been a nurse for 23 years, Hate it now. tried to get out a few times but the problem is, once you've got to a certain level it becomes difficult to move into something else as well paid.

Had a plan to retire at 45 and go travelling by making money out of property. Made 80k which was enough, but then met my wife and now we have 2 kids, one 2 and one 12 so taking a pay cut to live the life isn't an option. Instead I'm bustin my balls to get the wife through uni.

I spend my working life under unbelievable stress working for an employer that doesn't care and an unappreciative public. Everyday I read the press slagging of my industry and my profession.

But I wouldn't change it for the dream I once had, because that didn't include the wife and kids and thats irreplaceable. I do what I have to do for my life outside of work but if I could. I'd leave work yesterday.

I can definitely say that i love my job. I began studying law in the early 70's and I have been working as a personal injury attorney for motorcyclists for almost 40 years now. I'm also an avid rider, so it gives me a great opportunity to stay connected socially and professionally with a community that i really have loved my entire life.

I love the desert .. when the mercury it`s 40c me and the lizards are sitting on the rocks waiting for the sun to come out ,,,, so why in the HELL am i working in a sushi factory were it never tops 0c !!!! OH YEH training for this years trip to Iceland (and the money)

I have worked as a teacher since 1997. I was drawn into special education, and bit by bit, started to hate it year after year. 2 years ago, I began working as a teacher in the Arizona prison system, and have pretty much loved every day of it. There are no school administration issues, no pain in the ass parents demanding everything, not much in the way of barriers anywhere. The students' stories are quite interesting, and I even get to work with some notorious criminals (as opposed to everyday, run of the mill criminals)

Ditto for this Moggy,

I was a nurse and was almost destroyed by the system and the unbelievable politics, cynicism and disregard of my employers - that s to say, the managers.

I quit at 40 and moved here to Spain where I basically duck and dive. All's fairly well although you get fed up being on the edge all the time when most of my old mates are beginning to retire on comfortable pensions while I'm still creeping along paying the mortgage I got here when I had a regular job and bought a little city apartment.

If I'd stayed on I would have been able to retire last September with a biggish wad. That's quite a difficult one to swallow. So bear with it, maybe the wife and family is what you need to keep you focussed and live with the crap.

I saw my wife through Uni too but don't set high expectations for yours - in general mature grads don't have a rosy career path ahead of them, better to do it genuinely for its own sake. I did that too much younger but at least in my case I learned to express myself in writing - well sort of

I saw the British NHS needlessly slagged off on another biking forum the other day and it still made my blood boil. But don't let that get to, it's your life not theirs!

Thanks for the topic Ted. Every time I come across one of your threads there is always fantastic debates from the questions that you pose - you should get a job on TV!

Regs

Simon

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good post spanish biker!! sadly, or not, I work agency and have for 16 years so no pension for me, but if I had stayed in the NHS I wouldn't have been able to do the trips I have so every cloud and all that!

I see the papers are now slagging of the nurses as a result of Stafford, despite it being squarely blamed on the management!

Later this year I hope to do my offshore medics course. That will hopefully get me out of the hospital and into something else.

My wife is doing a masters in translation. Translators do tend to be older but although it's well paid it's a tough profession to get into, but fingers crossed!!

The NHS isn't without it's problems, I am not so blinkered as to believe that, but I absolutely do believe in it as a wonderful institiution, and when you see the health care of other countries, some of them supposedly developed, you realise just how fortunate we are. Like the Army (another great organisation I have belonged to) the NHS is least appreciated by the British People.

If it's so bad, why do many foreign nurses come over here to work and why do we have such a problem with health tourism?

Certainly in the UK I believe companies are going the same way, policies and procedures are stifling peoples inventiveness and free thinking, I used to enjoy my job with a passion, I had a feeling that I made a difference, that has been replaced with the micro-management of email, and an all encompassing quality system.
Stress and high staff turnover are worryingly high, but ignored, in short I survive my job for reasons purely financial.
My tours get me away from this a couple of times a year, and I am very, very lucky to have being given another start in life with my new wife, who although is at university at the moment, is as committed as I am to downsizing in two years, and having a gap year (can middle aged people do that?).

they can but I think it's called a crisis!

it seems these days that every job, no matter how menial, has targets to meet, usually pushed by failed managers trying to improve their careers beyond their abilities by micromanaging and hassling the people 'under' them.

Blimey Moggy 1968
read your first post and thought sounds like me.........but i work in another Govt Agency that seems to get slagged off quite alot recently too .
Good news is i can retire with an ok pension and lump sum in three years - have paid the mortgage off and own my bike lock stock and barrel . Thanks to a sassy other half we dont have any debts either , so despite counting down the days i guess things are not all that bad .
I know when i finish that it will be off to Chile to ride down to the end of the world , then pack my bags and off to see the rest of India with the wife . I wont have to even think about work for a year i guess , so will see the rest of Turkey and the Stans then find a nice bookshop that i can work in for three days a week , dealing with nice people that want to ask me nice things rather then wading through the dross that i currently spend my working day waist deep in .
This is assuming that i dont get blown up or poisoned going into another bloody Meth lab

nice

Personally i like the Nhs and most of the various staff ive met over the years - and as has already been said "it cant be that bad as everyone comes from all over the world to use it !! "

For those that want to give the NHS a hard time, go and get some care elsewhere! I have worked in many countries, and never found anywhere that comes close, i was quite ill in Bolivia, and had to buy my medication before I went into the clinic in Oruru, and dearly wished I was in a UK hospital . My wife is in her last year of her degree to be an adult nurse, which for someone who has only been speaking English for 7 years is pretty amazing, and once she gets her PIN, we are off for the long one!!!!!!
The NHS has some amazing and committed people who shouldn't be judged by what the bean counters are doing.
good thread Ted, no holding off on the game plan, or any of the other travels in the interim!

Exile
Yes middle age people ( that would be me ) can have Gap years . They can afford ( in most cases ) to insure what ever they ride due to their age too , which is very nice
Good luck to you mate is what i say

This site is a life saver, humour and good advice at one www made the first move the other day, map of the world we're each making a very rough must see, must do list, and go from there!

Hi Moggy, et al,

Sorry to have been so long - forgot I have to 'sign up' for notifications

Yup, it was the Stafford thing that was attracting all the verbal on the other forum. That's the tip of the iceberg as I guess you know.

No pension sounds a bit frightening - mine is going to be meagre enough - not that I'm suggesting that folks should live just for that, I wouldn't be here doing what I'm doing if I thought that, quite the reverse. But as you get older the reality sinks in a bit and the sooner you face that one the better (off) you will be.

Good luck to Mrs Moggy with her career plans - as you say it's a difficult job to get into but the possibilities for living a good life abroad are there if she looks hard enough. I don't do translation as such but almost all of the information I use for work is sourced in Spanish - b****y hard work it is too but much better that trying to unravel some of the Spanish home grown translations of legal and technical stuff!

I'm reminded of a board game we used to have when I was a kid, 'Careers' you plotted your career in oder to win points for Fame, Fortune or Happiness, the idea being that you had a strategy to get either big bucks for low chance or safe and steady, etc. - sadly for me nursing flopped on all three in the end - now I'm not famous - nor even infamous! - certainly not rich, but passably happy - at least now it's stopped raining and snowing for what seems like the first time since November!

Great topic though!

Regs

Simon

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