Ben had been thinking about retirement lately, a lot. Indeed, hardly a day didn’t go by at work when he wasn’t thinking why he hadn’t already retired. But Ben knew the reasons why he continued to work. First, he and his wife were concerned that their Social Security retirement income and modest retirement savings weren’t going to be enough. Health expenses had already eaten up some of their retirement savings. And second, Ben and his wife both knew that he needed to stay busy in retirement. He just wasn’t cut out for a sedentary life. Yet Ben was also increasingly convinced that the job he had long held wasn’t a good job to carry into his retirement years. The job took too much out of him and offered no part-time options. Ben needed a retirement job, if that was even a thing.
Definition
Retirement job is an oxymoron. You’re not retired if you have a job. You’re retired when you don’t have a job. Yet lots of workers retire but then pick up some work, often part-time work but work nonetheless. And even more workers, indeed all workers, have a last job leading up to retirement, even if that job is the only one in which they have worked. That last job leading up to retirement may itself be a job specially suited to the worker who is preparing for retirement. Employers can gently move employees anticipating retirement in the next few years into jobs with fewer long-term expectations, fewer advancement opportunities, fewer management responsibilities, and frankly fewer demands, as the aging workers lose vitality and naturally lower their work commitments. One’s last job before retirement, and one’s last job carried over into retirement or picked up during retirement, can and probably should be different. Plan accordingly, if you can.
Need
Consider your needs as you head into ending your full-time career and dedicated work life. You and your spouse or family may have income needs. Develop a retirement budget well in advance of retiring, to see where earned income may be necessary and, if so, how much and for how long. Use that projection to evaluate your current employment for its options for reduced workloads, part-time work, consulting work, or project contract work, after full-time retirement. If your current employment offers options that fit your need for earned retirement income, then begin the process of alerting your employer to your retirement and work-in-retirement plans. If your current employment offers no such options, then begin to explore adjacent work in your field or new work for which you can qualify with your current skills or with readily acquired new skills. You see many retired folks happily doing part-time work that they’ve always wanted to do and now do out of both interest and need.
Health
Also consider your health needs and limitations for a last job before retirement or a part-time job in retirement. You may need to cut back in your career field, or switch fields, because of its physical, mental, or emotional demands. Giving up management positions, or taking on supervisor or office positions while giving up physical labor, may keep you in your career job. But you may need to give up your career job to continue to work, especially if your health declines to the point of impairing essential activities. You may need part-time employment, periodic employment interrupted by periods of disability or health-treatment regimens, or flexible schedules to attend healthcare visits or to care for a spouse periodically needing your care. Be frank with yourself and your employer about your health needs or the needs of a dependent spouse or other family member, and plan for a job and work schedule that can accommodate those needs. Planning up front is better than dealing with employer frustrations and employment crises in the midst of healthcare issues. And don’t overlook the positive health aspects of working part-time in retirement, staying in physical shape and mentally engaged.
Service
When considering your last job or your retirement job, also consider your interest in serving others. You may want to continue your career work in a different role or for a different employer, or take on new work, in a special role in which you can give back to your profession, vocation, or community. Light board or executive leadership positions, and part-time development or special-projects positions, may be options with your current employer. Alternatively, you may be able to return to the lower levels of your career field to provide hands-on service to needful individuals in a charitable, clinic, or community setting, especially if your career field is in a social-service sector like law, counseling, and social work. But again, you may prefer to take on an entirely new part-time job outside your career field, as a community service. Local tour guides and information-desk staff are examples. You may be able to work part time in retirement for income, health, and community service.
Engagement
You may also decide to work into retirement simply to stay positively engaged in your community. A late, last career in a distinct field, entirely out of one’s career field, can be a special joy in retirement life. Driving a shuttle, tending grounds, serving in hospitality on weeknight evenings, and similar service jobs, when kept to short enough hours and light enough duties, can keep an older worker happily busy and socially interacting. Social engagement is among the stronger indicators for good health later in life. Some part-time jobs for older workers, like checking in guests at a resort or event space, provide excellent opportunities for consistent positive social interaction. Don’t overlook the value of a retirement job for keeping you socially, mentally, and physically engaged.
Features
The above discussion indicates that retirement-age work tends to have certain features, meeting the needs, interests, and capabilities of retirees. First, a retirement job should generally provide some income. Otherwise, if you need or desire no income, then you may as well volunteer. A retirement job should also generally be part time. Some retirement-age individuals work full time out of need, interest, or compulsion. But they’re the exceptions. We lose vigor, energy, concentration, and strength as we age. Part-time work enables a retirement-age worker to focus limited resources into the smaller work windows. A retirement job should have no long-term expectations and should not anticipate growth or advancement, although growth and advancement may occur. Retirement jobs should generally permit intermittent work, with periods off for health, recovery, or dependent care. Retirement jobs may also need schedule flexibility for the same needs. Retirement jobs should also generally be in lower-stress positions. Think of this job profile when planning and pursuing your last career jobs and roles in retirement.
Employers
While this guide addresses the employee’s concerns, you may need to help your employer or prospective employer understand the benefit of employing you as a retirement-age or retired worker. Retirement-age work can benefit both the employee and employer. Retirement-age workers can bring substantial skill, discernment, and experience. They can train and mentor younger and less-experienced workers. Their part-time positions can come at significantly lower compensation costs, especially considering that the positions may warrant no health insurance, retirement, or other full-time-position benefits. Retirement-age workers are generally not jealous or competitive over advancement and may instead happily give way to more-ambitious workers needing or pursuing promotions and raises. Retirement-age workers can also be especially loyal, given their long work history and any long history they may have with their employer. Don’t hesitate to call these and other advantages of employing a retirement-age worker to your employer’s attention when negotiating for such a position.
Journal
Return again to your reflections throughout your Career Journal. Supplement or revise anything you may have missed regarding your insights into the job you need or want, and how to negotiate or navigate your way into it. Have you given due thought for your retirement-income needs? Do you need to adjust your thinking to account for your declining health or the health issues of your spouse or a dependent family member? Consider also whether you have service opportunities you might be able and want to fill late in your work life, and whether you might want to take up a new job late in your career or once you have retired, just to stay engaged. Do you have a dream job, even a very modest or menial job, you’ve always wanted to do? If so, record those thoughts, and consider when might be the time, in or near retirement, to do them.
Key Points
A retirement job is one that serves needs and interests in retirement.
Supplementing Social Security income is a reason for a retirement job.
Retirement jobs can promote social engagement.
Retirement jobs can also promote physical and mental health.
Retirement jobs are part time and short term, with flexible schedules.
Retirement jobs should be lower stress with fewer demands.
Employing retirees has lower costs and brings greater experience.