megram - Index

megram - 55Ottawa - Index

Canadian Association for Retired Persons launched an
award for the Best Employers of the Fifty-Plus.All four winners
represent companies who have realized the strength
and value of workers who were traditionally considered to
be too “old” for work.They include such organizations as:
Home Depot, Avis Rent-A-Car, Merck Frost and the Global
Banking Service Centre of RBC Royal Bank.These organizations
actively recruit and retain mature workers.
Don’t discriminate against me
Ageism is alive and well in Canada and has been documented
by Canadian researchers. Older workers have traditionally
been discriminated against in the workplace and
tend to have more difficulty finding jobs than younger
workers.Along come the boomers.They have a history of
activism, do not want to be considered old and just won’t
put up with it. Whether working full-time or part-time in
retirement, boomers will be much less prepared than their
parents were to put up with mandatory retirement policies
and ageist behaviour from employers. Furthermore, looming
labour shortages, particularly in some industries and
professions, will cause many employers to rethink policies
that discriminate against older workers. As those over 50
become a desirable commodity,ageist attitudes will have to
be dropped or boomer retirees just won’t be coaxed to stay
or to come back into the workforce. Boomers may want to
work in retirement, but on their terms.
I’m not really retired
Modern researchers are going to find it increasingly
difficult to study retirement as retirees choose to continue
to participate in the labour force. When they ask
someone,“Are you retired?” who will say “yes” and who
will say “no”? Some boomers will be collecting a private
pension and CPP but will be working part-time. How will
these boomers present themselves — as workers or as
retirees or as something else? Many will say they are
semi-retired. The lines are becoming blurred as retirement
occurs over an extended period of time. Richard
Bolles, the author of The Three Boxes of Life, defined
retirement as “an orgy of leisure.”This definition simply
isn’t adequate any more.
The new “third stage” doesn’t have a new name yet.
Some retirement experts have suggested possibilities such
as unretirement, or re-retirement or re-treading. None have
stuck. However, there is no question that retirement is
being redefined and the new third stage is here to stay.
If only I could work part-time
With the appearance of the new third stage, both
employees and employers are realizing that it makes a lot
of sense to retain the skills, experience and maturity of
boomer workers, while also allowing them to partially
September 2008 • 32 • Fifty-Five Plus Magazine
retire. In a research study by Watson Wyatt, it was found
that two thirds of workers over 50 would like to scale
back their hours or work on a more flexible schedule.
These companies reported that they saw phased retirement
as a means to address potential labour shortages.
Recent pension legislation is making it possible now for
employers to allow former employees to retire, draw out
their pension, and then work part-time for the company
while continuing to pay into the pension.Ken Dychtwald,
a well-known American aging specialist,reports that some
companies in the U.S. are offering employees “rehearsal”
time, i.e. a chance to experience retirement with an
option of coming back to work if the employee doesn’t
like retirement. He predicts that phased retirement will
become a much more common option for workers of the
future. Let’s hope so.
Definition of work and career
We are witnessing a major change in what it means to
be a worker.We watch as younger generations move in and
out of the workforce based on a range of personal imperatives.
Workers change jobs and careers with greater frequency
than ever before. The old paradigm of joining an
organization for life has disappeared. Many individuals
expect to have more than one career during their lifetime.
Modern retirees are demonstrating that they can be workers
and retirees at the same time. Statistics Canada reports
that the number of people over 65 who say they are working
for income increased 20 per cent between 1996 and
2001. Another government study found 18 per cent of
those getting close to retirement (age 45 to 59) say they
have no plans to retire. Work is increasingly seen as an
important part of life and there is a growing belief that continuing
to work is a healthy option.
In the Three Boxes of Life, Richard Bolles proposed
that we turn our view of the life span on its head. Rather
than seeing our lives as consisting of three boxes lined up
side by side — learning when we are young, working in
mid-life, with retiring at the end — we should encompass
all three boxes at all stages in our lives.The new third stage
of life embraces this concept.The emergence of this new
third stage of life is changing our perceptions about aging,
work and retirement in many significant ways. We can’t
completely appreciate what the full impact of this amazing
development will be but it is certainly an exciting time to
be contemplating or living retirement. By combining learning
and leisure and work, baby boomers are embracing this
new third age with enthusiasm and passion. Anything
seems possible.
Nancy Conroy, PRP, MA, is the creator of LifeScape,
(www.theconroygroup.com), a commercial retirement
planning website.