Wd40 wrote:If you link your identity with your job, then it is bound to be devastating when you out of job, especially if it is not by your choice. But if you have consciously worked towards financial independence and pride yourself from not having to depend on a job to make ends meets then I think it is not so devastating, when you are out of job. On the contrary, it could be vindictive of the fact that you saved all that money for this day. But then the next question of "now what" comes. This needs to handled but this is different from a person who has done just 1 thing all his life and that is his identity and on retirement he doesn't know what to do.
Yep, and that is precisely why it is (devastating) for so many people. Not least because whilst you are pre-occupied with creating and sustaining a career who have little if any time to consider life without such a complete sew-on identity that it gives. And to many it comes as a rude, or blunt, shock and adjustment.
Social interactions are interesting, being pigeon-holeable seems to be important, at least when you are 'in the thick of it', amongst careerists.
Maybe it's different in somewhere like the US with The American Dream? In the UK success or 'arrival' is verging on taboo. Do it really big time and you might be ok, do it vs [ha *vs*] your neighbour and it might be some form of trouble lol.
I don't think present status/ego derives from discussing tomorrow's plans. It's more about what you are right now. Or perhaps what you are now gives credibility to where you are headed...?
Funny though how so much comes down to what you are, vs, whether you're simply a generally likeable person.