Having a bad boss can suck the life out of us. They can push us to do stuff we hate doing and take us away from things we want or need to do. Some force us to do stupid vanity projects or unrewarding crap that has nothing to do with anything important. Unreasonable demands and obligation, who needs it! Even when things are going well they let their insecurities drive them to make irrational demands. We worked hard to get to where we are. Dealing with unnecessary stress and depression just isn’t right. Unfortunately for some retirees the bad unreasonable boss in retirement is yourself. I know because I’ve suffered a few times because of that bad manager in my retirement.

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My Ride With The Unreasonable Boss In Retirement

All of the same questions we used to ask about a bad boss before we retired are valid to ask about yourself in retirement when things are getting tense.

• Why can’t I just be left alone to do my job and finish my projects? 
• What’s driving that idiot? 
• Why can’t the boss see that everything is going just as planned? 
• When will the boss ever be satisfied with good results without having to always ridiculously push for more?
• Why can’t the boss just accept that the plan was spot-on and everything is being precisely executed? 

It’s easy to retire and get off track. You’re now the boss and you have to deal with both sides of this new lifestyle dynamic called retirement. Where we have to monitor and correctly take action to control both the financial and mental challenges associated with our employment liberation. Moving past decades of career centric conditioning can be a mind warp.

Some of the bad retirement boss drivers I dealt with

Ego – I‘m somebody, dammit! 

We are conditioned to recognize titles as a badge of success and respect. Oops, it’s all gone now in retirement. Now what? Take it out on the retiree that’s what. Make them do things to satisfy ego whether it makes sense or takes them away from what they retired to do. This monster takes as much effort to tame ego in retirement as it does while a career drone. 

Story Covet – Ok top gun, better cool your jets. 

Having a retirement boss that wants what’s perceived that others have is a recipe for our well-being disaster. Seeing online all of the huge retiree accomplishments of youth, portfolio, travel, activities, and wondering why we can’t also have a fantastic story can end up wasting time and money chasing unimportant or even undesirable targets. Everything can be going great and to plan, but then thoughts creep in about our own retirement story not being enough. Comparing and competing in retirement wasn’t part of my retirement plan. Yet the boss in the early months of retirement would sometimes have different ideas. 

Fear – Retirement rookie mistakes due to inexperience.

Getting mentally adjusted to being a retirement spender after decades of being a saver was tough enough without having a boss overreacting to problems both real and imagined. Whenever the market wavered, and it did a lot in 2010 – 2011, or hints of massive health care cost increases, etc., the boss would demand spending cuts. It didn’t matter that there were well planned expenditures and the budget was being kept. Encouraging words from the financial pro (CFP) were of little solace. There was too much negative info about the economy and retirement causing management to overcompensate. It takes experience to remain calm while living without paychecks and seeing how a well diversified portfolio stands up even with outgoing distributions.

Guilt trip – Not the kind of trip I planned for during my retirement.

Nothing’s harder on retirement bliss than your bad unreasonable boss telling you- I’m disappointed in you because I know you can do better. There are people trapped in cubicle hell wishing they could have time today and you’re dragging keister instead of getting yourself going.  Stop wasting time relaxing, there’s a hike, a bicycle ride, chores, projects, travel, gardening, all there waiting to be done. Don’t forget that you should be doing more volunteer work too. What a nag!

It’s easy to allow the unreasonable boss in retirement to talk us into doing things or being bothered by them when we first enter this new way of living. Being able to blank out the noise and pace ourselves is a skill that takes time to develop. These are just a few silly things my retirement boss pressured me about. Things that had me feel uneasy with from the get-go. Me and the boss have both learned a lot during this early retirement adventure. I’m happy to report that we get along great and we’ve been on the same page since fully completing our retirement transition.