DOES YOUR JOB DEFINE WHO YOU ARE?
Ego can get in the way of successful retirement. If a person’s self esteem is dependent on his or her job title or position, loss of that role can be devastating. There are sad examples of highly capable and successful people who became depressed or even alcoholics when they were forced to retire. People whose opinion has always been considered and whose advice has been sought may find it difficult to realize that no one is really interested in what they have to say any longer.
This is only one of the reasons why it is is so important to develop interests outside of one’s job. If a job description is all that defines you, you may be in real trouble when you no longer have the title.
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About Me
- greenhand
- David P. Green, MD has been practicing and teaching orthopaedic and hand surgeon for more than 40 years. He is best known as the editor of two widely used orthopaedic and hand surgery textbooks: 1) Rockwood and Green’s Fractures (now in its 6th edition, recently translated into Chinese), and 2) Green’s Operative Hand Surgery (now in its 5th edition, translated into Japanese and Spanish editions.). Born in El Paso, Texas in 1936, he is a graduate of Pomona College, Baylor Medical School, and the New York Orthopaedic Hospital (NYOH) residency program. In 1997 he was named Outstanding Alumnus of the NYOH. He is a past President of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. He also has a keen interest in history, and has published a book entitled Place Names of San Antonio, a compilation of some 600 mini-biographies of people for whom streets, schools, parks, libraries, businesses, and other places are named in his hometown.
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ReplyDeleteA successful retirement depends on a clear conscience, stable personality, and moral attitude. If you have problems planning for your life after career, you simply need to re-evaluate your own goals for the sunset years even though it is difficult to realize you are not the team captain or go-to guy any more. Just because your former golfing buddies were Fortune 500 members, get a grip.
ReplyDeleteDon’t sit on a couch with a remote, wait for your daughters to call, or feel too embarrassed to e-mail your friends. Get off your backside and establish the fact that you don’t give a Democratic damn if they don’t listen to you anymore.
It was your life. . .your. . .your success. . .your retirement. There are many challenges awaiting you rather than self-pitying depression.
What do I miss? Not a lot. When I did my last operation I felt quite emotional because for so long I had thought of myself and defined myself as a surgeon, but this lasted only a few days. I had enjoyed my work, but I also enjoy not having to do it.
ReplyDeleteN.B. England
The one factor that I would like to suggest to you that I believe is very significant in the decisions as to whether to retire and how happy an individual is in retirement relates to how one identifies them self with their work position. Virtually everyone at least vaguely realizes that in the minds of many they meet that being the ex (fill in the title) and being "unemployed" is the nearly the same thing. I have seen over the years that those who tend to want to be identified by their titles and responsibility they have at work have a difficult time choosing to retire or being happy in retirement. If the loss of the prestige of your title in that important to you, retirement has a demeaning feel and is very difficult. Those that are not so bothered by the loss of title and all that goes with it, seem to thrive in retirement. Perhaps this is more true the higher up the ladder you climbed in a career, but I have witnessed that it still applies to lower level employees as well.
ReplyDeleteI am fortunate to still be active and working at age 81. I have always been someone. I am not ready to be no one.
ReplyDelete