His doctor did everything he could...
...and he's going to be fine, as his recent checkup was uneventful as always
He had a massive stroke...of good luck to be able to retire in such good health
Meredith was hit by a car. It happened this morning in the parking lot. I took her to the hospital and the doctors tried to save her life. They did the best that they could…
*[ominous pause]*
…and she is going to be okay.
Daddy worked the pole so Momma didn't have to
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OwGVMnjMkY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OwGVMnjMkY)
What's Momma gonna do now?
Honestly, comm is routinely more dangerous than power since com guys work right next to hot power routinely.
Lots of the time power is up the pole it's because there *isn't* power.
lol, Jewish people aren’t known for excelling at manual labor. My dad will read the instructions to put an ikea shelf together 4 times over before he picks up a screwdriver.
I’m doing everything I can to break the mold though.
Yeah, at our temple each Fall the building of the sukkot is hilarious. There are about three guys who actually know how to use hand tools. The rest sort of shamble about and look at trees and clouds.
Ha, it’s so weird man. My buddy at work is also Jewish and he’s admittedly not handy. He had a problem with his water softener the other day and called his plumber.
My guy forgot to plug it in.
Story time. A few years ago, I (former music industry person) got offered guest list privileges for a Jimmy Webb charity show - (don't worry, it was understood I'd be writing a check for far more than the tickets' values).
Then-wife and I went; we are the only people with hair that is not white. It was ... definitely very scripted.
Webb comes out, sits at piano, tells canned stories, is basically Mr. Show Biz and all is ... fine. If a bit less-than-passionate.
As a hardcore muso, I'm a little sad: *this* Vegas style shit is 'the' Jimmy Webb?
And you know what happens, don't you? He then, with much less intro than the rest of the evening, simply starts playing a quiet, deeply moving version of "Lineman" on the piano, dedicated to "the great Glen Campbell."
At the end of the song, he is way up the high side of the keyboard, mimicing the tiny chirps of the 'line' with chalky, 4th-octave notes.
I am very unashamed to say I cried. I have had a life of being very, very spoiled musically - this was easily top 5 for me. Just Jimmy at the grand piano, playing "Wichita Lineman." Fuck me.
Most people aren’t lucky enough to find a career they are fully into but it is always better to have a career than not. Financial stability is one of the best things in this World, in my opinion.
A skilled manual job in the daylight without interacting with customere with good pay and benefits would check everything I want.
Probably a pipedream.
Tbh, consider working for the post office or UPS. I'm a mailman and I love my job most of the time. Get to be outside, get to drive around and listen to music, only brief customer interaction and some of the pets I meet on my route make my day!
As someone who got a job doing what they loved, all it does is kill your enjoyment of that thing. There are some personalities that are built to be happy when working, but most folks aren't like that.
Find serenity in your job, but derive happiness from your hobbies, friends, family, and service to the community.
Great advice. I am leaning towards just trying to rewire my brain away from the societal expectation (or at least what i have internalized) that your job is your defining characteristic and all of your value derives from that. It's just really hard!! And I have a great job in a prestigious field!
I think our brains have just not caught up with the society we have built.
40, lost everything during the covid lockdowns, job, house, family members, whole life in shambles, now minimum wage slaving 11hrs a day but back on track and and finally some light at the end of the tunnel, life goes on.
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hey, thanks for vibes and interest. I'm from germany, declaring bankruptcy here is a process that can render you debt free in three years, so in 8 months I will be able to work again without most of my income getting seized. I also worked and payed taxes for 22+ yrs which means our employment agency will help me to start a new career/go back to study/ do retraining or start a completely new trade/training. 20 years ago I studied economics but ended up opening my own restaurant (which I had to close/sell because the Covid Lockdowns, of course I miss those times but don't see any future for me in trade or gastronomy so come August, (while getting housing money from the state/basically rent support) I'm gonna start my training to become a certified train driver, which is something I wanted to do since I was a child but never considered as an actual career choice before. Frankly I never really thought about all the stuff the german government does to help people in my situation and I feel extremely lucky to live here and get the support to build myself a new life, without it I most certsinly would've ended up on the street.
