No one thinking about leaving a job or career they've had 20 plus years believes me when I tell them, "Don't worry, you're going to be OK." They worry about how they'll spend their time, if they can pay bills and if their lifestyle will drastically change. But within two weeks of cutting ties, people tell me, "I should have done it sooner."

Some leave the work world for good. Others start new careers. But with something new to look forward to, the ones I know not only adapt to their new lives, they thrive.

In 2006, thousands at General Motors had to decide whether to stay with the company, retire early or take up to $140,000 to cut ties with GM. And like most workers contemplating the decision, money is just part of the dilemma.

As union leaders said in an Associated Press article that year, you agonize at the thought of ending a way of life. "You put your name on that piece of paper, it's like saying ‘my life is over with,' said Dennis Henry, president of a UAW local at the GM technical center in Warren, Michigan. ‘You're almost admitting that the best part of your life is gone.'"

Workers like Darwin Cooper, who is 59 and worked in the Lordstown plant, said he planned three years ago to leave this year and that the incentive package was just a bonus.

Debbye Williams, an Information Technology (IT) manager I know who spent 26 years at Procter & Gamble before her division was outsourced to Hewlett Packard, took an early retirement package in 2005. She wondered, "How do I transition emotionally? I was used to a very fast-paced, challenging, 24/7, demanding role."

The 51-year old says her decision "has been a big relief." With her pager gone and the responsibility of running a 180-person global operation left to others, she says, "I'm getting enough sleep now and working out. The internal conflict about things you had no control over bothered me. Corporate America takes a toll on you."

Today she says, "I'm so relaxed sometimes it scares me." She does some consulting and spends half her time as a volunteer for Big Brothers and Big Sisters, an international women's service organization and children's ministry through her church and just completed disaster training with the American Red Cross.

Randy Reedy, a vice president at Hewlett Packard who spent 27 years as an IT professional--most of it at Procter & Gamble--left in 2004 without a package. "I decided this isn't what I wanted to be doing with life right now." He had done some planning for after what calls his "formal work" and giving six months notice, left November 1 and began volunteering November 2.

"I knew I would feel very uncomfortable not going to do something useful," he says. "So much of your self-image is wrapped into your work life and all that goes away very quickly. You wonder, what will it be like not getting up and spending so much time on something that's been such a big part of your life for so long?"

He now tutors elementary and middle school kids in reading and math Monday through Friday and coordinates a tutoring and mentoring program through his church. Instead of managing 4,000 IT workers he now works one-on-one with about 25 kids.

"I enjoyed having a big business problem and getting it fixed. I still solve problems but nothing has prepared me to understand how to get 50 kids on a bus to behave. I can't say, ‘I'm going to do your performance review and your behavior will impact your salary.' But it feels good, I'm doing something useful."

It's never easy to leave something that has become a way of life. But starting a new life can be even more rewarding--especially when you're doing things that matter to you.

© by Andrea Kay