I have been thinking a lot about cutting back at work.
The conditions at work have been going downhill (not enough staff, some issues with the physical plant), and I have been tired, and I have other interests I would like to have time to pursue. Some of my patients are not always pleasant to deal with.
On the other hand, I have some patients whose names on my schedule make me smile with anticipation. I love seeing them for their yearly or twice yearly visits.
There are others who I know have been helped by seeing me as their doctor (and who acknowledge my role in their recovery). Ego-stroking for sure, but I’m only human. Seeing them makes me feel like my work is important, which is a feeling that can be lost amongst complaints that I forgot something, or didn’t help them enough.
Aside from patient care, I have also been involved with teaching for years, and have picked up a new teaching project that has really been fun for me, and fulfilling.
All of these forces pull me towards the thought of not-yet-ready-to-retire.
This is aside from my thoughts about financial readiness to retire, which also says not-yet.
A number of my teachers and preceptors from residency are retiring. They all have said the same thing, whether in discussion of mutual patients, or in the exam room–as we discuss their impending (or just-passed) last day of work. Most recently, my good friend–who figured she would work at a free clinic once she was done with private practice–told me about her retirement plans.
They have all said the same thing: when you are ready to be done, you will know. These are all women who are (were) dedicated physicians, devoted to excellence in patient care.
They are not retiring early, but they are planning to stop (or have stopped) practicing clinical medicine.
I had worried, when I ran my numbers this summer, that I was falling into One More Year syndrome. That I was just too scared to quit medicine and embark on an early retirement. That I was using ever inflated estimates of costs in retirement to justify not quitting, not yet.
Listening to my friend and former mentors makes me feel better.
When I’m ready to quit medicine altogether, I’ll know. It’s OK if I’m not ready.
In the meantime, I need to keep chugging along, working to make my current life a good (fun, fulfilling, happy) one.
Where are you on the work-retirement spectrum? If retired, how did you know it was time?