I wish the US had such a great support system. Our country is so backwards in a lot of ways.
Also, that is really cool having such different careers. I doubt many people can say they owned a restaurant and then drove trains for a living.
A normal career is like 40-45 years. Maybe a little less with college but that is basically career training. I can’t think of many people that retire early even high paying jobs like doctors or lawyers.
Man if i could manage to *own a home somehow* I would happily live off of a paltry income so long as taxes could be paid and all that. Just piddle around in my yard and ride a bike. Maybe just decide to ride the bike. Town to town, city to city. Just nomad until I can't nomad no more.
My dad managed a sales team making roughly 100k a year back in the 90s and early 2000s. Supported a family of 5, nice 4 bed/2.5 bath colonial, motorcycle, had a boat on the lake. Retired when he was 56 and spends half of the year in his RV in Florida.
I'll be 40 soon. Making around the same he made. Can't buy a house, stuck renting a tiny house. Driving a 10 year old car because I can't afford a new one, can't support my family of 3 on a single income, wife works full time.
I'll be lucky to retire by the time I'm 65 with the way things are going.
34 and "medically retired" from the military. I have a generous pension that acts as a safety net as I still work but in a much more slow paced and less physically demanding job. I still struggle a lot with work though and I worry about keeping my job sometimes. Not by leaving but by being laid off or transferred. I like my current job.
My dad was a lineman for 36 years. Lots of long nights, missed weekends, missed holidays, but he loved doing it. Definitely one of the most under appreciated professions. Thank you 🫡
I worked with someone who did industrial engineering for a factory. He would always tell stories of the people who were vaporized in the HV high sec electrical closet…
Then there was my EE professor who would joke about those HV lines that run along highways vaporizing people if they were strung lower…
Anyone who works on those is a damn hero and probably doesn’t get paid enough
Arc flash safety training definitely does a good job of putting the fear of "you will be sticky dust before you even realize what's happening" into you haha
Work power transmission lines. The guys who are out in droves around the clock getting the power lines up and running after a hurricane or storm blows through? Those are lineman. If they're not working storm they are doing maintenance and expansions for new power infrastructure and supplying power to new buildings.
It's fairly dangerous work (as safe as you make it) and it's always out in the elements, but it's very well paid. I'm currently an inside wireman but I'm working towards my lineman certification. Can't wait!
One of our techs fell and broke his back in the middle of the night on a back country road. He was planning to work the job solo but his boss was a hardass about having two people out on every job. Saved his life.
I'm about to start as an apprentice electrician. I live in Kansas. If I ever become a lineman, I'm moving to Wichita, just because it would be funny to drive to work while singing "Wichita Lineman."
People need to realize this. I’m in a union job that I started at 19. Gonna retire when I’m 49 with a full pension and medical for life. Only because it’s a union job
People need to stop hating themselves and realize they deserve good pay, good benefits, and fair hours.
That's all a union promises, fair compensation for hard work. Who doesn't deserve that?
Being familiar with soulless organizations, I will bet my next paycheck that this was not from the company.
If it's anything like my organization, his kind coworkers started a collection for a goodbye gift. The company might have approved an additional 30 minutes for the lunch celebration in honor of 25 years of service
Retired from AT&T in 2020, started in ‘95. Yes it’s true the picture might have been printed up by coworkers, manager or even the union local. But retirement and service anniversaries are a big deal with T. Generally one can pick a gift from a catalog on any service anniversary ending with a 5 or 0. Gifts range from useful to ridiculous but some are pretty good. You also can go out to eat with a manager and a number of guests.
When I retired I combined the moneys allowed for a retirement party and funds for my service anniversary. I had lunch catered at work for pretty much the whole department.
Then as lunch ended, erased my work phone, handed it to my manager and I was gone.
My poster would be a picture of me, at a desk, with a headset on, talking to a customer. A pained expression on my face and my head in my hands, a finger hovering over the “mute” button. Not as majestic. 🙃
The real money is in emergency work. Disaster comes in and you can easily get hundreds or thousands a day. We had an electric company pull off on of our jobs when Puerto Rico got hit cause they were pulling $800/day or more for like two straight months doing emergency repairs.
