I retired as a Vice President from a major Downtown Chicago Bank in March of 2009, after a 38 career there, following a significant downsizing during the economic downturn. On the day my job was eliminated, so were the jobs of about 75 others.
At the time I left, I had 2 Teams (about 26 people) reporting to me in the Trust Department. One Team handled Trust Administration for high net worth clients (those with $1 million or more of investment dollars) - we administered their trust, investment advisory and IRA accounts. The other Team worked with our internal partners (Bankers, Portfolio Managers, Sales Professionals, etc.) to set up new accounts, collect assets and fund them, as well as close accounts that were being distributed due to death or transfer to another financial institution.
To this day, I have to admit that I still miss my co-workers (well, most of them anyway!) and Clients. However, I DON'T miss the stress, the commute, the personnel issues associated with 26 direct reports, writing performance evaluations or having to meet budget/revenue goals year in and year out.
I've concluded that things work out the way they are meant to - while I wasn't thinking about leaving my job back in 2009, I now know that being job eliminated turned out to be a blessing in disguise. These last 5 years have meant that I've been available to spend quality time with my now 94 year old mother, and that alone has been a wonderful gift.
