Ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm

I was out in the garage making coasters and listening to Bob Dylan … because I am retired, and I can. Even though I know every song, sometimes music slaps you in new ways. It was as though I had heard Maggie’s Farm for the first time.

I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more
No, I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more
Well I try my best
To be just like I am
But everybody wants you
To be just like them

Listening to the whole song, I thought about what a miserable existence that must have been, working on Maggie’s farm. Aside from the pressure to conform, he encounters mean people in the way of Maggie’s Pa and her brother. And one gathers Maggie, herself, was no saint.

I was thinking about my own jobs and decided to start referring to my entire career as Maggie’s Farm. Maybe that sounds negative, but when I’m feeling especially happy about my retirement lifestyle, I find myself singing, “I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more.” It’s my new anthem.

Jobs rarely live up to expectations. Some of the best career advice I ever got infuriated me at the time. I was so naïve and wanted to think the world of business doesn’t operate this way.

The first was from a senior State Department official. He said, “Donna, let me tell you how to get ahead. Keep all your good ideas to yourself. Do everything your boss wants, and someday you will be boss, and everyone will have to do what you say.” Although I never subscribed to his theory, I eventually saw his truth in action and probably would have fared better if I had gone that route.

The other advice was from a lawyer for an investor-owned utility who had left the company over a beef of some sort, went to work for a competitor that ultimately merged with another company – leaving her with a golden parachute. She came back as a consultant, and we collaborated on a project.

She said, “You have to decide what you’re willing to do to get ahead. If you really want it, you have to suck up and keep sucking up. When you think you’ve overdone it, and they will call you out for being a suck up, suck up more. Those at the top have an insatiable need. And if you aren’t prepared to meet that need, then settle for something less.”

That was when I adjusted my career goals. I never was good at the whole suck up thing but figured I could go pretty far without it. Just not the top. And that turned out to be fine with me.

My days at Maggie’s farm are over, and I have no regrets. I did good work, had some amazing experiences, lived reasonably well along the way and earned a decent retirement. I read all this stuff about people not adjusting to life post-career, and it doesn’t surprise me, because we’ve been programmed since we were kids to find a job and earn a living.

I would guess we started compromising on how we’d spend our lives by the time we reached middle school. You were already trying to figure out what you were good at, what gave you pleasure and how you might convert that into a paying gig. And somebody was already whispering in your ear, “You can’t do that.”

Retirement is not a return to childhood. It’s better! This is probably the freest we will ever be. It’s so cool and fun to experience this transformation and imagine the possibilities, and I fear this is something lost those who dwell on the downside of aging.

Are you enjoying your freedom?