Research & Writing

Re-working Retirement: the Quest for Career Longevity

The next 15 years it will be another coming of age for Boomers as the notion of “freedom 55” struggles with “too young to retire”. With this cohort, retirement is up for reinvention for as a society we are living longer and hopefully healthier lives. This will challenge Boomers to think often and earlier about later life career options with recurring questions.

What is my career plan that will span the years ahead? How do I evaluate and plan my health, wealth, relationships and personal purpose for today and tomorrow?

The desire or need to retire before or after that time marker of 65, will shift as the years go by, influenced by several factors from the state of your health and wealth, to how you view what you’re going to do with your time.

In Canada, HRDC declares that 46% of Boomers are close to retirement or pre-retirement years. If you are 54 in 2004 you are in the front end Boomer Zone, born 1946 to 1950. By 2015 you will be 65. Have you expanded your concept of career to mean your life’s journey or is retirement some sacred place after your pilgrimage through a series of jobs?

In the back end Boomer Zone at 44, the likelihood is that with many more years of high demands and more frequent spikes of change and uncertainty in the workplace you will be more charged to evaluate and manage your career longevity. Career management now takes on new meaning in an integrated or portfolio approach to include:

• Simultaneous or sequential work relationships
• Contract or project based work
• Transfers of industry or profession
• Broader networks or alliances outside organizations
• Intergenerational teaching, coaching or mentoring
• Volunteer work, board advisory or sabbaticals
• Self employment

Expect any future career pattern will be unpredictable and interruptive and that work life expectancy may be longer than you think. But remember in the end, it’s not age but attitude that will shape who you become.