I’ve got a new boss and it’s not working out the way I’d hoped.
This post tackles a serious career future indecision as early retirement lurks just around the corner. After several years of working for incredible humans, you wind up with someone who just plain isn’t a good fit for your style and presto! Plans go haywire…
“Career Indecision” Is My Middle Name
The original Abandoned Cubicle target to retire early was February 2020. Now, I’m not suggesting that I’ll pull up stakes and be completely done with the whole work scene, but this could be the pivot point for switching to SemiFIRE, Accidental FIRE style.
So why isn’t this current boss working out you might ask? Well, I have a low tolerance for big egos and passive-aggressive/aggressive management styles. I prefer to work for bosses who are predictable, vulnerable, and experienced in the work I do. My new boss has none of those qualities. Ugh.
For example, emails go unanswered. One-on-ones are not a priority. Questions about me and my personal life never come up. There is no coaching.
A Very Uncertain Career Future
The good thing is my last boss isn’t too far out of the picture. There’s a healthy amount of restructuring going on at our little company and I could wind up being shuffled back with my old regime.
I’ll just say it – not having control over who your boss is could very well be the biggest factor in why folks want to retire early. Sure, commutes stink, and sitting in a cubicle all day is the pits.
But if you have a good boss, so much of a workday and work-life becomes incredibly tolerable. If hammering out this diary entry of a post can help me keep aligned to key goals (financial independence, low stress, and meaningful living) then it’s justifying why I have this blog in the first place.
I don’t have a good boss at the moment, but things are somewhat tolerable. That’s partly because I don’t care as much about what people think now that I’m this close to the goal line. I just have to be careful not to mess up any bonus that could be coming in Q1.
The options swirling in my brain at the moment:
- Stick it out and hope for the best. I could wind up back with my former management team. That’d give me another 2-5 years of juice to extend my run of cubicle life.
- Jump after Q1 rewards are doled out. Take a break and maybe learn how to write again. Staring at a computer at home working on a blog vs. staring at a computer at work for more money.
- Jump after Q1 rewards are doled out. Land in a different full-time job – maybe there’s a job that pays less but is more enjoyable? Do such unicorns exist??
- Jump after Q1 rewards are doled out. Go SemiFIRE on the situation and forge a slow ramp down into a productive, meaningful early retirement.
- Get serious about firing up a business or making something more out of this real estate side hustle.
Lake Como, Nevada… Note to readers: Vegas is not a place to meditate on career indecision.
Am I Even in Control of the Situation?
A twist to those options is that I could get canned before Q1 even comes around. Maybe they decide that there are too many middle managers and because my boss is keeping an arm’s length, I should read the tea leaves and get out of Dodge? My Spidey-sense is tingling…
If I were to get the cane in the next couple of months, at least there’s a severance package involved. I’m a bit behind in savings that are supposed to go into the Vanguard VTSAX fund and that’s why I’m a little nervous about this whole operation.
I need to drum up a bit more of that “gap income” to get us through the decade-plus until 401k dollars can be tapped. First-world problems, but they somehow manage to give us ulcers, right?
There’ve been other strains in the game for us. It took way too long to find a new tenant for one of our rentals this fall. Granted, not many people plan to move between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
But the last tenants weren’t thinking about that when they broke their lease. Mrs. Cubert has been incredibly stressed with a clinic move that put a dent in her income and time.
Fortunately, we’re emerging from those clouds without any big impacts on the bottom line. I managed to sign on a tenant last night (a huge sigh of relief) to avoid the first month of vacancy since I started this racket back in early 2013. Mrs. Cubert’s new clinic is amazing, and she’ll be ready for her slate of clients tomorrow.
The Future of Abandoned Cubicle
Over the turkey break, I started to ponder the blog and where this little opinion factory is headed going forward. I have to learn over and over again that I kind of enjoy writing.
It’s amusing because I spend way too much time optimizing other aspects of running a WordPress site (theme tweaks, site speed enhancements, SEO riddles, and finding a sweet spot for ads…)
Getting back to simply sharing the ups and downs of the journey is the original DNA of this blog and I want to get back to that a bit more. I’m grateful to all of you readers. Your opinions and ideas are like gold. The conversation forces some decisions that otherwise I’d waffle over for far too long if left to my internal calculations…
Postscript 8/15/22: Who could have predicted the events that would unfold just a few months after I posted these words? The Coronavirus struck with lockdowns in March. Then George Floyd was murdered within a few miles of where we live. Around that time, my dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
To think that my biggest worry in December 2019 was whether to keep my day job after bonus time. Wow. Perspective is everything. I’m still collecting a paycheck and pondering my next move. But a little more mindful now that a lot can happen amid a long-range “plan”.
