I remember being very little and my grandparents retired to New Hampshire. Of course I didn’t know what that meant. I knew it meant they lived far away (3 1/2 hours by car back then), I knew it meant that anytime I was there they had lots of time with me, I grew to learn that my grandfather who had been a photographer most of his working life, was now a ski lift operator at Cannon Mountain. That’s what I thought retirement meant.
Until 7 years later when the massive amounts of snow got to them and they re-retired to Florida and my free ski house disappeared.
Apparently my grandfather was way ahead of his time. In the late 1960′s and in his 60′s he decided there was no way he wanted to sit around in retirement. He got a “retirement job.” A term that started around 2005 as the Baby Boomers began to reach retirement age. What is a retirement job? It’s one that is often fewer hours and most definitely less hassles & less political than that one you had previously. Often you get to do the stuff you like and not the stuff you don’t like. And should it get to be a hassle…you can walk away. Because believe it or not…most who are working retirement jobs, do not need the money. They like the cushion, but they are working for the social aspects and the boost it gives their self esteem. A new report just out by the Families and Work Institute in conjunction with the Boston College Sloan Center on Aging and Work highlights this trend.
Just look at the numbers:
- 20% of those 50+ have retirement jobs
- 75% expect they will have a retirement job in the future
- 31% say they are working to stave off boredom and 18% want to feel productive and useful
- Only 18% said they were working because income from other sources was not enough
This is just one more example of how the workforce is changing and why the way work works need to change with it. We are no longer a society who works just to pay the bills. We are a society that gets satisfaction and enjoyment from work. And when those two factors intersect you get a workforce who chooses their employer and walks away from those employers that do not fit them. Which probably explains why we also hear so much about employer brand and employers of choice these days.
Listen up employers…from the top to the bottom your workforce is becoming choosy. And we are working longer and on our terms, and we are thinking more about how work fits in with the rest of our lives. My grandfather was way ahead of his time with his retirement job. But honestly I don’t see myself ever retiring, although I’m not sure I see myself ever again working full-tilt, full-time, with all the stress that goes with that. Perhaps, I’ve already found my “retirement job” – in my 40′s.
Full disclosure – I was hired as a consultant to help get the word out about the study to other bloggers in a press call by Families & Work Institute & Boston College and as this report is important to my audience decided to write about it here, myself.
For more coverage check out this morning’s Morning Edition on NPR
