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raccoon

(31,470 posts)
Mon Apr 24, 2017, 07:51 AM Apr 2017

I retired a few months ago, and I keep having work-related dreams.

I was glad to retire. I liked what I did, but in recent years the job had become more pressured, more focused on the numbers (imagine that LOL).

But I keep dreaming I'm back at work somewhere, usually similar to my last workplace, or some other place I worked. The dreams are mildly unpleasant, that is, not as bad as the exam dream, but I'd rather be someplace else.

Last night I dreamed I was at my last job and interviewed for another job within my department. In the dream, I would either get that job or either stay in the one I was in. I really didn't care if I stayed in the same job. I had a feeling of vague unease that they might just get rid of me.

Anybody else have this experience?

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I retired a few months ago, and I keep having work-related dreams. (Original Post) raccoon Apr 2017 OP
I had a really bad experience at work about 30 years ago greymattermom Apr 2017 #1
Mr. Shraby retired over 10 years ago and still dreams about the job he had and shraby Apr 2017 #2
10 years retired myself. Very vivid but mundane dreams of going in and doing my job. Midnight Writer Nov 2017 #28
Retired now for 1 yr and 3 mo.... ret5hd Apr 2017 #3
My nights have been rife with work dreams True Dough Apr 2017 #4
I retired three years ago and still dream about work. femmocrat Apr 2017 #5
I have dreams similar to what you describe in paragraph 2 after four years. greatauntoftriplets Apr 2017 #6
I've been retired 25 months. TexasProgresive Apr 2017 #7
I still dream about work after 9 years alfie Apr 2017 #8
Retired nurse also Runningdawg Apr 2017 #15
Retired 8 months ago. Golden Raisin Apr 2017 #9
I retired 4 years ago lillypaddle Apr 2017 #10
I left my full time corporate job in 2004. Yonnie3 Apr 2017 #11
Everytime I've left a long-term job or situation I've had dreams for years afterwards. Nitram Apr 2017 #12
Wires wires all over the place duncang Apr 2017 #13
Yes, many times. JustABozoOnThisBus Apr 2017 #14
I too am retired, and just last night I dreamed about my former boss angstlessk Apr 2017 #16
In spades. I was an airline pilot. trof May 2017 #17
That sounds just like the "exam dream" which I've had from time to time over the years. raccoon May 2017 #18
Here's another weird thing. Flying dreams. trof May 2017 #20
When I was in college (many years ago) I used to dream about missing a final exam... Rollo Nov 2017 #27
I retired in 2009, and I had one of those dreams last night DavidDvorkin May 2017 #19
Last day teaching in a high school...20 years ago.. Stuart G Jun 2017 #21
I was a school teacher for 9 years TexasBushwhacker Jun 2017 #22
I see a common thread here mitch96 Jun 2017 #23
I retired 17 years ago and still have dreams about work - driving a truck ( I was a teamster). demosincebirth Jun 2017 #24
Think that's bad? ... RealityChik Nov 2017 #25
I retired 10 years ago and I still occasionally dream I'm at work. Binkie The Clown Nov 2017 #26
YES! Sometimes I wake up kinda... trof Dec 2017 #31
Thank you for this thread. I thought I was the only one still dreaming about my work Blindingly apparent Nov 2017 #29
It gradually dies off rock Nov 2017 #30
I've been retired for six years now, and I still dream about my old job. The Velveteen Ocelot Apr 2018 #32
I started having them five years after I retired demosincebirth May 2018 #33
About 2 years ago, started having PTSD dreams about a job I left about 15 years ago. Totally Tunsie Aug 2018 #34
I still occasionally dream about a job I left in 1979. PoindexterOglethorpe Aug 2018 #35
Yep. Same here. Still 19 years later. trof Oct 2018 #36

greymattermom

(5,794 posts)
1. I had a really bad experience at work about 30 years ago
Mon Apr 24, 2017, 07:54 AM
Apr 2017

and I had nightmares about it for almost 10 years, like PTSD. Now I'm retired and I don't dream about work at all.

ret5hd

(21,320 posts)
3. Retired now for 1 yr and 3 mo....
Mon Apr 24, 2017, 08:06 AM
Apr 2017

Took about a year to stop getting up at 4:00 AM.

