Newest coworker is oddly elderly for his position, which is entry level laboratory stuff. Pressing a button on a machine and writing down the results basically. He's nice enough and friendly. Not great at his job but he's only worked for about two months so that's natural, plus again he's on the older side, at least late 60s or early 70s.
Just learned today that he was retired, he's on a pension, and he knew the owner from some business connections or something. Owner invited him to spend time at the company a few days a week. Dude is cosplaying as a worker. He doesn't even have experience in this role, he was an accountant or something for a similar industry, then management for decades, and now he's doing grunt laboratory labor for fun or something? What the fuck is going on
Dude I'm super glad you can have a job out of boredom. Some of us have to work for a paycheck and pay rent. Really glad that your retirement is so unfulfilling you can mingle with people who have student loan debt. Really cool that you can use the workplace as your adult day care so you don't have to spend time with your wife or grandkids.
I don't know how to feel about this and it's instantly made stuff super awkward. I'm upset at his mere existence. Like my workplace is a soul erasing facility where I begrudgingly drag myself so I have healthcare and an apartment. This guy has a pension and Medicare and shows up with his thermos and steel toes like "hello fellow proletariat"
Edit: ok to be clear, this guy in his own words, plus the testimony of other coworkers. He's told me he's materially comfortable, owns multiple houses, and has far more than enough money stay retired forever. He's showing up at a job just to have something to do. Which wouldn't be so off-putting if it were something more interesting but this is glorified data entry.
Like go volunteer at a shelter, dude.
I've worked with a few people like this. old retired people who got bored and got a job because they don't know what to do with themselves. it's both maddening and also pitiable. if I was retired I would never step foot into a job site again. it is a sad miserable existence to be given absolute freedom and then choose to spend your last few years laboring for a wage you don't even need. start reading books, pick up a stick and learn to whittle, volunteer somewhere, go do literally anything else with the fleeting time you have left!!!!!
We are like dogs trained their whole life to do a single thing. When we become old and weak we keep trying to do that thing because we don't know what else to do. Its pitiable more than anything imo
Some people actually like doing things that are considered jobs though. I actually love my job. If I wasn't reliant on having an income then I would probably still spend my days doing the same thing only for free and for people of my choosing. I don't get why this dude would enjoy lab grunt work but I also don't get why anyone would enjoy collecting stamps or eating fish with ketchup. Some people are just into weird things.