Honest conversations about the psychology of modern work culture
Brandon’s fork stopped mid-air, his pasta forgotten. His face, usually so animated, had gone completely still. “What do you mean there’s no inheritance?” he asked, voice low, deliberate. The night had started as a celebration. A nice dinner at his favorite Italian restaurant, my upcoming retirement, his job promotion. Light conversation, nothing serious. Then he …
My midlife crisis arrived without much drama. No sports car, no drastic career shift. Just a slow-burning restlessness that turned everything into a question. Was I fulfilled? Did my life align with what I valued? Would I regret the choices I hadn’t made? My friends were asking the same things. We met for coffee, traded …
In 15 days, my office will collect my badge, disable my login credentials, and distribute the obligatory retirement cake. After 27 years climbing the technical ladder to become a Technical Architect Director, I’m walking away at 52 — decades before the traditional retirement age. My calendar, once packed with system deployments and architecture reviews, will …
In 17 days, I’ll turn in my badge, log out of the company network, and walk away from a long career with unfinished spreadsheets and an unfinished mortgage. People keep asking if I’ve lost my mind. I smile. They mean well. The numbers don’t impress the financial professionals. I haven’t hit their magical thresholds. I …
What I saw as financial security, my children view as outdated thinking. “Traditional retirement planning is dead,” Brandon says, shutting his laptop after scrolling through another article about digital nomads. Across the table, Allie sips her coffee. “The idea of working at one company for decades just to retire with a pension? That world doesn’t …
Two months. That’s all I have left before retirement. My office walls are slowly emptying. Awards. Project photographs. Memories stripped away, box by box. Each item feels like a piece of my identity being carefully dismantled. I’ve spent a lifetime building this version of myself. The successful professional. The reliable colleague. The one who could …