Over the last six months, I have been spending more than my fair share of time pondering retirement from the land of W-2s. I watch videos, read blogs, and pepper peers with questions. I am certain those closest to me are tired of hearing me talk about it. In fact, I am tired of talking about it. And because I am ever mindful of the size of one’s (especially my own) saying-doing gap, I decided to act.
Last month, I went to work and told my boss that I was ready to move to “part-time on call” (PTOC). It’s a term we use that keeps us on the roster and makes us available to the team should they want our services. On PTOC, calls don’t come frequently, so I saw my offer as more of a graceful exit. I fully expected him to take me up on my offer without hesitation, and I was pleasantly surprised when he countered by asking me to consider working 20 hours a week. In fact, I was so caught off guard that I told him I needed to think about it.
We often think of retirement as a hard line. One day, we are all in, navigating the demands of a W-2, responding to the relentless ping of notifications, and driving hard toward the next milestone. And the next day, we are completely unplugged.
But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about navigating transitions, it’s that the human mind doesn’t always shift gears smoothly. At the same time, not many companies have a part-time option. Had I known that we did, that is likely where I would have started the conversation. Either way, I was pleased my boss offered it up. Why not try a bridge? What if, instead of jumping off the ledge, I simply work 20 hours a week?
It felt like the perfect laboratory environment to test a theory. Welcome to my Retirement Lab. For a while now, I’ve been leaning into the “law of attraction.” For those unfamiliar, it’s the belief that if you want to invite new energy, new projects, and creative freedom into your life, you first have to make the actual space for them to arrive. You can’t catch what’s next if your hands are full holding onto what is.
So, I decided to run the experiment.
Phase 1 (Weeks 1 & 2): The Default Settings
The first two weeks went exactly as anyone who knows me would expect. Old habits die hard, and corporate momentum is a powerful force. I might have signed up for half the hours, but my internal drive didn’t get the memo. I found myself working just as much as I always did, only now I was doing it for the equivalent of half the money.
It was a stark, immediate lesson in boundaries. The company didn’t shrink my workload, and the team didn’t need less from me. I hadn’t adjusted my own dial. I was still operating on the default settings of a full-time mindset. The first data points in the lab proved that changing the contract doesn’t automatically change the behavior.
Phase 2 (Weeks 3 & 4): Intentional Friction
Realizing the experiment was failing because of my own execution, I pivoted for the next two weeks. I committed heavily to the 20-hour boundary. More importantly, I forced myself to draw a hard line in the sand: when Wednesday evening rolled around, I was done. I committed to doing everything in my power to completely unplug all day Thursday and Friday.
When you deliberately pull yourself out of the daily slipstream, a funny thing happens. The world keeps spinning, the emails keep piling up, and you are left standing face-to-face with the quiet.
Those Thursdays and Fridays became the space I was looking for. They gave me a tangible, visceral preview of what full retirement from a W-2 actually feels like. And honestly? It’s a fascinating, slightly uncomfortable, and incredibly liberating place to be.
The Ongoing Debate
The experiment is still live, and the data is still coming in. If you were to ask me today what the final decision is, I’d tell you the jury is still out. Every day is an internal debate as I consider three distinct options:
- Stay at 20 hours: Keep the bridge alive, maintaining a foot in the door while enjoying a four-day weekend.
- Stop altogether: Pull the plug entirely, step into the unknown, and see what the universe fills the space with.
- Move back to full-time: Dial it back up, knowing that the structure and rhythm of full-time work still holds value.
There is no wrong answer, and that is perhaps the most rewarding part of this whole journey. The beauty isn’t in having it all figured out on day one; it’s in having the autonomy to run the experiment in the first place.
We don’t always have to jump headfirst into the next phase of life. Sometimes, the smartest thing we can do is try it on for size, feel the fabric, and see how it moves with us. I am grateful for working at a company that allows me to figure things out, continues to value the contributions I make (even at 20 hours a week), and is willing to have me back full-time.
Stay tuned. The data is still loading.
Before you log off today, consider stepping into your own lab:
- If you cut your work hours in half tomorrow, would you actually allow yourself to work less, or would you just do the same amount?
- What is currently occupying your time and energy simply because you haven’t cleared the space for what’s next?
- What intentional experiment on your own life might you conduct this month, rather than just accepting the schedule that was handed to you?