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What will your biggest regrets be on your death bed? Not working longer won’t even make the cut. Working in a bad environment is not worth the strain on your mental and physical health. That being said, I would suggest lining up your next endeavor before jumping ship.
Look into the faces of your family tonight and ponder your decision….hope this helps.
Awesome advice! A good reminder too that maybe my pride is what’s at stake more than anything. Still, in uncertain times, I’m hoping to maintain healthcare coverage and stash a bit more away. We’ll see where the journey goes – a lot to figure out between now and February!
Good luck with everything on the work front as I know how that goes having various managers over the years. I will be curious about how everything turns out. Make sure you keep this blog around so you can keep everyone updated on that as well as anything else. I can’t agree with you more on trying to re-learn over and over that I enjoy writing.. ha!
I hope your family had a great Thanksgiving and enjoy the snow and colder weather coming next week. My backyard which is full of water is enjoying this colder snap coming so the kids can get outside and skate :).
Hi Eric! Thanks for the encouragement. I have put too much time and effort into this blog to let it languish, so you’re in luck! More to come – and hopefully stuff that can help others make decisions too.
And likewise, hope Thanksgiving was a good break for you — now on to gearing up for Christmas!
Great Article Cubert. This is a “back to your roots” Abandon Cubicle article. My advice is wait for the Q1 payout, plant the seed for a voluntary severance, and dial it back at work. Now that you are FI, you can take a free-agent career path. Your knowledge and experience I’m sure is so valuable that even dialing it back is still a huge windfall for your team. Set it up as a win-win for you. You’ve earned it. Best of Luck!
Thanks, Dap! Short and sweet and from the cubicle heart, I like to say. LOL. I appreciate your kind words and it’s definitely the approach I’m most inclined to follow. Stay tuned!
I agree with Susan. Almost nobody dies wishing they had spent more time at the office. Those few who do miss out on a lot of joy in life.
How about a sabbatical? You can try some options and see how they work. If they don’t you can try something else. Or you can go back to the cubicle. Had a recent client (engineering manager) who did this — worked for a year or two — took a year off to explore Australia — worked a couple of years — explored somewhere else. Rinse and repeat. Did this with a family and had a blast.
Another friend (a consulting mentor) delighted in telling how he knew when he had enough. He was so frustrated he broke a keyboard over his knee. Frightened by what he had done, he went into his boss’s office and immediately resigned. Went home as started a consulting practice, and eventually a couple of specialty magazines. Passed away last year in his 80s, with no regrets for leaving the cubicle.
Drop me an email if you would like to chat, and we will set something up. You are where I was 33 years ago when I made my “jump to consulting” and independence. (You are probably better of financially.) Grab a cup of coffee and I will too. Want to go visual — I have a zoom account. Happy Holidays!
I know I know! I’ve hammered on that several times over the years on this blog. You are right, Uncle Daryl. The idea of a sabbatical doesn’t sound half bad. Better timed if during the kids’ summer break, but still… I can imagine using this time to forge a solid SemiFIRE plan.
I appreciate the offer and let’s definitely connect. I’m always game to chat with my mentor! Happy Holidays my friend!
I think as you are not sure yourself, I’d be tempted to tread water for the next month or two and then see how things turn out, see how your new boss acclimatizes to the task and, more importantly, to his staff. With a collective effort perhaps the whole department can rally and get him ‘trained’ up as a better manager/person – people can change, even managers. And then of course, there’s the chance that he won’t like things either and decide anyway to move on, that happens! If not, and work becomes a bind, then as the above posts suggest, life’s too short and this might just be the time…
Hi Ben! This particular new boss is a unique one. Not sure I can expect much to change, which maybe is why my previous boss moved on. Never know though, people can adapt. Or to your point, this boss could find the environment not to his liking and exit stage left. We’ll see!
Life is too short to get hung up on prideful things like “I want to leave on MY terms”. Well, this close to the finish, if it’s on their terms, I should be okay with it and find another, better path.
First off, thanks very much for the shout-out! Accidental Fire style should be more popular if you ask me 🙂
Bad bosses suck, plain and simple. We’ve all been there, and to me it’s a situation that you need to get out of as soon as possible. Given your options, I personally would choose option number 4, because that’s what I did 🙂 I think if you find a good part time gig, and that might be hard, it will free up a lot of time for you to explore your real estate side hustle or whether you want to expand the blog into a bigger money making side hustle. In my situation, I’m now more than two years into that, and my graphic arts business that I started because I semi-retired will now earn 5 figures this year. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remind myself that I actually did that.
