SCOTT LUDWIG: The gold on the watch probably would have been fake anyway

“Gee, I wish I had spent more time at the office.” — Said no one ever on their deathbed.

When I was growing up, I always thought that when you retired from your job – the one and only job, of course, you would have for the rest of your life – the reward would be a gold watch.

However, there were changes along the way. One was that people didn’t stay in one job for very long. It became a common practice to enter the work force, work at one place for a few years to gain experience and pad the resume, and then move onto greener pastures. In many cases, this process was repeated — over and over again. Loyalty to an employer was a thing of the past, a complete contradiction to the way I was raised.

♦ When I landed my first job with a distribution center for a reputable and established company, I was in it for the long haul. I was devastated when, after 24 years with the company, our distribution center – one of five in the country at the time – shut down. Rumor has it that our facility was selected for closure because (a) it was the oldest, and (b) by so doing, it eliminated the higher wages paid to the more experienced employees in the company, resulting in significant company savings for labor expenses. In other words, the loyalty of myself and 2,000 of my fellow employees was rewarded with a small severance — and a warning to not let the door hit us in the aon our way out.

Another change was even harder to swallow: There was no gold watch. When I retired after working for my second employer, I didn’t get so much as a simple “thank you” from any of the executives at the top of the food chain. These were the very people I worked hard for every single day for more than 14 years, up to and including the day I worked while I was having a heart attack that I didn’t even know was a heart attack until I went to the emergency room after my work day was over. At my retirement luncheon – choreographed by my administrative assistant, whom I brought with me from my previous job and had known for 40 years – my superior (I’m reluctant to use the word “boss,” because he was anything but) seemed to choke on every word he said on my behalf. Why? He resented me for retiring, and dreaded finding my replacement.

In all honesty, I probably could/would have worked for another five years. Only my wife invited me to a retirement seminar at her place of employment, and the financial advisor conducting it asked us all 10 questions. He said that if we could answer “yes” to seven or more of them, we were ready to retire. I answered all 10 in the affirmative. A few months later, on the day my annual bonus showed up in my bank account, I gave my two-week notice to retire.

I’m telling you all of this for two reasons. The first is that you shouldn’t expect a gold watch when you retire. Sorry if I busted your bubble, but you need to be prepared.

Second, and more importantly, your job should not be your No. 1 priority in life. As I think back over my 39 years of working for those two employers, I always put my job above everything else. Most notably, my family and my health. I missed out on a lot of sporting events and school activities when my boys were growing up because “I had to work,” a phrase that sickens me as I write it. I missed out on a lot of weekend trips and date nights with my wife for the same reason. I missed out on a whole lot of things that were a lot more important than churning out a departmental budget or working on weekends to catch up.

As for my health, even though I only missed three days of work in my entire 39-plus-year career, I bear a cross for each and every one of them. (Rather sad, isn’t it? By the way, the last day I missed was the day after Labor Day in 1987. I retired in 2018). I never missed a day of work at my second job — not that any of the executives noticed. And if they did, they certainly didn’t care.) That being said, over the years I occasionally reported for work under the weather. Why? Because I was paid to work, not sit at home. (Warning: Do not think like this!)

As for doctor and dentist appointments, I always made them late in the day so I would only miss the tail end of my work day; if I couldn’t get a late-afternoon appointment, I made one for earlier in the day, then took an entire day of vacation for it. And, on many occasions, I simply blew off taking care of whatever was ailing me because I thought that work was more important. (News flash: it’s not.)

I’ve been retired now for more than three years, and I can honestly say I don’t miss working in the slightest. Not. At. All. That’s how retirement is supposed to be. I do miss the people, though – at least the ones I worked with day in and day out. The regular employees just like me — from whom I never expected a gold watch.

No, the gold watch – the one I never got — should have come from the “higher-ups,” the people I haven’t so much as thought of since the day I left. If I gave them any thought, however, I would have a message for them:

♦ The door didn’t hit me in the aon my way out.