I had one of those dreams you talked about just a couple nights ago.

We'll get over it I imagine.

True Dough

(20,474 posts)
4. My nights have been rife with work dreams
Mon Apr 24, 2017, 08:10 AM
Apr 2017

I was a middle manager with a company during the last 5.5 years of a 15-year stint with them. Mostly enjoyable work, but long hours. I left that job several years ago. Earlier this year my former boss, who is still there, contacted me and asked if I wanted to take on some work remotely. I agreed to do it. Ever since then my brain is re-engaged and, in my mind, I'm frequently back in the office after I drift off to sleep at night.

It's logical and doesn't bother me to have such dreams.

femmocrat

(28,394 posts)
5. I retired three years ago and still dream about work.
Mon Apr 24, 2017, 08:11 AM
Apr 2017

I dreamed about it last night in fact. I have had this one before -- I missed work and didn't call for a sub (I was a teacher) and get into big trouble for it.

greatauntoftriplets

(176,901 posts)
6. I have dreams similar to what you describe in paragraph 2 after four years.
Mon Apr 24, 2017, 08:12 AM
Apr 2017

Often it combines previous workplaces. The common thread is that I'm always being taken advantage of in some way.

I don't like them at all.

TexasProgresive

(12,306 posts)
7. I've been retired 25 months.
Mon Apr 24, 2017, 08:13 AM
Apr 2017

I have had work related dreams after about a year, then they subsided. I had one about a month ago. I too liked my job, but the admins were making it more and more unlikable. I was scared a bit about retiring but I have not regretted it. So far we are doing well financially. That may change with the current misadministration.

alfie

(522 posts)
8. I still dream about work after 9 years
Mon Apr 24, 2017, 08:16 AM
Apr 2017

I am a retired nurse, my dreams frequently are that it is the end of my shift and there was a patient I didn't know was assigned to me and I hadn't seen. That would constitute a nightmare in real life. I also have other just generic dreams that just happen to occur in a hospital setting but that isn't the main focus of the dream. They are getting fewer and farther apart. I am not bothered by them when I wake up.

Runningdawg

(4,622 posts)
15. Retired nurse also
Mon Apr 24, 2017, 11:06 AM
Apr 2017

I had the dreams frequently in the beginning, less now, although I still have them. They are similar in character to yours. I dream about loosing patients - not them dying, but physically loosing a patient for which I search the entire hospital frantically.
I also have work/hospital related dreams, I am sure fueled by pictures of war zones. In these dreams I am faced with hundreds of dead and dying people and no equipment or supplies to help them. This type of dream sticks with me much longer, because I know there are places it is a reality.

Golden Raisin

(4,676 posts)
9. Retired 8 months ago.
Mon Apr 24, 2017, 08:35 AM
Apr 2017

Worked for 45 years, almost 50 if you count summer jobs in HS and College. I was at my last job for 29 years and the last couple of years there were extremely stressful. I suspect after all those years it's a little hard for our brains and bodies to just suddenly switch off the ingrained habits and pressures of such a long stretch of working time. I've also noticed I am occasionally dreaming about work and the dreams are as you describe: mildly unpleasant.

lillypaddle

(9,605 posts)
10. I retired 4 years ago
Mon Apr 24, 2017, 09:15 AM
Apr 2017

and dream often about my last job, and the one I left in 1998! These dreams me leave me worn out. What you are experiencing is normal, like it or not.

Yonnie3

(18,133 posts)
11. I left my full time corporate job in 2004.
Mon Apr 24, 2017, 09:16 AM
Apr 2017

I still have dreams about that workplace. For the most part the dreams are about the insoluble problems passed to me by the people who created said problems. A combination of feelings of helplessness and dismay/disbelief leading to anger.

It seems to have some relation to last November's election as these sort of dreams have increased significantly since then.

duncang

(3,668 posts)
13. Wires wires all over the place
Mon Apr 24, 2017, 09:58 AM
Apr 2017

I was a maintenance electrician at a large chemical plant. After 25 years there I never shut down a operating unit. But can't count the times I was called asking me to come quick to get something back running because one of my co-workers shut one down. And a gang of bosses would come running asking stupid questions getting in the way. I got so pissed one time when a boss said "I'm not a electrician, but" I cut him off telling him right you aren't now get the hell out of here. Yes, I was a professional ass. Now I just do it for amateur standing.

