Retirement Reformation: Redefining Work

“Retirement is changing.  Many individuals are retiring from their career professions only to take on new work (whether paid or unpaid).  These changes point to the need for reshaping our ideas and institutions associated with retirement and developing new perspectives on the nature of work.”
—Dr. Phyllis Moen, Sociologist

    Our concept of retirement is undergoing a metamorphosis. Demographic, societal, and workplace trends have all converged to offer a stage of life that is much more fluid and flexible than what most of us previously imagined. In fact, retirement has become a matter of personal definition.
 
    Adding fuel to the fire of retirement reformation is the aging of the Baby Boomers, a huge group of men and women who were born between 1946 and 1964. They have been likened to “a pig in a python”— a distinct population bulge that refuses to “pass through” history unnoticed.
 
    Because of its sheer size and collective force of personality, the influence of this generation has been nothing short of phenomenal.  Just as the Boomers have redefined every stage of their lives, so too will they redefine aging and retirement.
Retirement vs. Old Age

    The most important change for Baby Boomers is that retirement is no longer equated with being old. In Working Through Demographic Change, authors Elliot Jaques and William Zinke wrote about this remarkable trend:

“An extraordinary change has taken place in industrialized countries during the past 50 years, the consequences of which have not been fully recognized. People are living longer and in better health, and the meaning of adult life itself has changed: a whole new stage of mature adulthood has come onto the scene, and old age has been pushed back by many years.”

Likewise, career development expert Helen Harkness, Ph.D., believes that we should reject the view that increasing longevity extends old age, and recommends adopting a new perspective in her book, Don’t Stop the Career Clock: 

“If these extra years are handled wisely, our middle age will double dramatically into a new second midlife, while our ‘old’ age shrinks.” 

She feels strongly that these extra years should be viewed as a precious gift and advises that “we take an active hand in managing our windfall.” 

Retirement vs. Leisure

    Not only are concepts of old age changing, but Jaques and Zinke also point out that many individuals are rejecting the notion that retirement is synonymous with leisure:

“Instead of considering themselves to be old and over the hill, they may realize that a whole new stage of active life is open to them, with untold opportunities for continued intellectual growth and accomplishment.”

In contrast to the proposition of “not working,” retirement for Boomers has come to mean emancipation—the freedom to do the kind of work (paid or unpaid) they as individuals find most meaningful. In fact, Harkness wrote that we are in a new age of learning how to live and work throughout our life spans:

“By knowing what we want and doing what we love, we can continue life’s journey with creativity, wisdom, power, and purpose.” 

    Similarly, in her book I Could Do Anything if I Only Knew What it Was, Barbara Sher explained that the first step to finding work that “fits” is to understand the connection between doing what we love and doing something worth doing. She wrote that it is at this intersection where we will find meaning. Therefore, whether our “work” is pre- or post-retirement and whether we work for pay or volunteer our time, it is essential that our productive activities enhance both our sense of self-worth and personal identity. Helen Harkness wrote that this need to link work to our search for meaning and purpose has been a natural evolution:

“For the generation following the Depression and World War II, a ‘job’—stable lifetime work that pays the bills—was the goal.  Later, the achievers focused on a ‘career’ in a particular profession such as law, banking, medicine, teaching, or management as the means to success.  Today we are adding another dimension:  discovering our ‘calling’ or ‘vocation’—work with a deeper purpose or meaning, assuring us that each has something unique to offer.”

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