Good luck dude!
Hi Dave! You’re welcome!
I’m already on the #4 train, so to speak. I need to figure out the gig though. It may be quasi-part time, meaning, not as demanding as a typical professional full-time job but still 40 hours… We’ll see…
You’re really rocking it with the graphic arts business! I’d love a creative outlet similar to that. Brainstorming non-stop these days…
hey cubert. happy holidays to you. this is a dilemma indeed. i’ve had some real incompetent bosses who couldn’t carry my jockstrap (as larry holmes was fond of saying) when it came to technical stuff and it was terrible. i just wrote up something about our retirement glide path which you are considering with part time work. my work the past 2 years miraculously turned acceptable with a good boss and not a minute more than 40 hours/week. mrs. smidlap’s office closed so she lost her job 2.5 years ago. first she collected glorious unemployment for 6 months and then applied to some high paying stuff while trying out some part time stuff. it took until opportunity #3 for her to find her goldilocks job at 20 hours/week with flexible time off at a decent pay rate. for her it wasn’t worth it to try and go back to the meat grinder and BS as it was barely about the money. to me it parallels your situation somewhat where you almost have saved what you consider “enough” and could work for beer and grocery money.
i look forward to reading how it all turns out.
Freddy! My man.
Thanks for the holiday wishes – and likewise to you! My problem is the new boss is just super hard to read and plays a lot of “mental chess” with hot/cold signals. Drives me NUTS.
Beer and grocery money? How about DISNEY CRUISE MONEY!! Just kidding! But I do have some new hedonic wounds to lick. I figured a few more years of the meat grinder would give me a shot at some longer-term occasional extravagences… Never know, this blog could start generating some ad income that I can share with my charity to support a cigar and scotch habit? 😉
Please go with either #2 or #4! I’m ready to pull the plug and am less than a month away from stepping away from full time work, and quite good paying work at that, after having made up my mind 6 months ago. Looking to then work maybe 2-3 days a week at much less stressful jobs.
Haha! I will definitely consider it, Anon! Do you mind sharing what sort of work you’re thinking of doing for 2-3 days a week? I’m a sponge for ideas lately. 🙂
These are a few I’m really interested in, I’m sure there are more.
– Substitute teacher in public schools
– Teacher in something like Mathnesium
– Soccer coach
– CDL and commercial driving
The key to all these are I can set my own day/time.
All worthy endeavors! The only thing about commercial driving is constant sitting. The rest of your list would at least allow you to stay on your feet a bit, move around.
In my experience crappy bosses are a gift. If they aren’t good at their job, like yours seems not to be, then they really need you to produce in order to survive. They always know that deep down so if you are an overachiever then it is a real chance to be their right hand guy and then to replace them and move up when they are inevitably terminated. Companies do not retain ineffective bosses, it might take time but the free market is pretty ruthless when it comes to results. Having a self destructive boss can be a huge career accelerator. At least it sure helped my career.
However working against you is that attitude. Not caring what people think, presumably upper management people, will get you fired. Nobody wants employees that are not manageable. I know because I had to retire once my management realized I had no fear of them because I had millions in investments. They were not going to allow someone they had managed with a stick and carrot approach in the past stay around once I had that Matrix moment and realized, there is no stick.
GREAT point, Steve! I just hope he sees it that way. There’s a lot of opinion swirling around our four walls and I wonder how much my reputation is taking a hit or not. Trying not to tell myself too many stories at this point.
Even better point about the attitude aspect. I know I own that and have put a ton of thought into how I show up on Monday. This might have sparked a new post, actually, so THANK YOU!
As a former longtime senior exec in a big company I have witnessed and found myself in this exact situation.. my 2 cents fwiiw; never quit without another gig lined up—make them fire you and pay severance. Quietly begin to look for alternative gigs if this does really go south to understand your true options. If you’ve done the math and have a plan, stick to it.. if you have a good relationship with one or more leaders upline from you, let them know, in a thoughtful and non threatening manner, your unhappiness with your current reporting situation. No need tO come right out and assassinate the motives or character of your current boss, use the right corporate code words, not a great communicator, not a real team player, seems to struggle with new responsibility etc… and stay good at your job until your ready to leave on your terms..
Hi Jack!
I really appreciate your helpful words of wisdom. Lining up something else is a top priority for me at this point. You really do understand the corporate culture with respect to “code words”. We dance around our language at my shop too. Fortunately, I have other champions, but I’m almost at the point of being ready to take the money and run!