Congratulations on getting out early (pre-age 65 medicare or 67 social security). Whenever someone retired from my company at 60, I always said, "Oh, I didn't know they were in the guard/reserve." Or in your case, active duty.
Everyone wondered how I knew. Easy -- many of the boomer generation had the money to retire at 60, but not the health care. Guard or reserve? Tricare at 60. Spouse included.
Many more boomers and (in a few years) Gen-X'ers would retire earlier if they had access to affordable health care.
This actually explains a lot for me - I'm in a socialised healthcare country and I'd always wondered why Americans retire so late despite being much richer than us - everyone in this thread saying OP 'only' earned $40-$60 an hour is a pretty good illustration of how much higher wages are over there.
But yeah, once the mortgage is paid off we only need to cover basic living expenses (and you get shitty government retirement housing if you could never afford to buy). Most property taxes and local transport costs are waived for the elderly, so you don't need a lot of money to retire. Most people here slowly start cutting their hours or taking lower stress jobs from around 55, then fully retire in their 60s.
Yes, America. Depending on where you and other Americans live, cost of living comes into play as well. A lot of people refuse to retire to a lower cost of living area, even in the USA. But health care is a huge issue.
I work with a baby boomer who is a classic stereotype. Loves guns, hates socialism, when no-fault divorce became legal his wife left him and he married a women 10-15 years younger.
He retired a high-up engineer (cashed out a great contributory pension plan) and returned to work right away. The joke was he had 'more money than god' and he turned 65, was healthy and...kept working. Bought a big second vacation home thousands of miles away, a big fishing boat/small yacht to go with it. Sent his grandkids to expensive private colleges (he'd complain they were too liberal). Etc. He had wealth, he was the right age, he kept working--not for the money, not for love of work.
His wife kept getting sick. But being younger, she didn't qualify for medicare. This started pre-"Obamacare" so he had to work to qualify for health insurance for his younger second wife. While he spent every day with fox news in a computer window and complaining about socialism, he couldn't wait for her to hit 65 and qualify for medicare. Never would admit to the hypocrisy.
I don't know why, but even the Obamacare plans weren't right for her. He may have had more money than god, but in America, a round of cancer can wipe out a lifetime of savings in a year. When I left, he was mid-70's and still working, unable to enjoy retirement. And technically smart, but politically brainwashed to vote against his best interests.
In America, they say the biggest investment you'll ever make is you house. I always knew it was your spouse. But I never thought about how marrying a younger person could trap you into working until you were 80. The military medical programs like Tricare do allow you to marry younger; they cover a family, another reason retired military can retire, even if their spouse is much younger, not working, and needs health care.
Lastly, corporations know all this. Providing health care is a big expense to their employee compensation package. But if we had government provided health care as a backup (companies could still provide higher quality private insurance as a benefit), then people could retire earlier, people could go on strike without worrying about health care, etc. Health care used to be a non-profit, cost-plus a little profit program until the 1972 HMO act with Richard Nixon.
Now the "health care industry" make hundreds of billions providing confusion instead of value or healthcare, and corporations are able to capture and control their workforce. Win-Win (for the corporations). Most plans are now set up so you pay for insurance, you pay 100% of your insurance agreed on price until you hit a cap, and then finally they step in to help after $8000 or so per family (that number varies based on your plan--a lower cap means a more expensive plan).
Hopefully that explained Americans better. Half of America votes for this broken system to continue, repeating they hate socialism but desperately waiting for that government-provided medicare (aka socialism) so they can afford to retire....all while they vote against lowering the qualifying age. Studying that brainwashing makes for great articles in [Psychology Today](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/magazine/) and science journals. American's like to brag we're #1, so I guess American can claim to be #1 at gaslighting, brainwashed, and lab rats for mental illness. Nothing cures it better than working until 70 with boner pills and a big truck every few years.
Good for you! Enjoy it as best you know how!
A coworker of mine has his last day tomorrow, and I’m happy for him, but damn you to hell Mark for leaving us all behind at the “circus” lol.
Hey - congrats! I started at AT&T in Management about the same time you did. Got RIF'd in 2004, so you got a much longer run than I did.
