My Next Chapter: A Retirement Journey - I’m leaving in a month and there’s a company strategy meeting. Should I go?

I told people at work weeks ago that I’m planning to retire. That was only fair, since my boss and colleagues need time to prepare a transition.

I’m-still-working-but-not-for-long is, not surprisingly, an odd place to be. I continue to attend most of my regular meetings and do a lot of my regular work. But as new requests come in, I triage. It’s more important to get things in shape for when I leave than to fulfill new requests – even if one of those requests comes from the C-suite. I say no a lot more than I used to. I remain fully engaged when on company time, but work less after hours anymore. I still care, but not quite the way I used to. It’s like I’m on a ship pulling away from shore. I can still see land quite clearly, but it’s receding.

It makes a lot of sense to still attend regular department check-ins and project working sessions. But what about a corporate-wide meeting on longer term company strategy?

After mulling for awhile, I decided yes, I’ll go. Knowing about any new strategic goals could be useful for the work I have left. Plus, there will be a lot of people attending that meeting who usually work remotely. I’ve been working mostly from home since before the pandemic, so I rarely see people face-to-face anymore. I think it would be nice to see some people in person for potentially the last time.

Update: It was nice to see people in the office Thursday. It was especially heartening to talk to two of my younger colleagues who completely grasped retirement as a new phase of life instead of just being shunted to the sidelines of importance. As much as I tell myself I shouldn’t need the external validation of having a “career” in order to be considered an important contributor to the world . . . let’s face it, I live in America. It’s going to be an adjustment. Knowing that people besides other retirees/soon-to-be-retirees get it is heartening.