onyourowntime2023

When I walked out of work for the last time, it wasn’t the work I missed; it was the answer to the simple question people asked when they met me: “So, what do you do?” Overnight, my answer disappeared, along with my confidence. I didn’t just leave a job; I lost my perceived identity. That can feel uncomfortable , even frightening,  at first. For decades, your job title   gave you structure, routine, purpose, and pride. When that disappears, it can feel like you've disappeared. But the truth...

On Your Own Time regularly meets older professionals who are defining what their next chapter looks like. They’re not necessarily looking for “work” as they knew it before retirement; they’re asking different, more personal questions, that get to the heart of identity in retirement and how they want to live this next phase of life. Questions like: Do I want or need to work? Who am I if my job isn’t the center of my life anymore? What do I want work to feel like now? How much work is...

On Your Own Time hasn’t been blogging lately—but we’re back in time for the festive season! As the season begins, let's think about the older people in our communities, many of whom spent decades in the workforce, building the workplaces many of us take for granted today. They trained staff, built teams, solved problems, learned different technology to make things run more smoothly and experienced good times and tough ones. But now, some are facing the holidays with less connection than...