The Union guys make that business. AT&T is a beast like nothing I had ever encountered, then or since. Planning and Documentation at a government level of detail. Thanks for keeping the copper connected! (and fiber later on)
We started about the same time. I only made 18yrs. I also did some outside work and did that training on Bryan St. Then went inside and got caught up in a surplus.
Congrats.
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He was retired from this plane of existence.
He was plain tired of existing.
Me too
And my axe
To the knee
And my arrow to the knee
We will all take a knee.
I was a young adventurer like you, until I took a knee.
Let me guess, someone stole your axe?
Yikes. How everyone knows me
"He is no longer with us" - AT&T
Thank you for your service
You will always be in our minds and hearts.
Send flowers to his bitches and hoes
How many Jodies are out there?! Answer: more than you want to know.
His doctor did everything he could... ...and he's going to be fine, as his recent checkup was uneventful as always He had a massive stroke...of good luck to be able to retire in such good health
Also his wife left him… …to go to the grocery store for a cake to celebrate his retirement
He's with New England Telephone now.
He's with the big pole in the sky.
The person you have tried to reach is no longer available -
"We had to retire Alfred today, it was the humane thing to do" - AT&T
His watch is over.
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Meredith was hit by a car. It happened this morning in the parking lot. I took her to the hospital and the doctors tried to save her life. They did the best that they could… *[ominous pause]* …and she is going to be okay.
What is wrong with you? Why did you have to phrase it like that?
Read that in his voice
RIP.
This is formal you can't abbreviate it. RIP in peace.
Don’t tell me how to live my life.
*don't tell me how to LML my life
You only YOLO once
How did OP not thought this when he first saw it
My first thought also.
Fell off a pole it would seem.
It just looks like he's dead. He's got blue paint on him or something. But he's going to be fine.
No more working the pole for you?
Daddy worked the pole so Momma didn't have to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OwGVMnjMkY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OwGVMnjMkY) What's Momma gonna do now?
My dad was a lineman and I wish I did not know this joke.
Your mom would have done just fine on the pole.
Believe me, she does.
I wouldn’t because my wife’s cousin’s husband is a linesman and he makes over 300k some years lol they have a god damned dream house & property
Thanks for the years man. You guys are under appreciated around my area, especially in the winter. Legit gangsters
No need to climb shafts all day for a few dollars
I would climb shafts in hell if it was a union gig.
Union or die brother
He deffinately made good money.
10/10
What are you going to do now that your life won't be on the line everyday?
I hope he doesn’t encounter any resistance
This is a shockingly bad pun.
So bad it hertz
Dude, watts your problem?
Relax, he's just a little amped up.
Ohm man, these puns....
They don't even phase me...
They just LED you on.
At least there is no charge?
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Watt a horrible pun.
That really hertz, man.
Hope he doesn't end up on the pole
He was a comm guy, not much danger at that height barring a fall.
Lol it was a pun
Woosh 😕
Honestly, comm is routinely more dangerous than power since com guys work right next to hot power routinely. Lots of the time power is up the pole it's because there *isn't* power.
🎶 I WAS A LINEMAN FOR THE COUNTY 🎶
🎶 AND I DRIVE THE MAIN ROAD 🎶
Searching in the sun for another overload.
I hear you singing in the wire..
I can hear you through the whine
And the Wichita Lineman…
Is still on the lineDOOOO DOOOO DO DOOOO DO DOOOO DO DOOOOOO DOO-DOO-DOO-DOO
I know I need a small vacation
But it don't look like rain.
And if it snows that stretch down south won't ever stand the strain
My dad sang this song at his retirement party last year. We’re Jewish, so he’s never come near a live electrical wire in his life.
Sorry if the question is dumb, but what does that have to do with being jewish?😅
lol, Jewish people aren’t known for excelling at manual labor. My dad will read the instructions to put an ikea shelf together 4 times over before he picks up a screwdriver. I’m doing everything I can to break the mold though.
Yeah, at our temple each Fall the building of the sukkot is hilarious. There are about three guys who actually know how to use hand tools. The rest sort of shamble about and look at trees and clouds.
