Since I’ve been retired, it seems I’ve taken on an unexpected job that takes up a shocking amount of upaid time to keep our little boat afloat. I don’t know about you, but when I calculate the number of hours devoted to appliance and technical repair issues, time spent on the phone with a service rep to answer a question about my credit card, standing in line at the bank to resolve a simple issue, or any number of other life’s first world catastrophes, I find myself wondering how I ever had time to work at real paying job. Don’t even ask me about the waiting times at your doctor’s office (IF you’re lucky enough to have a doctor), or spending ten hours in ER to see someone when you’ve had a stroke after dealing with offshore customer service reps.

I’ve concluded that one of the reasons so many people love working from home these days, apart from saving the time and money spent commuting and dressing for success, is because they can spend unlimited hours of company time on the phone with one of any number of service suppliers resolving issues that did not exist a couple of decades ago, without the boss looking over your shoulder.

After spending ninety minutes on the phone the other day about our intermittent internet with a service representative from Bell Canada who was located in Montreal, I concluded that call would have taken twice that length of time if I’d been speaking to a soft-spoken person in a third-world country who speaks English as a second or third language. On top of that, I’d be forced to ask that they keep repeating themselves because I had difficulty understanding them or couldn’t hear them. I found myself counting my blessings that I got someone in Montreal, our home country. Does that qualify as passive aggression?

A girlfriend recently regaled me with the long story about problems she had with a newish three-year-old refrigerator that died. She borrowed a cooler from neighbours, ate as much frozen food as she could before it spoiled, and spent far too much of her time negotiating with the manufacturer and repair department to determine the fault, and who was responsible. Because her 1-year warranty had expired, their best solution was for her to buy a new refrigerator, which she was ultimately forced to do when faced with the prohibitive cost of repairing the existing one. Another one off to landfill.

I had a similar experience a few years ago with my ailing clothes dryer. I spent hundreds of dollars getting estimates from technicians who insisted I needed a new one before finally engaging an electrician who determined the problem was the electrical feed, not the dryer itself. By then, I’d already invested enough money in repair visits to buy a new dryer.

Another friend ran into a problem with her new stove. Turning on the oven kept tripping the breaker and after hours and hours of negotiating with various service personnel, she finally got them to admit there was a fault with the oven and after weeks of negotiations, they delivered a new one. Sheesh! Why do we have to work so hard to get satisfactory outcomes. “They don’t build ’em like they used to,” we’re told. They don’t build technicians like they used to either.

As I’ve described in previous blogs, I no longer use self-checkout at grocery stores. I refuse to do the work I’m not paid to do. In fact, while doing such a poor job of my unpaid work, I usually had to hail a paid attendant to help me several times. Frustrating, embarrassing, and time-wasting. It’s infinitely faster to wait in line and have a professional check me out.

Have you tried calling Canada Revenue Agency lately to get the latest tally on how much room you have left in your TFSA? Don’t bother. There’s a minimum three-hour wait, or if you win the lottery on a possible call-back, they probably will not be able to help. I guess they’re too busy chasing minimum wage earners who might have shorted them twenty dollars on their annual return, while ignoring the corporations and billionaires who know how to avoid paying what they should. And, just today, I read in the morning paper that CRA is cutting back on staff!! Give me strength!

As seniors, we’re at a disadvantage when it comes to servicing and maintaining our appliances, electronics, and other gadgets. Technicians and service personnel see us coming miles away. They know we can’t undertake the work ourselves and they perceive us as having plenty of spare change to cover the costs. Who can blame them; they’re often right. And, I also realize that as retirees, little things become big issues in our relatively conflict-free lives.

I’ve mitigated the service issue somewhat by signing an expensive service contract with our gas company that covers our plumbing, electrical, heating, A/C and other maintenance and service issues. The big ticket items like furnace, air conditioner and hot water heater are on rental so repairs and replacement are taken care of. I may or may not have been ripped off, but at least I don’t have to fight over the cost and who is going to pay.

Trying to navigate the management and maintenance of our services, trying to get technical help without being ripped off, and generally trying to keep our little world functioning without breakdowns has almost become a full-time job. When I was talking to the guy from Bell the other day, I told him, “I so miss the days when I only had to call Bell once every fifteen years—when I moved—not every fifteen days because my internet or television service died again.”

All of these unexpected and unwanted chores are seriously cutting into my preferred retirement activities—like reading, napping, lunching with girlfriends, and afternoon drinkies with our retired neighbours.  Even the LCBO screws us and adds to our stress by charging $75.00 for a bottle of Canadian Club that costs $14.99 in Florida—so we rely on cheap wine.

Yes, Boomers—there is life after retirement, but it requires balancing temper tantrums, frustration, anger, and exhaustion with occasional bursts of relief and the ultimate joy of being your own boss. And, being a boomer boss is never easy. In fact, I’ve learned it can sometimes be quite challenging at our age.