Retiring (Sorta)
 

I have worked almost 30 years at a police/jail dept. I am the only maintenance person there. I was offered a job at a retirement facility with decent pay and benefits that is 5 minutes from my house. Current job is 45 min in good weather and light traffic.

I will retire from current job which pension will make up the difference in pay and then some. I will lose a lot of vacation but I don't really take a lot of time off. I will get half of my saved sick time which amounts to 540 hours, I will also have about 8 weeks of vacation time coming from this year and 2 weeks saved from last.

I will be on call every third week instead of 24/7 365!
No more hills and farmland to cross in blizzard or ice storms!
They will pay for me to get Class B CDL license.
Free meal every shift!
7 am to 3 pm instead of 5:30 am to 1:30 pm
They will pay $50 a month extra to use cell phone for work purposes.
5 miles round trip compared to 50 miles
Did I mention 5 min from home?!!!

Hard part is still a few of the old crew at job I will miss
I started at new building and only one to do it there.

A new chapter I suppose. Job I'm leaving is a dream job and was for me for years but I need something new and having 2 other guys to help will be awesome. I'm hoping it rejuvenates me till I'm ready to totally retire.

Heck, this is the only life we have available to us, as far as I know, so try to make the best of it. Do whatever it takes to make YOUR life better. Stress will kill you, so the more you get of it out of your life, the better off you will be. You don't want to die before you retire, do you? 5 mile commute instead of 50 miles? Heck, how much stress right there does that reduce?

And heck, I've had to do the on call crap myself. Hated it. I was ALWAYS on edge thinking that at any moment, whatever I was doing, no matter what it was, could be interrupted and I would have to go handle a call. Even if a call didn't come in that night, I was on edge constantly even as my head hit the pillow for the night. After that, I refused to take any job that required that of me. Unless they are paying me FULL PAY 24/7/365, I am on my own free time to do as I wish when I am not on the clock.

So yeah, sounds to me that you are making a wise decision. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Yeah, I think so too. Wife agreed also. Hoping to sign papers tomorrow

Sounds like a good plan! Just the reduction in commute time would be worth it to me. I'm only 15 minutes from work, but my hubby drives an hour, each way.

It will be hard to leave the people you've worked with for so many years, but you need to do what is best for you, and your family.

Good luck!

Weighing in on the commute reduction, I have made a home purchase and job changes for it before and it made a huge difference for me, so I think that is a huge thing in favor of the change. Seems like the timing is good and it still gives you some routine to adhere to (when retiring or semi/quasi-retiring, maintaining a routine tends to be a large factor in being able to last after the event - real talk). Best wishes for sure.

Joe I am sure the new place will love you and that your old buddies will still love you and you can get together with them from time to time or at least keep in touch.