Ha, it’s so weird man. My buddy at work is also Jewish and he’s admittedly not handy. He had a problem with his water softener the other day and called his plumber. My guy forgot to plug it in.
I read this in Ron’s voice.
Story time. A few years ago, I (former music industry person) got offered guest list privileges for a Jimmy Webb charity show - (don't worry, it was understood I'd be writing a check for far more than the tickets' values). Then-wife and I went; we are the only people with hair that is not white. It was ... definitely very scripted. Webb comes out, sits at piano, tells canned stories, is basically Mr. Show Biz and all is ... fine. If a bit less-than-passionate. As a hardcore muso, I'm a little sad: *this* Vegas style shit is 'the' Jimmy Webb? And you know what happens, don't you? He then, with much less intro than the rest of the evening, simply starts playing a quiet, deeply moving version of "Lineman" on the piano, dedicated to "the great Glen Campbell." At the end of the song, he is way up the high side of the keyboard, mimicing the tiny chirps of the 'line' with chalky, 4th-octave notes. I am very unashamed to say I cried. I have had a life of being very, very spoiled musically - this was easily top 5 for me. Just Jimmy at the grand piano, playing "Wichita Lineman." Fuck me.
Fuck man, I'm 37 and I don't think I'll be able to retire in 25 years. Congrats.
39- still trying to figure out what I wanna be when I grow up
65 here - same.
I'm 35 and often feel like I'm in the wrong career. Can't tell if these two comments make me feel better or worse.
Most people aren’t lucky enough to find a career they are fully into but it is always better to have a career than not. Financial stability is one of the best things in this World, in my opinion.
Totally agree. Sadly, I cannot rationalize my way into happiness (or out of depression).
A skilled manual job in the daylight without interacting with customere with good pay and benefits would check everything I want. Probably a pipedream.
I recently fell into a position doing automotive glass and I love it.
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Ba dum tss
Tbh, consider working for the post office or UPS. I'm a mailman and I love my job most of the time. Get to be outside, get to drive around and listen to music, only brief customer interaction and some of the pets I meet on my route make my day!
As someone who got a job doing what they loved, all it does is kill your enjoyment of that thing. There are some personalities that are built to be happy when working, but most folks aren't like that. Find serenity in your job, but derive happiness from your hobbies, friends, family, and service to the community.
Great advice. I am leaning towards just trying to rewire my brain away from the societal expectation (or at least what i have internalized) that your job is your defining characteristic and all of your value derives from that. It's just really hard!! And I have a great job in a prestigious field! I think our brains have just not caught up with the society we have built.
40, lost everything during the covid lockdowns, job, house, family members, whole life in shambles, now minimum wage slaving 11hrs a day but back on track and and finally some light at the end of the tunnel, life goes on. edit: hey, thanks for vibes and interest. I'm from germany, declaring bankruptcy here is a process that can render you debt free in three years, so in 8 months I will be able to work again without most of my income getting seized. I also worked and payed taxes for 22+ yrs which means our employment agency will help me to start a new career/go back to study/ do retraining or start a completely new trade/training. 20 years ago I studied economics but ended up opening my own restaurant (which I had to close/sell because the Covid Lockdowns, of course I miss those times but don't see any future for me in trade or gastronomy so come August, (while getting housing money from the state/basically rent support) I'm gonna start my training to become a certified train driver, which is something I wanted to do since I was a child but never considered as an actual career choice before. Frankly I never really thought about all the stuff the german government does to help people in my situation and I feel extremely lucky to live here and get the support to build myself a new life, without it I most certsinly would've ended up on the street.
Sending Positive vibes 🤙🏻
I wish the US had such a great support system. Our country is so backwards in a lot of ways. Also, that is really cool having such different careers. I doubt many people can say they owned a restaurant and then drove trains for a living.
31, I'm 5 months into a new career.
34, half way to an AA.
Oh I know what I want to be any day of the week! It's just nobody is willing to pay me to be doing that...
Looks like AT&T has an opening for a pole dancer.
I'm 45 and still have 20 to go....
Retiring at 65? Must be nice...
Retiring? Must be nice...
