Shadow "helping" Mommy move crates.

[George McGovern]

16. From my limited experience with budget cuts, forced retirement, the proverbial bottom line is money. Period.

No regard for length nor quality of service. Management strategy to replace no-longer-valued employee with lower salaried, less experienced younger candidates.

Thirty-two years plus Johns Hopkins' expertise has to have contributed to a caliber of teaching of which, it seems, you are proud. It's as if your career rug is being pulled out from under your feet and against your wishes.

I'm trying to imagine what you may be going through.

I once drove mini-bus for an assisted living company. I drove daily taking residents to medical appointments, shopping etc.

Management directed me to follow a strict work-day routine based on making money for our facility's management company. I chose, however, to extend my job's bounds in order to improve residential quality of life, against, as it turned out, management's preference. Long story shortened, my hours were reduced from full-time to part-time with loss of benefits. I did what I could, but it couldn't last. Resignation was strongly suggested and bittersweet.

I hope you can leave with a measure of pride in a job well done. And that your retirement turns out to be beneficial, if not rewarding.