Your Happiness Factor

S ome people plan their retirement many years ahead.  They have very definite views on what they are going to do and how they plan to live their lives.  They leave work, start to put their plans into action and away they go. For others it just isn’t as simple as that. Some people have made no plans at all beyond work. Quite often they are people who are not really choosing to go.  They may be going as a result of reductions in the workforce, or because partner and family have pressured them to go, or because it is financially advantageous to go.  But their heart isn’t really in it and they would much prefer to go on working. For others, well once they have left work,  life is just so very different to how they expected and they just don’t get round to putting their plans into action. But retirement presents you with lots of possibilities, even without a lot of money. I know someone who found it felt like being sixteen again with lots of choice ...

I've  decided to add another blog to the family –  Leaving the Public Sector  - and I’m seeking your help.  Following the 2010  Spending Review  it was revealed that between them UK Government departments were expected to shed over 100,000 civil service posts as part of their efforts to reduce administration costs.    The Government's cull of quangos, in which 192 public bodies are to be abolished and a further 112 will be merged, will also contribute to an overall headcount loss in the civil service In addition vast numbers of posts are likely to be lost from the wider public sector - Local Authorities, the NHS etc . Many public servants have already been invited to consider taking voluntary redundancy, and many more will be invited to do so as reorganisation plans begin to take shape.  Compulsory redundancies cannot be ruled out. For many public servants this is a time to consider the future and the challenge it presents. Four years a...