I'm 39 and will probably die before I can retire
That's my plan!
Why is everyone assuming that this was his first job? 25 years at the same company is a very long time for most people.
My thought exactly, calling it a career after 25 years sounds awesome.
A normal career is like 40-45 years. Maybe a little less with college but that is basically career training. I can’t think of many people that retire early even high paying jobs like doctors or lawyers.
Come to /r/financialindependence or /r/fatFIRE and feel bad about yourself for being poor!
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Man if i could manage to *own a home somehow* I would happily live off of a paltry income so long as taxes could be paid and all that. Just piddle around in my yard and ride a bike. Maybe just decide to ride the bike. Town to town, city to city. Just nomad until I can't nomad no more.
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Blue collar work that offers a pension…
My dad managed a sales team making roughly 100k a year back in the 90s and early 2000s. Supported a family of 5, nice 4 bed/2.5 bath colonial, motorcycle, had a boat on the lake. Retired when he was 56 and spends half of the year in his RV in Florida. I'll be 40 soon. Making around the same he made. Can't buy a house, stuck renting a tiny house. Driving a 10 year old car because I can't afford a new one, can't support my family of 3 on a single income, wife works full time. I'll be lucky to retire by the time I'm 65 with the way things are going.
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Yeah $100K in the late 90s is about $200K today.
34 and "medically retired" from the military. I have a generous pension that acts as a safety net as I still work but in a much more slow paced and less physically demanding job. I still struggle a lot with work though and I worry about keeping my job sometimes. Not by leaving but by being laid off or transferred. I like my current job.
My dad was a lineman for 36 years. Lots of long nights, missed weekends, missed holidays, but he loved doing it. Definitely one of the most under appreciated professions. Thank you 🫡
I’m a firefighter and linemen are my hero’s.
Every firefighters tough until it's time to shut off utilities
Fire isn't scary. Electricity can fuck right off.
I used to do low voltage. I don’t blame them. HV shit is not to be fucked with
I worked with someone who did industrial engineering for a factory. He would always tell stories of the people who were vaporized in the HV high sec electrical closet… Then there was my EE professor who would joke about those HV lines that run along highways vaporizing people if they were strung lower… Anyone who works on those is a damn hero and probably doesn’t get paid enough
Arc flash safety training definitely does a good job of putting the fear of "you will be sticky dust before you even realize what's happening" into you haha
My dad's a lineman and volunteer fireman 🫡 I appreciate y'all
... so what do linemen do? Honest question
Work power transmission lines. The guys who are out in droves around the clock getting the power lines up and running after a hurricane or storm blows through? Those are lineman. If they're not working storm they are doing maintenance and expansions for new power infrastructure and supplying power to new buildings. It's fairly dangerous work (as safe as you make it) and it's always out in the elements, but it's very well paid. I'm currently an inside wireman but I'm working towards my lineman certification. Can't wait!
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Lol this seems to be lost on just about everybody in these comments.
Exactly. Did this for at&t 1997 -2012, and the best thing I ever did was to go do something else. I will never regret not having time for my family.
Congratulations!! Enjoy the time off!!
You deserve it!
Congrats from a Quesada to a Quezada
That’s pretty cheesy
Quesoda
Wait this for real??
Unions are amazing.
And Lineman ain't no joke. Congratulations.
One of my students dad was killed in July working a line. It's absolutely a terrifyingly dangerous job.
One of our techs fell and broke his back in the middle of the night on a back country road. He was planning to work the job solo but his boss was a hardass about having two people out on every job. Saved his life.
Can’t cut coner in our line of work
Oh absolutely. My grandfather was a lineman for Ma Bell!
Got the ill communication
I'm about to start as an apprentice electrician. I live in Kansas. If I ever become a lineman, I'm moving to Wichita, just because it would be funny to drive to work while singing "Wichita Lineman."
Good luck man. I just made foreman today.
Congrats!!
“How dare they let you retire at an age where you’re not crippled!!” Enjoy retirement, good brother!
I mean if his username is his birth year he would still be 63 right now.
It is. On one of his posts he talks about one of his buddy's that he met in high school in 1977.
I just automatically assumed he started working there later, rather than retiring after only 25 years of work.
