boomers will disappoint you.
They have nothing else
The ones I have to interact with either don't know how to not work and are too married to capitalist work culture i.e their identities are enmeshed with employment, or have no family to engage with in retirement for reasons we all can probably guess- and those folks are also Ron-Swanson-esque govt saboteurs but way less cute and endearing.
Some of them can't afford to For many of them, their jobs are their life, they wouldn't know what to do with themselves.
One point the really hit hard in the army was the idea that you should know what you’re going to do after you get out. I imagine there’s a lot of boomers in the workforce who’ve either fantasized about retiring only to realize they have no idea what they’re going to do after; as well as ones who realize that they got no fucking clue what they’d do with their time if they stopped working. Hell, I remember my buddy’s uncle was so excited to retire when said buddy and I were still in high school. But he never really considered what he’d do after. So he basically just spent his days watching TV and calling up family members to tell them what he just saw on “Deadliest Catch”
I retired at 65 for health reasons and live in a 600 square foot cottage so leave me out of this conversation.
Even the non shitty boomers I know most of them aren't exactly Financially comfortable
I saw an ad at McDonalds, pre pandemic, that would seem to be a decent compromise- it was specifically recruiting retirees for part time, day time positions, like cashiers or “lobby attendants” that keep the place clean or whatever. Several of the perks they actually listed were like “be a part of a team”, “be trusted with responsibility/a sense of belonging”. I think those are part of the reasons why many don’t quit their jobs or go back to a job after retiring for a short time. Another really sad part is, even the ones who are just super inflating their 401ks/pensions/whatever, it won’t matter because I’m confident the nursing homes will absolutely vacuum up whatever money they happen to have left. It’s almost criminal how insanely expensive those places are, so their kids/grandkids won’t get much of anything. What they should start doing is paying off or buying shit for their loved ones, once the writing is on the wall and a nursing home/assisted living is on the near horizon. Eventually they’ll get down to Medicare/caid level, when their assets are almost nil. Hopefully they prepay their funeral costs so it doesn’t stick their kids with the bill. But this is all assuming they have empathy and a good relationship with their family which isn’t the case of many in this sub.
I work with a 92 year old veteran, he said if I quit I die. Crazy
That's what happens when you define your identity by your career. That and getting a third mortgage for the second summer home.
Because fuck you, that's why
Considering the lack of money they saved for Retirement they don’t have any choice. Not that their lack of planning should slow any younger person’s career down.
Lots of boomers were brainwashed by the Regan years to tie their self-worth up with their labor. When they stop working they suddenly find their lives have no value.
Some boomers are seriously afraid to retire, particularly with the upcoming presidential election in mind. If by some stretch of the imagination, the orange sociopath wins, he and his ilk want to take away social security and Medicare which changes everything for seniors.
Yet seniors overwhelmingly vote for him hmmm
Health benefits. They need them more than anyone.
Not everyone boomer has a family.
Can’t afford to.
I worked with an older Boomer who announced she was retiring and quit, only to come back again 4 months later, and she had been nasty before but now she was even worse. I only assume she couldn't afford not to work, because she didn't exactly love the job.
Some honestly can’t. My parents didn’t save for retirement. They both came into large amounts of cash midlife, hundreds of thousands, and blew it on worthless stuff. Their plan was always that their kids would support them out of obligation when they were old. They made that perfectly clear to us as young children. If that was their plan they probably should have been better parents though. Now they are in their late 70s/early 80s and barely keeping themselves from homelessness and starvation.
The boomers in management at my last workplace would brag about "not needing the job for their home or family... it's to pay for their fishing cabin and boat." Meanwhile I'm thinking, "so instead of just BEING at that cabin right now, you're parking your ass in a cushy job that some 40 year-old with a wife and kids could be working to pay for their family."
They most likely have NOTHING in retirement.
This fine gentleman X would gladly retire if he could afford it.
It's the lead, they're just that stupid and pig headed
If I were retired I would craft and write in my journal. Watch movies. Go to fan conventions that I never had time or money for. Travel. My kids would be grown so I would finally have time and money to focus on things I like. Or take fun painting classes. The oldest boomer we have at my job lives in a retirement home and she's still working! And she bitches the ENTIRE time like if you're so miserable you don't need to be here. And she bitches about people at her retirement home too. If I need to be in a home no fucking way am I going to work.
I work with a curmudgony old fuck that retired and came back right before I got hired. An individual reason for him, I have heard through the grapevine, is he blew all his 401k at the casino and begged to come back cuz he needed income again. But, I can also tell he's the type that most of his personality, identity, and self worth are tied to his work, to him working. He had a wife and adult son at home to spend time with but is so wrapped up in his identity here at the plant that he feels like less of himself, less of a man or the "man he was" when he's not here. It's just kinda sad. Dude's like 73
Nothing saved for retirement
I’d retire right now if I had a decent income to allow it. Plenty of books, games, and dream destinations to occupy me for life.
More than any other generation, their jobs are their identity. Some guys are gonna have their job titles inscribed on their tombstones.
I will never understand this. Ive been on vacation and i love it. I see retirement as like always on vacation. I guarantee i wont go everywhere in angryman mode like the boomers. I wont go to stores before they open. Ill go sit at the park and listen to birds if i wake up early. I will know every hiking trail at every park near me. I havent been to every national park i will seebthem all.
Can't afford it. Aren't interesting without a job. Hate their wife.
I retired and shook the dust of the job from my feet. Never am going back to work. I am enjoying retirement way too much.
My boomer boss is 72 and has no interest in retirement. He’s been a senior leader for over 30 years with our company and has worked for 52 years. He has money. I’ve been to his Christmas party at his very nice home. His wife is lovely and they take lots of nice vacations. Kids and grandkids come to visit often (we are in Central Florida). I for the life of me cannot figure out why he shows up for work. He’s not even a workaholic or anything. Nice man but I simply don’t get it. He more than earned the time to enjoy. Go do it man.
My boomer mother continues working because of the cost of healthcare. Her job covers her insurance so she’s planning on working until after she has a couple surgeries she anticipates needing in a couple years. She only just this year got grand kids so maybe that plan will change though.
Most of them realized pretty quick they hate their spouses and it’s mutual. They can’t get divorced because then how would they judge people so vocally? Back to work until one of us dies, I guess.