We’ll never retire!
Keep working and you’ll be richer, happier AND healthier. No wonder more and more women in their 60s are saying...
WH en 67- year- old li nda Goganian imagines her future, it is not one of book clubs, coffee morni ngs and endless holidays abroad.
At an age when many women are rewarding themselves for a lifetime of work and child-rearing by putting their feet up, she has no intention at all of quitting the rat race.
In fact, linda loves her full-time job as an education co-ordinator for the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline so much, that she can’t see any reason to stop doing it. certainly, she says, age is no reason to step down.
‘I honestly don’t know what I’d do with myself if I retired. I still have plenty of energy and I can’t think of anything worse than staying at home and watching daytime Tv. It would bore me senseless. There’s still so much I want to achieve.’
And linda, from Stanmore, Middlesex, is not alone in her defiant refusal to quit office life. Her decision not to retire is part of a rapidly growing trend: recent figures from the office for national Statistics show the number of over-65s in employment is rising by 5,000 every month, with the total at 1.1 million.
one in 20 people still have a job when they’re over 70 — a figure that has doubled in the past decade — and one in five retired people say they wished they’d stayed in work longer.
Dubbed the ‘silver strivers’, they’re part of what experts in demographics are calling a social revolution. The average life expectancy for British women is 83.3 years, and 79.5 for men, which means many are living healthier lives for longer and want to continue to work — not only for the money, but because they love what they do.
‘As well as the older men and women who need to carry on working for financial reasons, we’re seeing increasing numbers who enjoy their work too much to give it up,’ says Dr Matthew Flynn, the director of newcastle University’s centre for research into the older workforce.
‘It’s good for their health and well-being and keeps them stimulated.’
But it isn’t always easy. Shocking levels of ageism still exist at work, says Dr Flynn.
‘competing in a hostile job market is very difficult for older people. They’re subject to negative perceptions, including that they’re resistant to change and don’t like technology. Younger people are often seen as more appealing because they’re perceived as cheaper and more adaptable.
‘When we see older people still working in satisfying jobs, they’ve often been in the same company a long time, working for managers who know their strengths.
‘We need a much better job market for older workers, so they can find the right jobs that fulfil their potential and make the most of their experience.
‘current attitudes mean many older workers who need to work for money end up in jobs at a much lower level than they would be if their skills were properly valued.’
ReSeArcH has also shown that people who work past retirement age are healthier. A study by the Department of Work and Pensions found that almost three- quarters of working women aged 55 to 75 described their health as good, compared with fewer than half of those who had retired.
The health benefits of daily mental stimulation are well documented, but researchers also concluded that even a degree of stress may be good for us.
The office also staves off loneliness. For linda, it has given her a comforting sense of stability since her beloved husband, remon, died from prostate cancer nine years ago.
‘If remon were still here, we’d probably have retired together. We had plans to travel and to move to the countryside,’ she says.
‘But when I lost him I had to rethink my entire life. I got married at 19, so it was a massive adjustment, and having the structure of my job helped with that. It gave me a reason to get up every morning, and the team were very supportive.
‘I love spending time with my three children and two grandchildren, but I’d be lonely during the daytime if I retired. Most of my friends are younger, so they all work, and my sisters live abroad, so I’d end up spending more time on my own.’
What’s more, the inter-generational relationships at work keep her feeling
young. ‘I’m the oldest person in the office and the next oldest is in their mid-50s. Occasionally, we’ll make jokes about my age — I’ll ask if they can install a stairlift,’ she says.
‘But otherwise, they treat me as they do everyone else, and I so enjoy the interaction with intelligent, interesting people.
‘Learning new things also keeps my brain working. My job involves a lot of computer work and I find it challenging. When I master something new, it’s really exciting. I enjoy earning my own money, too.
‘When I go to Australia to visit my sister next year, I know it will feel satisfying that I’ve paid for it through my own hard work.’
She hasn’t yet drawn her pension and can’t envisage joining the ranks of the retired.
