That’s true - but that doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be questions about your fanhood if you’ve never watched an episode, don’t own any memorabilia, never been to a convention. There’s a difference between 'you’re not a fan because I know more about it" and 'you’re not a fan because you display no interest"
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Well, “semi-” can mean “partially”. I did work “full time” but as an intermediate step to retirement have cut back to 32 hours per week, which my company considers “part time”. Is it so hard to see “part time” as meaning “partially full time”? Or does it necessarily “render the word totally meaningless”?
I accept that the meaning of “semiretired” could be a bit variable, but don’t think my proposed usage is so far from plausible.
semi-
a combining form borrowed from Latin, meaning “half,” freely prefixed to English words of any origin, now sometimes with the senses “partially,” “incompletely,” “somewhat”:
I think retired can have at least 2 different meanings. On one hand, the person who puts 20 years into the military/police/etc and stops that job IS a retired military/LEO/etc - whether or not they then pick up another full-time job. In that respect, a lot of it has to do with benefits accrued from that prior job. But so long as they are working full-time at SOME job, they are not “retired” in a more general term.
I think of “retired” as generally meaning no longer doing what has been one’s primary occupation which had been done for a number of years, and which had been a primary source of income. A lot of my buddies stopped their full-time jobs, and have part-time jobs at golf courses. All of them consider themselves to be retired. I consider it significant if the prior job was to support most living expenses, whereas the ongoing work is just to supplement pension/SS and provide spending $.
I guess there is a grey zone of folk who reduce their hours but continue at the same job, or go from a more demanding to less demanding - possibly part-time - job. Whether they want to call themselves semi-retired, working, or anything else, is up to them.
Without getting into whether or not it’s plausible* - what I’m interested in knowing at this point is why you would prefer ( if you do) to describe yourself as “semi-retired” rather than as “working part-time”. That’s what I think I don’t understand - why does Napier describe himself as “semi-retired” when he works 32 hours over 4 days a week when most people who work a similar schedule describe themselves as “working part-time” or why someone who left the workforce to become a SAHP describes themself as retired when most people in that situation do not ** or why someone would speak about “retiring” when their plans are simply to get a different full-time job rather than simply talking about changing jobs/field as most people would and so on. I think there are certain assumptions that people make when someone describes themself as retired. I don’t mean that they assume all retirees spend every day at the senior center unless they are visiting grandchildren - but just as an example, if I ask a working friend about going on a trip from Thurs to Sunday, I assume any agreement will be contingent on him or her getting time off work. If a retired friend agrees, I don’t assume that time off work will be an issue.
* Which in my view would probably depend on how many days/hours you work - 1 day a week I would definitely see as semi-retired, 4 days a week probably not unless maybe it was 2-3 hours a day.
**with the exception of a few men I know who began collecting their 20/30 year pensions and then became SAHP. But they describe themselves as “retired” because they are collecting a pension
I was messaging my friend who is retired but working and asked about this. He stressed that the jobs he has now are pure fun. When he was a principal (your pal) he was constantly under stress, attending meetings, talking to parents, etc. He eventually reached a point where he hated to go to work, but he had no choice.
Now he is going to a brewery and slinging beers. It is fun. His other job is also fun. He hangs out after work with his coworkers. The money he makes from his current jobs goes toward having fun. The minute either of his gigs becomes no longer fun, he’ll give notice.
I retired at 66 and am enjoying it immensely. For me, it’s not being “productive” per se, but still needing a reason to get up in the morning. Volunteering fills that void, letting me do as much as I want.
I usually describe myself as working a four day week or not working Fridays. To coworkers asking when I plan to retire, I’ll add “as a step toward retirement”.
But the OP was about what “retired” or “semiretired” means to me, so I speculated “I think maybe “semiretired” should apply to me.”
Many people work shorter weeks for other reasons. “Semiretired” would be harder to apply to them. In my case, it’s a conscious partial step toward full retirement, which I anticipate in 2 years. Again, “semi-” can mean “partially”.
One difference between “semi-retired” and “part time” is that semi-retired suggests that you’re never returning to full time work, nor are you interested in building your career. Whereas “part-time” can and often is a passing phase.
I always looked at it as having had some sort of career that you have retired from. And then semi-retired means keeping your toes in the water, so to speak.
I mean, I wouldn’t consider someone with a 30-year career in the airline industry who decides to work a couple of shifts a week at their local hardware store for fun “semi-retired”. They’re fully retired, as they’re not working in their career field anymore.
Similarly with people without careers as such, it gets blurrier- they’re retired when they entirely quit working, not when they change jobs or lower their hours.
The question is, if he wants to go on a trip or something for two weeks, does he have to clear it with a boss? I enjoyed my job also at the end, but I had to be there. Now, except for some volunteer activities, I’m free. I could choose when to visit my daughter without worrying about anyone covering for me.
Retiring, to me at least, is not the same as moving from a crap job to a good job.
But if you then went on to say you had never watched Star Trek, had no interest in doing so, and hadn’t consumed any other form of Star Trek media, merchandise, or content, I think someone would be quite justified in thinking you were evidently using the word “fan” in a sense one of you did not understand.
So, truth be told, i usually tell people I’m working part time. And like Napier, i described myself as semi-retired in part because that’s the topic of this thread. But if i wanted to go on a trip Thursday to Sunday, I’d just do it. I never work Fridays any more, and my deal with my boss is that I’ll work ~24 hours sometime over the course of Monday-Thursday, and i will communicate that to the team so they can reach me. (I’m salaried, so 60% isn’t exactly 24 hours, but thereabouts, except right before deadlines.) My hours have become very flexible.
It means never having to say I’m sorry (to the boss for fucking something up).
He doesn’t “clear it with a boss” he informs them. He and his wife go to New York to see shows (they take a bus). But he is also happy to help out when needed. If he’s sitting around doing nothing and the brewery texts him asking if he can work for 4 hours, he’s happy to go in.
If you want to muddy the water we can talk about the official government term “grey area retiree.”
Or “senior status.”
And in the legal field, “Of counsel.”
I think the OP’s definition fits about the best, IMHO. I retired (well more like “told” to retire) a dozen or so years ago, as I had just qualified for an unreduced pension but wasn’t mentally or financially ready to retire (quit working). However, I was quickly hired in a job with another organization related to my field of work. As that new job was also “full time” I could perhaps best be described as “retired” from one job but not “retired” in the sense of “not working” nor “semi retired” because I was still working FT “on the clock” so to speak. Ironically, however, the second job also qualified me for a small pension so now I’m “completely retired” but might at some time in the future become “semi retired” (get some kind of casual or part time job) in the future.
As a little kid, I thought that there was a process one went through to retire, like paperwork bs, but in my case it was go to work one day, and the next I don’t- forever.
My sister in law quit her corporate job (she was a systems architect at a major company, pulling down I am sure $200k + incentives) at age 44 and declared that she had retired.
Since then she has acquired dozens of in-town and resort (beach or ski mountain) properties that she manages. She’s absolutely ruthless and makes a killing.
Calling herself retired seems to entitle her to bitch about how much work it is to manage 20 to 25 rental properties across a 1500 mile range. As if the tenants have an obligation to show up like magic, and behave exactly as she expects them to, so that she can just collect rent checks and make a few payments a year for taxes and HOA fees. She seems completely oblivious that she is running a pretty sizeable business with over $10M in assets and hundreds of customers.
You’re not kidding about muddying the water - everything I can find about “grey area retirees” makes me wonder what the difference is between being a “grey area retiree” and being vested in a pension and leaving the job before you are old enough to collect it.