Control Factors (Part Trois)

Hello, Dear Reader! Welcome the third (troisd?) and probly last installment of my 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). 

In Part Un, I countered that 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.

In Part Deux, I addressed being under the 24/7 threat of receiving—and having to address—work-related communications due to being constantly tethered to one’s phone (enabled to receive work communications), whether or not an actual communication actually comes. I contended that that is yet another reason for wanting to FIRE, regardless of the amount of love of the actual work one does. And I added that it, in combination with the reason addressed in Part Un, makes for an even more compelling case.

Now let’s get to the meat of this maybe last? post, shall we?

You gotta work it

A nuance of the FIRE community that I’ve picked up on and that I’m not sure that Benz fully appreciates (yet) is that while lotsa people say that they want to RE (and might even really mean it when they say it), RE they rarely follow through with that (over time). Ditto for people who’ve actually FIREd and say that they want to be/stay retired. Even those who are at some point burned out and/or enduring soul-crushing misery during their career.

I say this because I know hardly anyone who’s retired early and hasn’t engaged in work after any RE or decompression trial period. Rather, most do at least some paid work. And/or volunteer (which is just unpaid work). And/or do other unpaid—but fulfilling—work such as caring for kids/parents/friends/others. Often (Usually?) willingly. Happily, even. So, yeah, it’s reasonable to take at face value a statement that someone will f’sho 100% RE/stay retired. But the reality is that it ain’t necessarily so.

It’s not work that we’re avoiding. Heck, many of us like and want to do this post-FIRE work. And many of us—me included—even like/liked our full-time work or the aspects that most appeal/appealed to us. No, it’s the lack of control of things we want to—and, bolstered by FI—can control much more, or entirely, that we seek to rid ourselves of. 

The lives of others

And herein, I think, lies the heart of the source of my difference with Benz’ conclusion about the FIRE community people she laments. 

From what Benz writes in her article (and from what I’ve picked up on from things she’s previously written and said), it sounds like she’s had a mostly good or great work situation during her career. And/or that she’s far better adjusted than me and many of my FIRE brethren ilk—for whom the lack of control over factors outside the actual work that we could not satisfactorily control and that were inherent in the types of jobs many of us held—at shrugging off these aspects of our full-time jobs. To the point of it not being a material factor in her thoughts about a job situation.  

If I’m right, that’s fantastic, and bully for Benz! But I think it perfectly rational for me and others to be bothered or sensitive to the lack of control that I’ve discussed in these posts. Put another way, we reached a critical mass of antipathy (maybe even hostility) for the lack of control that many can expect during a (long-enough) career. 

And, sure, FIREing can introduce a whole host of other adverse challenges (lack of identity and/or purpose, too much time on one’s hands, etc.). But not everyone will face them. Or face an existential crisis if they do face one or more of them. I sure haven’t. 

En guard

Regardless, whether one will face one or more of those post-FIREing challenges is an unknown. Feeling these nuanced feelings of lack of control is a known known for those experiencing it. 

These feelings of lack of control and being subject to adversely changing winds and work communications at any time, over a long period, soured me on the whole enterprise of having to do others’ bidding and to be subject to others’ commands that rankled me. FIREing for me was me taking my ball and going home. I’d be willing to bet that many of those who Benz met, and legions like them, want to do/did the same. 

The critical point is that I’m/we’re not anti-work. Speaking for myself, I really like the work I do now. That includes my part-time funemployment, gig work, volunteering, housework, and raising kids, among other things.

And make no mistake, the income-generating work is voluntary. I do it because I want to. Not because I have to. I wouldn’t necessarily do it for free. But if someone held an even mildly dangerous weapon to my person and forced me to do the work, I’d likely just shrug. 

No, I’m/we’re just anti-ceding control of the work I/we do and the conditions under which I’ll/we’ll do it. Those conditions most definitely include not subjecting myself/ourselves to work situations allowing for having to put up with a good work situation going horribly sideways. And being under constant threat of work impeding our off-work time and lives. 

I’ll forever jealously guard this control. 

And in the end . . . 

And there you have it, Dear Reader. My thoughts as to why many seem to passively suffer through miserable jobs and dearly seek to FIRE. And my counterargument to Benz’ seeming belief that at least some in the FIRE community are anti-work. We’re just wired differently.