That kind of stuff seems to be a reoccurring theme for a lot of my nightmare dreams.

JustABozoOnThisBus

(23,784 posts)
14. Yes, many times.
Mon Apr 24, 2017, 10:20 AM
Apr 2017

Retired two years, still dream of work. Places I've worked at, people I've worked with, projects like I used to work on. Sometimes, I dream that I'm retired, but somehow got called back to work for some project.

angstlessk

(11,862 posts)
16. I too am retired, and just last night I dreamed about my former boss
Mon Apr 24, 2017, 11:29 AM
Apr 2017

I dream about him, his wife, his house, or the office etc about once per month...and I don't miss it at all!

The rest of the time I'm either looking for my car or driving around???

trof

(54,273 posts)
17. In spades. I was an airline pilot.
Fri May 19, 2017, 07:24 PM
May 2017

I dream about showing up for work, but...
I don't have my ID badge
I don't have my passport
I'm not in uniform
I don't have my nav kit (That rectangular bag we all used to carry with approach plates, worldwide nav charts, flight handbook for the airplane, etc., etc., until it all went digital on the computer in the cockpit.)
I'm no longer qualified on the airplane I'm on.
I get to JFK the day AFTER my flight departed.

I hung it up in '99, but I still get the dreams once in a while.

raccoon

(31,470 posts)
18. That sounds just like the "exam dream" which I've had from time to time over the years.
Mon May 22, 2017, 10:14 AM
May 2017

I'm in college, it's exam time....and I haven't cracked my books or done any of the work I was supposed to do.

trof

(54,273 posts)
20. Here's another weird thing. Flying dreams.
Fri May 26, 2017, 06:52 PM
May 2017

Quite often I used to dream I could fly.
All by myself.
By doing the breast stroke, REALLY HARD.
Man, I could just SOAR.
It was fun.

No more.

Now I dream about somehow being on top of some impossible height with no way to get down.
Then I just wake up and think 'whew'.

I credit the current political climate.

Rollo

(2,559 posts)
27. When I was in college (many years ago) I used to dream about missing a final exam...
Thu Nov 30, 2017, 02:34 AM
Nov 2017

The finals were usually in big halls with a lot of stressed out students...

Then one year I actually did miss a final. It was for a very small class. I went to the instructor and he let me take the final in his office.

Never had that "missed the final" dream again!

LOL.

Stuart G

(38,726 posts)
21. Last day teaching in a high school...20 years ago..
Sat Jun 10, 2017, 06:13 PM
Jun 2017

still dream about the experiences and they were varied...2 or 3 times a week, almost every week....

Like what ...trof...said in his first post on this subject..post #17......most of the dreams are not positive, but in some kind of dangerous situation that I cannot control.. Often, I have become the student...looking for my class or books, or something like that.........................
....................................................oops.............

TexasBushwhacker

(20,686 posts)
22. I was a school teacher for 9 years
Wed Jun 14, 2017, 09:26 PM
Jun 2017

Left the profession in 1990. I still have dreams that I have papers to grade.

mitch96

(14,691 posts)
23. I see a common thread here
Sun Jun 18, 2017, 07:13 PM
Jun 2017

Stressful job, retire... dreams about stressful job.
I bailed out of hospital work in 2013 after 40 years.. Loved it up until the last five years. It got nuts with the admin's trying to get blood out of a stone to the point of just this side of patient safety. With the pace they wanted with the staffing they provided someone was going to get hurt and I could not take it any more. Management via spread sheet.
I had dreams about work, while I was still employed. Not any more.. I just have occasional dreams about the PEOPLE I worked with. Some good, some bad..
Now as a mental exercise I try to remember the names of all the people in my department. I can see their face plainly but what the heck was there name?? Eventually it comes to me.
m

demosincebirth

(12,740 posts)
24. I retired 17 years ago and still have dreams about work - driving a truck ( I was a teamster).
Thu Jun 29, 2017, 07:53 PM
Jun 2017

Ninety percent of them are weird and not good. They get fewer and fewer , thanks for that.

