... I used to sit around and 'estimate' how much longer I had to put up with all the sh*t. LOL Actually, for the most part of my career I enjoyed it. It was fascinating how we could bust up a molecule and put it back to gather again as something else. I worked with most of the same people as I came up through the ranks and supervising was an easy job because I knew the people so well. I called it good 'people chemistry'. In my entire career I only had to let go 3 people, and that always hurt. People wanted to work for me, and that was a good feeling, because the people are what made me a success in my career. So I always tried to treat them right. After the merger it seemed like corporate America was running rampant and benefits were trimmed, raises tougher, staff reduced & workloads increased. This came at a time when 19,000 people were laid off and the company was making record profits quarter after quarter and the CEO picked up a cool $20 million bonus Then forced ranking came in and you had to evaluate your coworkers. 10% would be let go and replaced. It didn't matter how good you were if there were 9 better, you were out! That posed tremendous stress on the people and backstabbing ran rampant. After all it was survival, you had college, mortgages, etc. I was shocked each year of the talent they threw away! But they saved money in salaries, retirement etc. There was a lot of age discrimination but it was cloaked in "performance". I was working 60~65 hours a week, the work was never ending. Budgets were cut to the bone and I could barely afford a pencil and had to get nine signatures to get it! I loved the work, and the people.... it was the politics and the policies that I got to the point I could no longer bear it.... I had the money so I left. I have never been happier, the stress is gone, and I don't miss it. I am only 50 so I plan on doing something, just what I don't know yet. Wife is still working part time at the Emergency Room where she did 30 years....