In the UK, there's been an 88 per cent jump in workers over the age of 70

town of Bude to be closer to their children and grandchildren. But he quickly warmed to the idea of working part-time from home with just the occasional business trip. As a full-time director, he had sometimes been abroad for months at a time installing equipment and training people to use it. “Travelling takes it out of you,” he says. “I've had deep-vein thrombosis twice from flying.”

Now Myers works “a little bit every day” from his home office, in between taking the couple's dogs out and running a local camera club with a friend. He has much less stress. “If it gets to be too much, I go down to the coastal path or the woods. I can get away.”

On a recent visit to the office 150 miles away, he met up with the company's 90-year-old chairman. “I come in to keep my mind going,” the man told Myers over coffee. Respect for age and experience is baked into the business's culture. Their overseas clients, especially in the Middle East and Africa, value what Myers brings to the table at this point in his career. “They listen to you more than younger employees,” he says. “It's very rewarding.”

Myers is part of a growing trend. According to Rest Less, a UK digital information resource for people over 50, the number of workers 70-plus in the UK has jumped from around 256,000 in 2010 to more than 480,000 in 2020—an 88 per cent increase.

One quarter of retired Britons have rejoined the workforce, according to a 2017 study. And the average age of workers is likely to continue to rise in the UK as the official retirement age climbs to 67 over the next few years, putting it on par with Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.

A strong advocate of unretirement, Myers plans to carry on until he's 75. “A lot of people don't want to work, or can't for health reasons,” he says. “That's fine, but those who do want to work can give a lot back.”

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