Back in the Saddle

Maybe it’s like riding a bicycle.  You don’t easily forget what you did for years. I’ve now been retired 10 months. Yikes. That’s the longest I’ve not worked since, well, since I can remember.

I knew I missed work – doing work that matters, the camaraderie of colleagues, and the feeling you have with creative people working together that the whole can really exceed the sum of the participants.

With Keith Holloway during an NTSB board meeting.

That wasn’t just a feeling. It happened a lot, especially in my last job with the remarkable communications team at the National Transportation Safety Board.

Enjoying work is rare. 

It wasn’t always that way during my 40 years in the full-time workforce. And, enjoying work is not the norm. An article on “Why You Hate Work"    in the June 1, 2014, Sunday Review section  of The New York Times cites 30 percent of employees in America feel engaged.

Employee engagement was trendy ten years ago when one of my bosses brought in the Gallup organization to conduct its Q12® employee-engagement survey.  My pilot and engineer colleagues (mostly ISTJs on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) were shocked to be asked whether they had a best friend at work. I was a bit unsettled, too, but once I left that job and found a best friend at work I better understood the question.

Yes, doing work that matters makes a difference, as does having a supportive supervisor, work-life balance, a best friend, and also being valued – monetarily and for your contributions.

That’s what mattered a lot to me as a writer, being valued for my unique contributions and being able to make them. And, that’s what I wonder about in retirement. Do I still have it? After nearly a year away from work, am I still able to contribute something useful to the conversation, to the project, to the product?

I got “it” back this week with my client that I brought with me into retirement. She had set up a conference call with a graphic designer, a web developer, herself, and me, the content provider. Our task:  brainstorm for the client’s new, actually first, website. It was one of those great brainstorming sessions with ideas, wisecracks, more wisecracks, better ideas, and getting more done in one hour than you expected could be accomplished in an initial meeting.

It was fun.

That’s what I miss about work. I don’t miss big egos, self-importance, make-work, “administrivia” (electronic time cards, leave requests, weekly reports, etc.), dry cleaning bills, the alarm clock, and the lack of time. I do miss collaborating with smart and creative people and getting my batteries charged by high-energy people. My last boss was a potent power source. When she was away I always felt as if I needed to go plug in somewhere, like a cellphone, to get recharged.

Now, in retirement I need alternate ways and people to charge my batteries. I am finding my way through new friends and physical activity and volunteer work. But, this week with my favorite (okay, only) client I got a big charge from some bright people. It was like getting a fix at a recharging station for my client's assignment and for my volunteer work.

That’s what they call a “win-win” in the working world. Now I just call it fun.