my bosses wife is constantly complaining about money since she retired

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly

a bit of a moaning thread here now.. my apologies.. but for the sake of my family I have to vent somewhere else for once. My bosses wife has retired a the beginning of the year and now she spends everyday about an hour talking to me in the office. I am polite and friendly but I can feel that I am growing increasingly irritated and also slightly panicked. She worked for more than 40 years in public service and has an old type of public service pension, I do not know how much but I would. say it is more monthly then what I earn. She lives in a huge house and I thought she was doing ok. Lately she has been constantly complaining how expensive everything is and that she had not anticipated the impact of inflation on her life. I am on a low salary but I get by. My family was always struggling financially when I was a child and I was very familiar with financial existential fears from the age of 4 or 5. Since I have been working I feel- despite being way under the average income- rich enough to not having to worry too much. But now that I hear she is struggling so much I am really afraid of later in life . Then I wonder is she just pretending to be poor ? Is this false and she is actually a case of somebody wanting to appear - for whatever reason- really poor despite living in a house worth millions and getting a gold plated pension? It starts to wake up old fears in me and I do not know how to tell her to leave me in peace with here worries. For example if I buy a coffee she will tell me that soon none of us will be able to afford a coffee anymore as the prices will rise so much. She is so tight I had to secretly buy handsoap for the bathroom in the office just to be able to keep some level of hygiene. I feel like quitting but also can not face the dread of looking for a new job. But I think I will have to…

Gusser09

Get another job.

ax530

Say she is just fed up with no work and has got into bad habit complaining.

Her retirement hobby seems to be hanging around husband office.

bmc58

Is she bored of her family life?What's she still doing coming into your work if she's retired?

the_amazing_raisin

I wouldn't panic over anything she's saying, however it's never a bad idea to be thinking about the future

I heard some good advice recently, rather than worrying about possible outcomes, try to plan for the most likely ones

It might be worth speaking to a financial advisor, try to describe your hopes for the future and they'll try to come up with a plan to meet those goals (or make your goals more realistic)

As for your bosses wife, first question is why is she in the office? She doesn't work there and she's disrupting the work atmosphere

It probably wouldn't be a good idea to complain too loudly, even if you anonymously said something to the boss they'll probably figure out it was you. Unfortunately it'll just be one of those workplace headaches you need to endure

As for her worries, she's on a fixed income for the rest of her life, so any price increases automatically make her poorer. How that affects her depends on what kind of lifestyle she's hoping to lead. It sounds like she prefers to enjoy the trappings of wealth somewhat so any impact to that is going to annoy her and likely make her pessimistic

It's also pretty easy for people to look at 10% inflation and draw an infinite line into the future and assume that prices will be doubled in a few years time.

The truth is economic cycles don't work like that, and while I don't think we're going back to the almost stagnant inflation of the 2010s, it's already dropped considerably and there's talk of interest rate cuts to speed up the economy again

Basically, don't assume what is true now will be true in the future

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly

thanks for all your responses, its time to leave the place and look for a new job ..

Buddy Bubs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122023487#Comment_122023487

Leave for the reason of being on a below average wage and having to buy your own soap, don't leave because of someone moaning about prices. If the bosses wife is hanging around office, I'm guessing it's a small enough company. You can earn more by moving but that brings its own set of uncertainties so be careful for what you wish for.

Loads of people do that, I had to listen to that today from someone on a 3 day week (by choice, not even for childminding reasons). Some people just love to moan about money.

Sample answer for her.......

If coffee gets so expensive that nobody buys it, prices will decrease to a level where people will buy it, supply and demand and basic market forces. And anyway, nobody needs to buy a coffee anyway, we can do without it I'm sure

Mrs OBumble

I agree -find a new job (unless the boss bars her from the place which is unlikely).

In the meantime wreck her head with your Pollyanna cheerfulness, eg she moans about the coat of coffee, you rave about how much you love drinking water too.

Alexus25

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058347041/my-bosses-wife-is-constantly-complaining-about-money-since-she-retired

What is she doing around the office when she's retired!?

Also, just to clarify, are you thinking of quitting causes she's triggering past fears in you; and mean with soap?