Getty Images
- Charles Bond, a 62-year-old, decided to retire early rather than work remotely full time.
- He said he didn't have the self-discipline for remote work and likes being around people.
- Bond is one of the many workers leaving over where and how work takes place.
After spending nearly 30 years at the same company, Charles Bond decided to hang up his hat and retire early. He just didn't want to work remotely.
The 62-year-old, who lives in Southern California, managed the back end of his company's customer-service operations. When the pandemic hit, many employees at his company started working from home. Bond, who'd already gotten sick, had had been working remotely for a couple of weeks.
"At first when they said, oh, you could work from home for a couple weeks, I thought, cool," Bond said. "I even said, oh, I'm going to get to work from home."
The novelty quickly wore off, though. He found during those couple of weeks that something that makes remote work appealing to many — the ability to structure time away from the eyes of coworkers — didn't really work for him. He said he wasn't self-disciplined enough for it.
"I would find myself going out and being in the backyard, talking to my family, and I'd go, oh God, I got to go back in, I'm at work!" he said. Lunches turned into running errands, and he'd be jolted back to the reality that he was working. He also said it was harder to get things done without his large workstation from the office, with just a laptop and a phone.
"After about, I don't know, day four or five, I'm like, ugh," he said. "By the end of it I was like, oh, I can't wait to get back to the office."
At first it seemed there would be an end to his isolation; he went back in as early as he could during the pandemic, adhering to guidance around distancing and masking. But then his firm said it was planning to go fully remote. For Bond, that was the final straw. He decided to retire early. He's now been retired for nearly two years.
Remote work is "just not for me," he said. "It's just not something I want to do. I don't want to bring my work home."
In that sense, Bond is part of a movement of employees rethinking work on their own terms. For many people, remote work has allowed them to flex their autonomy over their working conditions and lives. But for Bond, who worried about self-discipline and a lack of separation between home and work, working in person became his ideal. As some workers left their jobs after being forced back into the office, Bond left his over the prospect of losing the work arrangement that best suited him.
"I need to be around people. I enjoyed my team. I worked there 27 years," he said. "There were people there that had worked there just as long as me, if not longer. They were like a family. They were like my second family."
Workers want the ability to choose how they work
Bond said that some of his friends work completely remotely, while others are hybrid. Some have left roles because they got called back in.
And then there's Bond, who retired early from a six-figure job rather than spend the rest of his time working at his house. He said that while he's had to tighten his belt, he wouldn't return to work unless he absolutely had to.
"I wasn't planning on retiring as early, but for me it was worth it, you know?" he said. "And belt-tightening is fine."
Other people have opted to leave their jobs rather than follow along with unilateral decisions at their workplaces. Dennis C., a 65-year-old in Alabama, retired as soon as he was called back into the office. Felicia, an administrator in Arizona who was asked to work in the office five days a week, left behind a six-figure salary without anything else lined up.
Bond said he recognized that for some people, remote work is a boon.
"I think it's great for people that have kids, that you might give them a little bit more time to spend with their kids, if your job allows you to do that," he said. "I think it certainly saves on wear and tear on cars and transportation."
But Bond said he'd been able to forge lifelong friendships with his coworkers. He said he still keeps in touch with some people from his old team; they go bowling together, have lunch at least once a month, and do white-elephant gift exchanges around Christmas. He said he worried about what widespread remote work would mean for younger workers, who've been particularly shafted by the pandemic economy's twists and turns.
"Today's youth, if they're not going to ever be in an office setting, I just think they're going to lose something," he said. "Not interacting with human beings, I wouldn't want to do it."
Bond acknowledged there are pros and cons for both sides of the remote-work divide.
"People will love it or they will hate it, and we'll just see what happens," he said. "Time will tell."
Have you left a job over remote-work or return-to-office mandates? Contact this reporter at jkaplan@insider.com.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/cNQ1UeC
No comments:
Post a Comment