Editor’s note: This column was included in the March 28 edition of The Pulse, a weekly BankBeat email newsletter sent to subscribers.
We share a sweet story in our April edition about a man who closed the door on a 40-year career in banking by building a maple syrup enterprise. I love this idea: Retirement not as an end but as a new beginning — a rejuvenation. In his case, “what’s next” was conceived while he sat amongst a stand of trees.
For those who view the decade between age 60 and 70 as years to build up their nest eggs, this 2019 survey conducted by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College offers hope. It found that older workers have reasonably good prospects for extending their working careers. Although older workers are seen by businesses as more costly, they are also seen as more productive … “as attractive or more attractive than a younger employee or prospect.” Of course, someone needs to clue in the nation’s hiring managers, who often won’t consider job applicants older than 50, which is pitiable (and ageist and illegal).
This article from the New York Times asks us to consider our “work span” versus our “life span” when contemplating retirement. Policies that delay retirement could somehow fix the looming Social Security trust fund shortfall, is its point. The author posits that those in the professional world can work longer (and perhaps should work longer) than those whose work negatively impacts their physical well-being, such as construction workers.
While I agree that professional workers can and should be encouraged to stay engaged in work throughout their 60s (an object in motion stays in motion), even brain work needs the support of a healthy body and spirit. Without the opportunity to pare back incrementally, the temptation to walk away can grab hold of you. When it does, even a rewarding and stimulating pursuit can feel like there’s a millstone hung from your neck.
When it comes to its workforce, many firms take an “all or nothing” approach with their employees. Give us everything or there’s the door! One large firm that serves the banking industry has set its mandatory retirement at age 62. Imagine asking someone at the peak of their power to step aside because they’ve reached some arbitrary marker when other companies (including banks) struggle to recruit! Still, those so-called “costly older workers” are shown the door, or bypassed for job openings, when a bit of creativity could be applied to the employment equation to achieve a win-win.
Retirement is on my mind all of the time — not the end of work, but its continuation in varying forms. I would love to see the conversation about retirement evolve into one that recognizes the space between age 60 and 70 as a place with room for more rather than less: More flexibility. More opportunities for discovery. More creative solutions, or at least the willingness to allow for contributions that aren’t boxed into a workplace standard that links critical benefits to full-time scheduling.
Skilled gardeners teach us to incorporate plants that bloom in spring, summer and fall in order to enjoy blossoms throughout the growing season. They also instruct us to keep ornamentals in place through winter to provide food and cover for birds and beneficial insects. In the successful garden, every plant has a role. So it is with the successful enterprise.