Image by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash.
That was the title of a Wall Street Journal article today. It’s one of many. I don’t know if it’s behind a paywall, but I’m also not sure it is worth reading. The article gives us a hodgepodge of thoughts about “retirement”.
The author assumes that retirement means “stop working.”
So they say this: If you retire too early you feel “lost” in a new world. If you retire too late you’ve given too many years to your job.
They point to the importance of work in defining identity. “When you’re retired, you’re a was,” says Professor Louis Primavera of Touro University.
But they also quote Louis Primavera as saying something like, “The end of work reminds us that we’re near the end of everything.” .
Primavera lost me when he suggested activities for retirement like “pickleball, Bible study, and volunteer work.”
Where does he get those ideas? First, a lot of retirees are profound atheists. They have absolutely no interest in church or Bible study. “Volunteer work” encompasses a wide variety of activities and not everyone is cut out for it (I’m not – I have a whole chapter in my book about this). And pickleball…well, I wouldn’t know where to start. Are there teams? And if so where do I find them?
The problem is that the word retirement has lost all meaning.
I’ve written elsewhere that we should retire the word retirement. It means so many different things to so many people that the word has lost all meaning. We should talk about financial freedom: when you’ve saved enough to quit your job and do what you want.
Second, when do you withdraw from your present role?
First, you withdraw for personal reasons, mostly physical and mental health.
You’re too tired to go on. You have a serious life-changing illness. Or you get seriously depressed about your job and you know it’s time to say goodbye forever.
When a job makes new demands on you, that’s no reason to quit. If you simply can’t fulfill them that’s one thing. But I catch myself sighing over the need to learn a new piece of software. I *could* do it but I’d really rather not. This is a been-there-done-that, which is often confused with growing older.
I can remember when secretaries had to switch from typewriters to computers….and their bosses no longer had secretaries. Everybody had to learn how to compose in software. We had two major systems, Word and WordPerfect.
If you enjoy and look forward to the challenge, go for it. If you feel tired just thinking about it, you may not have the luxury of quitting. Moveablejob requirements are part of life.
Second, you have the funds to quit and a burning desire to do something else.
This scenario can happen at any age. I knew a thirty-something who built a company and sold it for $4 million. He could do anything. At the time I was doing career consulting and he was a client. He had no idea what he wanted to do…but he could do whatever he wanted.
I knew another man who absolutely loved making art objects. When he was laid off from a job, he realized he didn’t have to work at all. He could make art for the rest of his life.
Third, you’re getting signals that you’re not doing the job well for reasons that can’t go away.
Again, that can happen at any age. You have to be sure the signs are accurate. You might anything have an incurable disease to an incurable lack of aptitude and talent for the work.
But if you’re unqualified to do one job, you might be comfortably qualified for another. Suppose you can’t jump around the workplace,. There are lots of things you can do without jumping. Employers have trouble understanding this concept.
This one is tricky. Employers who want to get rid of older people can make the job harder. The workers think, “I can’t do this,” but it’s not because they’re weaker. it’s because somebody moved the goalposts, sometimes by a very large distance.
Also, it’s not age-dependent. Sometimes you experience physical and mental changes. Some people experience severe trauma on the job. They can’t go back.
What is not a reason for retirement
Notice that none of these reasons is “making room for younger people.” If that’s within your value system, why not? But that’s not the same as being unable to do the job or simply wanting to move on.
This is just one of the many reasons to retire the word “retirement.” If you have to debate over whether it’s time to do something–and you don’t know what that “something” is–it’s time to rephrase the question. We need something less ambiguous or we need to stop asking, period.
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