Control Factors (Part Deux)

Hello again, Dear Readers! For the 1s of you who are regular readers or happened to stumble on my last post (Control Factors (Part Un)), you’ll recall that in said last post I began a multipart series addressing a May 29, 2025, Morningstar article by Christine Benz in which she recapped her takeaways as an attendee and speaker at CampFI Spain earlier this year. In the post, Benz remarked how disappointing it is that some people pursuing FIRE work at miserable jobs and maybe also to the point of burnout. She also added her thoughts as to the merits of work(ing). 

As I countered in my Part Un post, I think that while exiting a bad job is a major reason motivating those seeking to FIRE, the ever-looming and recurring threat of a good work situation/environment going bad is, for many (like me!), as big or a bigger factor. Even (I strongly suspect) for the many like me, who once very much liked our work/work situations. Put another way, and as I noted in my last post, what we tired of was a lack of control of our ability to keep good things going for as long as we wanted them to.

That alone would justify wanting to FIRE in my opinion. But there’s more. Something that rhymes with, but is distinct from, this reason. And that in combination with it provides another nuanced reason for wanting to FIRE different from the motivations that Benz laments.

With that, let’s get to this second reason, Dear Reader, shall we?

Ping-wrong

As I’ve previously written in these pages, I have a love-hate relationship with my phone. 

It’s nothing short of amazing that one tiny device provides access to so much information at our fingertips. But, speaking for myself, I hhhaaattted being tethered to the phone for work purposes. In time, during my full-time working days, I came to dread the phone. 

I could be pinged with emails (and sometimes texts) any time of the day, any day of the week. They might not be innocuous either, but rather require me to think deeply at times I’d rather have not, to take (sometimes immediate) action on something, and/or to reprioritize in a sometimes-adverse way. 

I almost always checked my phone for work-related communications first thing upon wakey waking, and last thing before going nighty night. Whether it was a work day or otherwise (including while on vacation) was irrelevant. 

So, here’s the thing. And the nuance that I want to bring up. While the action required, and emotional reaction provoked, by the communication was bad enough, worse was being under the constant—24/7—threat of such a communication coming. Whether or not an actual communication actually came.

This threat made it almost impossible for me to fully enjoy any moment. I found living joyfully in the moment all but impossible.  

Heck, I couldn’t even find respite in sleep! A work-related incident ruined my ability to sleep through the night. After that, when I’d wake in the middle of the night, my brain often would start to racing and focus on work. 

I know I’m not alone in these feelings. And I strongly suspect that many pursuing FIRE are similarly situated. 

But, wait! There’s more. One need not hate one’s job and/or employer for this nuance to be an accelerant to wanting to FIRE. No, one could love, love, love one’s job and yet also be subject to, and hate, hate, hate, this constantly looming threat of work disturbing one’s flow state or “me time.” Worse, one could not love, but rather tolerate one’s job, and be subject to the threat. 

For many in this situation, moving jobs is no panacea. Because, I suspect, many of us are in white-collar jobs. The easiest and most sensible job move likely would be to another white collar position. But that new position likely would find the person subject to the same constantly looming threats. 

Unbalanced

Some might counter that an increasing number of employers are adopting progressive work-life balance and employee mental health-related policies. Rules mandating that employees off the clock are, in fact, off the clock. 

Sure, I concede. But for many employers, these policies aren’t worth the bits and bytes paper they’re written on. Instead, they’re mostly all just so much lip service. 

Worse, they’re a ruse allowing the employer to say “Look how enlightened we are with these work-life balance and employee mental health-related policies! If an employee is having work-life balance and/or work-induced mental health issues, it’s all on them, not us!” 

Baloney! 

Maybe sometimes, for some employees. But I think in many (most?) workplaces employees have reasonable reasons for thinking that if they take advantage of these policies, they’ll suffer adverse work consequences. Immediately or at some unknown time down the pike. 

A move into a totally different field of work certainly always is an option. But also very possibly, not easy. Convincing someone in a field or job type you’ve not worked in is no easy feat. Fun fact: I learned that through experience. 

Also, if you’ve spent oodles of monies training for, and years in, a certain field, moving from it likely isn’t easily done. Talk about just forgetting sunk costs all you want. Actually doing so can be difficult. 

Let’s now revisit my thesis in Control Factors (Part Un): tiring of a lack of control of our ability to keep good things going for as long as we want them to. Let’s add to that this threat dissected here of being under the 24/7 threat of a work-related communication coming, whether or not it actually does. To my mind, wanting to be done with work, or at least a work situation allowing for these dual constant threats—regardless of the amount of love of the actual work—doesn’t just sound like a reasonable thing, it sounds like a most reasonable thing.

And a compelling reason for wanting to FIRE

Perhaps the optimists and/or the more well-adjusted amongst us can and do completely withstand or just brush off the effects of the ever-present swords of Damocles I’ve discussed here. Bully for them! I most definitely couldn’t. Oodles of others can’t either. 

For us me, the sword-of-Damocles-like uncertainty was bad. Its effects compounded over time. This wasn’t the good type of compounding. The type I like. The type as to money and leading to exponential growth. No, it was the type that wears you down. Issa no funI Zero stars out of 10! Do not recommend!

And in the end . . . 

Welp, Dear Reader, are you awake? Are you? Yoo hoo! Wakey, wakey, Dear Reader. Ah, thank you. I’m glad I’ve awakened you from your slumber. If you can stand it, tune in next time for my probably/maybe/possibly final installment in this series of posts. I hope it’ll keep your eyes open.