I could leave now. I’m trying to hang on until May 1st because it will make my retirement pay slightly better. I’m not sure I can make that long.
I’m in a similar boat. Could technically leave now, but I got a promotion of sorts this year and it will take two years after that officially took effect to fully bake the associated raise into my retirement. For that and other reasons it would be fiscally irresponsible for me to walk early, so I keep plugging away. But some days fiscally irresponsible looks tempting 
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How’s your vacation? I found that taking vacation days I had accumulated but would never use before I retired on Fridays or Mondays, making long weekends, was very soothing.
I’m 63 and plan on retiring at 65 and I am looking forward to it. I actually really enjoy my job and I am extremely fortunate to work for the company that I do; I think that a better work environment would be very hard to find. But my wife and I both had a series of stressful shit inflicted on us over the last 11 years and I have been running on fumes that whole time.
So when I do retire I absolutely want to do nothing/do only what I want to do and nothing else. Were it not the case, I would gladly continue working a few more years.
I’m 61. I’m ready to retire any time I can finagle health insurance. One of my friends said, “You could get a part-time job to pay for insurance on the marketplace”, but why get a part-time job making a less than half what I currently make, just for the insurance. I really hoped Biden would work on healthcare reform. My company laid off a bunch of contractors in similar jobs as mine, and I was so hoping they’d offer to buy me out. No such luck. But I have resigned myself to the awful new job they put me in (probably hoping I’d quit) with the attitude of at least they’re paying me for spending 20% of my time in conference calls.
StG
Happy to hear you have been enjoying your next phase!
At 63 my current plan is to see how I feel at 70. That said I had been a department chair of my group for nine years ending about a year ago, and by the end of that stint I completely concur with your experience of dealing with bureaucracy. Mine was probably not as bad as yours (and I can’t claim to have succeeded in carrying anything on my back) but it was still bad. Much happier to be solely focused on the clinical again, even dealing with horrible staff shortages and an unsustainable workload.
My wife and I are overdue to have a serious conversation about what we want our next phase to look like and how to build it. Should have been a few years ago: our youngest is now finishing her senior year in college. Covid (and some health issues for my wife) crimped our adjusting to empty nester life. Our lives have always centered around the two pillars of our professions and our children; building identities that are not filled with parenting and being prepared emotionally and psychologically to retire when we decide we want to, to not have work as core to our everyday senses of self either … we both need work on that.
I’ll get a pay out for my unused time. I’m hoping to hold on to that and make the ease into retirement a little easier.
I think that’s a requirement in the US. I was bumping up against the maximum vacation days I was allowed to store, so it wasn’t hard to use up some I would have lost if I hadn’t taken them. For me sanity was more important than some more money, but I can see wanting to maximize your payout.
The good thing about doing this just before retirement is that ignoring emails and calls on vacation days is not going to affect your next performance review.
I know! You need to pick up an instrument (just NOT an accordion), and when you retire, you can join us at the market on Sat mornings! 
Depends on the state. Some require it to be paid out, others require it under certain conditions and others don’t require a payout at all.
I will get paid for it, or I could retire a little earlier. Since I work in a school, I probably won’t feel right retiring before the year is completed.