At 55, She Traded a Career in Social Work for a Retail Job — and Found Peace With It

Tammy Rabideau, 55, took a part-time retail job at a department store despite holding a college degree and decades of experience in social work, according to an essay she wrote for Business Insider. She said the job's flexibility and lower stress outweighed the slightly higher pay of another role in her field.

Rabideau described nearly rescinding her acceptance of the customer-service position out of shame the morning she was set to start, questioning how she had ended up back in a role she'd first held as a teenager. She said she didn't view the work as beneath her, but felt she should be "further along" given her education and experience.

She ultimately went through with the job, initially telling herself she was "volunteering" to get past the discomfort. Over time, she wrote, she came to feel grateful for the position and recognized value in the kind of help she could offer others through it.