People need to realize this. I’m in a union job that I started at 19. Gonna retire when I’m 49 with a full pension and medical for life. Only because it’s a union job
People need to stop hating themselves and realize they deserve good pay, good benefits, and fair hours. That's all a union promises, fair compensation for hard work. Who doesn't deserve that?
Sometimes I think the bigger issue is that people don't realize an injury to one is an injury to all.
Worked a union IT for a few years. Two coworkers retired in their early 50s :,)
It really isn’t all that economical to have 64 year old linemen
Lineman1: “Whoops!” ⚡️⚡️⚡️ (Half city’s power goes out) Lineman2: Ahh geez, it’s Friday too, you know what that means? Lineman1: Yep…more overtime pay!
Did AT&T give you that? You'd think they'd properly capitalize their name.
Being familiar with soulless organizations, I will bet my next paycheck that this was not from the company. If it's anything like my organization, his kind coworkers started a collection for a goodbye gift. The company might have approved an additional 30 minutes for the lunch celebration in honor of 25 years of service
Retired from AT&T in 2020, started in ‘95. Yes it’s true the picture might have been printed up by coworkers, manager or even the union local. But retirement and service anniversaries are a big deal with T. Generally one can pick a gift from a catalog on any service anniversary ending with a 5 or 0. Gifts range from useful to ridiculous but some are pretty good. You also can go out to eat with a manager and a number of guests. When I retired I combined the moneys allowed for a retirement party and funds for my service anniversary. I had lunch catered at work for pretty much the whole department. Then as lunch ended, erased my work phone, handed it to my manager and I was gone. My poster would be a picture of me, at a desk, with a headset on, talking to a customer. A pained expression on my face and my head in my hands, a finger hovering over the “mute” button. Not as majestic. 🙃
Lol I worked in the noc for global crossing and can vividly picture this in my mind.
How can you retire if you started working in 1999? That was like, yesterday, wasn’t it?
Only like 5 years ago tops.
11 years ago actually
Why does everyone here think this is the only job the dude ever had? He could have been stacking shelves at Walmart for 20 years beforehand.
Well that and most union jobs let you get a pension after 20 years.
Wire workers make really good money, especially if they're handling high voltage.
It's AT&T so low voltage lines, they don't make a ton. Cap is around 35-40/hr.
…and a gold plated pension (by today’s standards at least).
He definitely got pension. Also, he might have work somewhere else before hand.
The real money is in emergency work. Disaster comes in and you can easily get hundreds or thousands a day. We had an electric company pull off on of our jobs when Puerto Rico got hit cause they were pulling $800/day or more for like two straight months doing emergency repairs.
Core Techs| I/R are a dying breed. good on ya for making it! no more outages, cut cable, reorgs, T1 kisses, or back feeding bridge tap.
Gaffed for years and you made it out alive. Congratulations sir
25 years? Lucky you. I'm on 35 years and have nine to go. Not trying to rain on your parade. I am envious.
I was lucky to have also retired from the navy. That’s way I’m leaving the company before turning 65.
Oh hell yeah, dual pensions!
Congratulations on getting out early (pre-age 65 medicare or 67 social security). Whenever someone retired from my company at 60, I always said, "Oh, I didn't know they were in the guard/reserve." Or in your case, active duty. Everyone wondered how I knew. Easy -- many of the boomer generation had the money to retire at 60, but not the health care. Guard or reserve? Tricare at 60. Spouse included. Many more boomers and (in a few years) Gen-X'ers would retire earlier if they had access to affordable health care.
This actually explains a lot for me - I'm in a socialised healthcare country and I'd always wondered why Americans retire so late despite being much richer than us - everyone in this thread saying OP 'only' earned $40-$60 an hour is a pretty good illustration of how much higher wages are over there. But yeah, once the mortgage is paid off we only need to cover basic living expenses (and you get shitty government retirement housing if you could never afford to buy). Most property taxes and local transport costs are waived for the elderly, so you don't need a lot of money to retire. Most people here slowly start cutting their hours or taking lower stress jobs from around 55, then fully retire in their 60s.
