Current situation

I have a comfortable job: very nice coworkers, only 30 minute-commute (20 of which on foot), flexible work hours, stress-free, not-so-exciting tasks, but not boring either.

The pay is okay-ish, although greatly lower than in my previous job, which came to a natural end a year ago (project completed).

If I stay on this course, I expect to retire early in around 13 years, at 62.

The change

Due to circumstances (too long to explain here), my employer is reducing my workload (and salary) to 80%. This 20% decrease pretty much eats away my savings rate. I can still contribute to the 2nd and 3rd pillars, and face emergencies, but cannot invest much. There is very little chance that my employer can raise the workload again to 100% in the coming years.

The downside

As a consequence, every month I stay at this job is a month later I can retire. Moreover, I'm not even sure that my profession will still exist 10 years from now in Switzerland (de-industrialization of our country). So, I might be one of those involuntarily early retirees that have neither job nor money to really enjoy their retirement with travels, etc. This possibility stresses me out. Therefore, I feel under pressure to accumulate money while I still can, i.e. right now.

That's why I've been job hunting a bit. But my skills are in low demand right now. And I'm afraid of landing in a stressful or inflexible job with a 3-hour daily commute for just a little bit more pay. (been there done that several times, and swore never to do it again, several times ;-( .

The upside

I could use that 20% for 3-day weekends, for weeks of vacation, or for upskilling (i.e. working for free). But because of the 20% salary decrease, I won't be able to afford trips during that time. Which sucks and feels to me like I'm losing valuable time of my active life, which won't be eternal.

Questions to you

• If you are the kind of person who wants to retire early (aka FIRE), how flexible are you to put you plan "on hold" if circumstances lead you to that?
• In my situation, would you remain faithful to your goals and seek higher income, whatever discomfort/pain it involves?
• Or try to go with the flow and make "lemonade out of the lemons that life hands you", for example by trying to enjoy my free time in a frugal way?

PS: Text written w/o AI. Yes, I like formatting and have been using bold, paragraphs, etc. since the past century :-)