For many years, Georgia McManus of Waynesville, N.C., enjoyed her job writing commercial insurance policies for Stanberry Insurance and serving customers. Soon after she retired in 2018, McManus got antsy. “I didn’t want to quit working completely,” she says. “I needed something to do.”
Many older Americans are also finding that work can be part of a healthy retirement. The generation that first entered the workforce in 1962 has typically seemed reluctant to leave it. Lately, some of its members are finding ways to have working retirements. They are being driven by the idea that working longer and easing into retirement can help people live longer and healthier lives.
“They’re starting to see how some of these age-inclusive strategies are going to get them back on their feet [after a rocky time for business during the pandemic],” says University of Iowa College of Public Health professor Brian Kaskie, who also directs the Age-Inclusive Management Strategies program in Colorado.
What’s happening and why Last year, Susan Weinstock noticed a big change in her job when she worked as AARP’s vice president of financial resilience programming. Companies started signing up for the AARP Employer Pledge Program, affirming the value of experienced workers. The pledges trickled in at first and then quickly grew into a flood, with over 1,000 employers signing up.
Organizations signing the AARP pledge are asked — but not required — to take two actions in two years to demonstrate their commitment to a multi-generational workforce and age diversity. Nearly 120 employers are now Certified Age-Friendly Employers, a designation from the Age-Friendly Institute to assist job seekers who are 50 or older. Organizations who successfully complete the certification evaluation are then listed on the RetirementJobs.com site.
The tight job market is clearly a key reason more employers want to be seen as age-friendly. And it’s why they’re hiring people to work in retirement and letting retiring employees switch from full-time jobs to part-time ones. Often, they’re finding there aren’t enough younger people to get the work done.
““What I’m seeing is people who are just blowing past this idea of traditional retirement. The word ‘retirement’ doesn’t quite describe this lifestyle, so many people are evolving into” it.” Making part-time work viable for older employees in retirement is becoming essential for employers like Jewish Family Service of Colorado in Denver. Most people who retire from JFS of Colorado switch to part-time employment there.
Like many advocates for older workers, Lewis believes popular assumptions about them — they’re unproductive, they’re technophobes — are myths. “Older workers, on average, are probably more productive because of their experience,” he says. “They’re very committed.” Others who are younger say they expect to follow suit, according to a January 2022 Harris Poll for Express Employment Professionals. In that survey, most employees said they’d be interested in a semi-retirement, either through a flexible work schedule, transitioning to a consulting role or working reduced hours with reduced benefits.
One is a phased retirement program known as the “easy ramp into retirement,” which lets Principal employees aged 57 and older with a minimum of 10 years of service glide from full-time jobs to part-time work. The other is a “boomerang” program that lets Principal retirees come back to work part-time for the company after at least six months of retirement. Principal retirees who agree to work 20 or more hours a week remain eligible for its health and retirement benefits.
They’re working out an arrangement so the soon-to-be retired employee will get to do the work he wants to do without having to do a lot of the work he doesn’t want to do. “I’m confident we’re going to be able to work something out that makes sense for him and makes sense for us,” says Couture. Companies such as pharmaceutical manufacturers AbbVie ABBV, -0.44% and Abbott Laboratories ABT, +4.40%, office furniture maker Herman Miller, building and construction-materials firm Owens Corning OC, +3.81% and the Scripps Health system have offered phased retirement for years.
The hot job market is leading some retirees to use their leverage and negotiate re-entering the workforce on their own terms.
We are humans. On a rock floating in space. We live and then we die. We create our society for the benefit of the people within… not for a few select billionaires. Why would we CHOOSE to spend our last few years alive doing most pointless work? Oh, because most of them HAVE TO.
“The 72 million members of the nation’s baby boomer generation are hitting retirement age at a time when America’s corporations and small businesses need them more than ever.” Wtf? can you please take this harmful propoganda down.
CoriBush TheBlackCaucus *** Why does Media ALWAYS attached Black Americans to POVERTY & COVID19 with Black Americans pictures?