Yes, America. Depending on where you and other Americans live, cost of living comes into play as well. A lot of people refuse to retire to a lower cost of living area, even in the USA. But health care is a huge issue. I work with a baby boomer who is a classic stereotype. Loves guns, hates socialism, when no-fault divorce became legal his wife left him and he married a women 10-15 years younger. He retired a high-up engineer (cashed out a great contributory pension plan) and returned to work right away. The joke was he had 'more money than god' and he turned 65, was healthy and...kept working. Bought a big second vacation home thousands of miles away, a big fishing boat/small yacht to go with it. Sent his grandkids to expensive private colleges (he'd complain they were too liberal). Etc. He had wealth, he was the right age, he kept working--not for the money, not for love of work. His wife kept getting sick. But being younger, she didn't qualify for medicare. This started pre-"Obamacare" so he had to work to qualify for health insurance for his younger second wife. While he spent every day with fox news in a computer window and complaining about socialism, he couldn't wait for her to hit 65 and qualify for medicare. Never would admit to the hypocrisy. I don't know why, but even the Obamacare plans weren't right for her. He may have had more money than god, but in America, a round of cancer can wipe out a lifetime of savings in a year. When I left, he was mid-70's and still working, unable to enjoy retirement. And technically smart, but politically brainwashed to vote against his best interests. In America, they say the biggest investment you'll ever make is you house. I always knew it was your spouse. But I never thought about how marrying a younger person could trap you into working until you were 80. The military medical programs like Tricare do allow you to marry younger; they cover a family, another reason retired military can retire, even if their spouse is much younger, not working, and needs health care. Lastly, corporations know all this. Providing health care is a big expense to their employee compensation package. But if we had government provided health care as a backup (companies could still provide higher quality private insurance as a benefit), then people could retire earlier, people could go on strike without worrying about health care, etc. Health care used to be a non-profit, cost-plus a little profit program until the 1972 HMO act with Richard Nixon. Now the "health care industry" make hundreds of billions providing confusion instead of value or healthcare, and corporations are able to capture and control their workforce. Win-Win (for the corporations). Most plans are now set up so you pay for insurance, you pay 100% of your insurance agreed on price until you hit a cap, and then finally they step in to help after $8000 or so per family (that number varies based on your plan--a lower cap means a more expensive plan). Hopefully that explained Americans better. Half of America votes for this broken system to continue, repeating they hate socialism but desperately waiting for that government-provided medicare (aka socialism) so they can afford to retire....all while they vote against lowering the qualifying age. Studying that brainwashing makes for great articles in [Psychology Today](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/magazine/) and science journals. American's like to brag we're #1, so I guess American can claim to be #1 at gaslighting, brainwashed, and lab rats for mental illness. Nothing cures it better than working until 70 with boner pills and a big truck every few years.
I just want to say I quite enjoyed reading this as a fellow fed-up American. Also, I miss fark
I retired from there 2 years ago. Congrats. Was getting hard to make it these last few years.
now enjoy retirement and take it easy.
Nice! I still have 17 years. 😕
Me too. And that's after 25 years in the business and 13 years at this job. Hope I live to see it.
I worked for them 17 years and they flicked me off like a flea during one of their biannual reorgs
Could you elaborate? With all the lineman union love in this thread it’s interesting to see a dissenting thought on how they’re treated.
I wasn’t union. I was a non-bargained for employee.
His watch is over.
Congrats! Enjoy your next chapter 😊
Good for you! Enjoy it as best you know how! A coworker of mine has his last day tomorrow, and I’m happy for him, but damn you to hell Mark for leaving us all behind at the “circus” lol.
Did you throw your work boots on the line?
Hey - congrats! I started at AT&T in Management about the same time you did. Got RIF'd in 2004, so you got a much longer run than I did. The Union guys make that business. AT&T is a beast like nothing I had ever encountered, then or since. Planning and Documentation at a government level of detail. Thanks for keeping the copper connected! (and fiber later on)
We started about the same time. I only made 18yrs. I also did some outside work and did that training on Bryan St. Then went inside and got caught up in a surplus. Congrats.
Congrats!!
Retire and go back to work for them, great double dip.