I was really, really fortunate to get that early retirement offer.
In retrospect it was such a life bonus that I so wasn’t expecting.
But at the time, I was sort of put off because I was essentially being bought out. I’d worked hard inside the commercial HVAC of that office for more than 35 years and suddenly, I’m hauled into the big bosses office. I’d only been in there a few times as it was in a different office building some 3 hours away from the office I worked in. Her office was plush and came with its own thermostat. The view was spectacular but I had little time to enjoy it as I was trying to process what was happening. The boss started off with all kinds of praise of a job well done and all that. That’s when I started sweating a bit inside that zone controlled HVAC. It didn’t take long before she got to the part that she wanted to offer me early retirement. Had I not taken the offer, I would have to be reassigned to another position and take a big pay cut. The early retirement offer meant that there’d be about a 10 percent loss on the payout of my retirement package over its entirety. But when I did the math, it just made more sense to retire and take the money. Turns out that was the best thing that ever happened. We moved to the south and I was able to enjoy a lot more life before I started slowing down. I’m still enjoying these days but with just more residential HVAC in my life. Thanks to the ductless heat pump in my sunroom, I still feel like I’m active and outside all day.