The American workforce is aging. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average age of the American workforce is Nearly 42 years old In 2022, it will rise to 40 years old, up from 40 years old in 2002. 19% of adults aged 65 and older Currently EmployedThat’s up from 11 percent in 1987. In addition, workers age 75 and older are the fastest growing part of the workforce. Americans Receiving social security benefits Full benefits are paid at age 62 and full benefits are paid at age 66, but workers Longer wait times for retirement.
National leaders are similarly postponing retirement ages, with presidential candidates Joe Biden (81) and Donald Trump (78) both working well past the retirement age. The average age of U.S. members of Congress is 61 And that The average age of Supreme Court members is over 63Given the age of these leaders, the majority of Americans today Support the upper age limit For elected office and the Supreme Court, Biden’s age story has only accelerated since his disastrous performance in the debates.
There are many reasons why people delay retirement. Not having enough savings. Finding meaning and fulfillment in workor its Identity is intertwined with occupationPeople may also choose to stay in a job because they enjoy the power and prestige that comes with it, she says. Mo WangProfessor at the University of Florida who studies retirement and employment of older workers.
Regardless of your role or influence, there are many factors to consider when contemplating retirement. Wang shares why some people hesitate to retire and how to make their post-retirement life as fulfilling as possible.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What makes people hesitant to retire?
Something that is very important is people’s work identity. Work is an important part of people’s lives, and many people define themselves by their work identity. Retiring means losing their work identity. And that’s the main reason people don’t want to retire. Many people work to enjoy status and influence, and retiring means losing those things.
Why is it so hard to separate our identity from our work?
Our education teaches us that work is useful. Work is highly valued in our lives. People consider working and being productive to be very good qualities, virtues in life. We learn to use our work identity to tell people who we are.
Are there ways you feel connected to identity and power outside of work?
We find that professional workers continue to do similar work after retirement, such as volunteering, or engage in other activities similar to the work they did before retirement. These can be very helpful in compensating for their worker identity. We also find that strong family support and family involvement can help substitute for a worker identity, because some people really enjoy being grandparents after retirement. Stronger support for the family identity can also make the transition smoother.
We encourage employees to move into mentor roles and pass on their knowledge and experience to the next generation, which helps those leaving feel more engaged in their field and contributing to the organization. By allowing them to retain a little bit of their identity as an employee, they don’t suddenly have to say goodbye to everything.
Are there any jobs that are difficult to leave?
It’s hard to speak about different industries, but what we found was actually pretty common. Basically, in any profession, people who have a strong worker identity have a little bit more difficulty moving away from that identity and retiring. In the United States, it’s especially difficult because most professions don’t have mandatory retirement ages. If you don’t want to retire, you can pretty much just keep working.
Is compulsory retirement necessary?
The very important jobs that we do, like being a firefighter or an air traffic controller, many of the top executive positions in Fortune 500 companies also have mandatory retirement clauses built into their contracts. It’s up to negotiation. [specific] Whether or not to include mandatory retirement clauses in contracts depends a lot on your position. Especially when cognitive function is critical to the job, I think it’s very important to have a certain mandatory length of service or age, or a well-thought-out evaluation process to ensure ability to do the job.
Is there a way to properly assess your own capabilities? Essentially, how do you know if you’re still doing a good job?
Finnish academics and researchers actually developed this. Work capacity assessment You assess whether the person is still qualified and able to perform the job. This is a fairly comprehensive assessment. It includes cognitive assessments, mental health-related assessments. From an occupational hygiene perspective, to make sure the person can perform the job without endangering themselves and that the workplace is healthy. Europe is a little more experienced in this than the US. In the US, this type of assessment is often considered unnecessary. In the US, they often place more emphasis on work experience than a 360-degree assessment.
Do you think Americans’ value of work engagement and institutional knowledge is one of the reasons for the aging workforce?
In fact, the labor shortage is the real reason why we have to keep older workers because we don’t have a good labor supply for teachers and nurses. We have a shortage of these specialized workers. We need people who are willing to work longer. On the other hand, we often rely on people’s experience. If people are willing to work and have done a particular job well, we tend to feel comfortable giving them the job without checking whether their ability to do the job has deteriorated. I think it goes both ways. On the one hand, we need those people, human capital. On the other hand, we tend to think that people’s experience is very important to get the job done, so we don’t conduct unnecessary evaluations to evaluate people or to better position them in job assignments.
What does a proper assessment look like?
I think we probably need to do some assessment of cognitive ability – making sure that people have sufficient mental capacity to carry out the mental operations required for the job, for example, have a certain level of memory, a certain level of attention, and so on. [and] Can they concentrate on their work? Then there’s the physical aspect. Make sure the employee is able to perform the day-to-day functions of their job. For example, can they get to work on time? Do they have trouble performing basic physical activities while at work? Also, evaluate whether they’re actually engaged in their work. Many people aren’t very engaged in their jobs. They don’t get enough satisfaction from their work. If you don’t enjoy your job, quitting may be the right choice.
As for that motivation, I can imagine it would be hard to retire if you still have drive, if you still have something to contribute, if you’re good at it – is it worth staying for that?
This is assuming they are the sole decision makers. In most cases, you also have to think from the employer’s perspective: would the employer incur an opportunity cost by not replacing the worker, even if the worker was willing to stay? Just because a worker is really willing to work doesn’t mean they should always be kept in the same job. They might be able to change jobs or reallocate them according to their work capabilities so that their human capital can be better utilized.
For those struggling to retire, what will ultimately drive their succession choices?
Often it’s a physical health component. Usually because they are physically unable to continue any longer. The other main reason is family demands. Maybe they have to take care of an ill spouse or they need to take care of their parents. Many people leave to take on caregiving responsibilities for their family members. These are usually considered involuntary retirements. They didn’t really choose to leave, circumstances dictated that they should. Most people leave voluntarily. In most cases, people don’t struggle much with retirement. They know when they want to retire and then they plan for it.
How do you know when that time is?
If a person’s personal circumstances mean they are unable to continue working, and the organisation has put in place appropriate succession planning and there is already a successor. If there is no suitable successor, it is expected that the person will be able to continue working for as long as possible.