RealityChik

(382 posts)
25. Think that's bad? ...
Thu Nov 30, 2017, 02:14 AM
Nov 2017

I was a web developer when I retired last year, but I owned a custom t-shirt printing business for 17 years before that. And THAT'S what my dreams are about. I silkscreen print t-shirts all night! Usually against some insane deadline that I can't make! And I wake up exhausted, like I was during REAL countless peak seasons, printing late into the night after the employees left for the day.

I have no idea how to stop these dreams. It was long hours of hard work. The biz made good money and I had some great clients, but the web design industry was so much fun from the get go. I just sold the T shirt business and walked away with absolutely no regrets.

Or so I thought...

Binkie The Clown

(7,911 posts)
26. I retired 10 years ago and I still occasionally dream I'm at work.
Thu Nov 30, 2017, 02:25 AM
Nov 2017

Usually I get annoyed with myself (in the dream) for not remembering that I don't really need to work any more. The dream usually culminates with me quitting my job. Then I wake up happy to be retired once more.

trof

(54,273 posts)
31. YES! Sometimes I wake up kinda...
Mon Dec 11, 2017, 07:42 PM
Dec 2017

And think "Hell, I'm 76 years old. I can't fly for the airline anyway. I'm too damn old." And go back to sleep.

29. Thank you for this thread. I thought I was the only one still dreaming about my work
Thu Nov 30, 2017, 07:26 AM
Nov 2017

In my dreams, I still go to work but I’m a whole lot less competent than what I was whenI acteally worked. And I find the dream job more confusing

rock

(13,218 posts)
30. It gradually dies off
Thu Nov 30, 2017, 10:39 AM
Nov 2017

I also at one period suffered from visually acute dreams. Really intense and upsetting. That too has calmed down a bit. Been retired now six years. "And loving it", as Maxwell Smart would say.

The Velveteen Ocelot

(121,101 posts)
32. I've been retired for six years now, and I still dream about my old job.
Sat Apr 28, 2018, 11:26 AM
Apr 2018

They aren't really bad dreams, just weird, and they usually involve a situation where I've retired and been called back to the job for some reason. Oddly, some of them take place in the company cafeteria. Others take place in flight simulators (that was my old job) that look more like the giant Star Wars robots on legs, and I can't make them work properly.

Totally Tunsie

(10,885 posts)
34. About 2 years ago, started having PTSD dreams about a job I left about 15 years ago.
Tue Aug 28, 2018, 02:38 AM
Aug 2018

They're always complicated and many are disturbing, involving bizarre situations in the office and conflating people I know from elsewhere. In some, I'm racing deadlines all night, and wake up exhausted as if I had actually been working. In reality, I had two bosses - President/CEO and Chairman/COO. One was OK, the other not so much, so guess which one haunts me. The only plus is that I'm back in my working days size 8 suits!

I've been attributing them to medications I've been prescribed, but there's a tRump effect there also. He does appear in some of the dreams I believe because the Chairman/COO boss socializes with tRump at Mar-a-Lago and has a very similar personality and attitude. Birds of a feather, and all that...

I've mentioned them to my doctors, with regard to the prescriptions I take. They've confirmed that they're hearing about tRump-related dreams from many patients that don't have the "two degrees of separation" that I do, so there may be a new psychosis brewing as a result of this administration. LOL

PoindexterOglethorpe

(26,730 posts)
35. I still occasionally dream about a job I left in 1979.
Thu Aug 30, 2018, 10:23 AM
Aug 2018

There's no expiration date for such dreams.

I'd also once read that the common dream of being at school and going to a class and there's a test you haven't studied for is simply an anxiety dream dressed up as the school test dream. I used to have that dream when I was in high school. Then, many years later I returned to college and started taking math classes. Kept on dreaming I was specifically in math class, trying to take a test I hadn't studied for. So in my case at least, it was a very specific math anxiety dream. The interesting part is that in the dream, I was always back in high school, in the same room I had math in for two years.

trof

(54,273 posts)
36. Yep. Same here. Still 19 years later.
Wed Oct 17, 2018, 01:23 PM
Oct 2018

I was an airline pilot.
I dream that I'm at work but don't have my ID card or passport.
Or maybe I don't have my nav kit with all the charts and flight handbook.
Or I don't have my uniform.
Or that I'm given an airplane whose type I have never flown before.
On and on and on...

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