‘I just don’t feel old enough yet,’ she says. ‘I still have so much energy. I’m always at the gym or going out to restaurants with my friends. I don’t feel like a 67-year-old.’ According to Dr Ros Altmann, the Government’s Business Champion for Older Workers, the over-60s not only boost the balance sheets of companies with their experience and reliability, but are good for the rest of us since they pay taxes for longer and benefit the wider economy at large.
‘Research suggests the majority of older workers are as productive as younger ones,’ she says. ‘And evidence shows that having more older people in work creates employment and higher wages for younger generations. It’s in the interests of all of us to enable more over-65s to stay in work.’
Patricia Brooks, 65, a full-time sales manager from Alexandria in Dunbartonshire, also finds it impossible to imagine a time when she’ll want to give up working.
‘I’ve been doing the job for 30 years and I just can’t imagine not doing it,’ says Patricia, who’s married to John, 68, and has three daughters and seven grandchildren.
‘The work I do is specialised and over the years I’ve become integral to the running of the company. I do the accounts as well as find new business. Knowing my employers rely on me makes me feel good about myself. They’ve told me how valuable I am, so they’re happy I don’t want to retire.
‘And I love meeting people. If I did retire, I’d have to find voluntary work. I couldn’t bear not to have that sense of helping and being productive.’
Patricia’s husband, John, retired from his job in a pharmacy three years ago, but soon grew bored. He now works part-time delivering prescriptions and Patricia believes the fact they both work is crucial to maintaining their relationship.
‘When John retired, I’d come home from work and he’d have been there all day. We’d end up eating dinner at 5.30pm because he’d have made it to pass the time while I was out.
‘The quality of our conversations went downhill because he hadn’t seen or spoken to anyone.
‘Now, we have something to talk about in the evenings, which helps us to get on well. It’s much healthier for us to spend time apart than to be together all the time. If we were both at home all day we’d just get on each other’s nerves.’
And relationship breakdown is a serious problem among the newly retired. The number of people aged over 60 getting a divorce has risen by three- quarters in 20 years — partly, think experts, because it’s such a shock to suddenly spend so much time together in retirement.
Like Linda and many other sixtysomethings, Patricia doesn’t feel her age. ‘I always said I’d retire when I felt old enough, but it hasn’t happened yet. I ran my last half-marathon last year and I regularly do 5km and 10km races for charity.
‘I’m trying to force myself to slow down, but I don’t find it easy. Being busy is what makes me feel happy. I really look forward to my time off from work, but I don’t know what I’d do if every day was a holiday.’
GOKSeL OSMAN, who lives in North London, is similarly grateful. At the age of 65, she’s been the executive assistant to the chief operating officer of Inmarsat, a global satellite company, for 15 years. ‘When I took the job, my plan was to work until I was 60,’ says Goksel, who is divorced with one daughter and two grandchildren. ‘Finances aren’t a problem — my house is paid for and I receive a pension from a previous job, though I’ve deferred my state pension.
‘But when I got to 60, I realised I didn’t want to retire. I love having to think on my feet. The adrenaline keeps me feeling young.
‘I enjoy getting involved in things. If I’m organising a conference, I’ll start at 6.30am and work a 12-hour day. It gives me a huge buzz.’
She lives alone, which makes the prospect of retiring even less appealing. ‘I work with a fantastic group of intelligent, dynamic people, who are open-minded about my age. Why would I want to give that up to be by myself at home?
‘My fear is that if I did retire and realised I didn’t enjoy it, there would be no going back. Being useful is important to me, so I think I’d have to find another way to feel that.’
According to Dr Flynn, the major challenge facing employers in the future will be adapting to the ageing population. The number of over-65s in england is expected to increase by 51 per cent over the next 20 years, and with the pension age rising, older people will need to continue to work whether they want to or not.
‘The job market as a whole needs to look at how it can enable older people to keep working,’ he says.
‘We need to help businesses realise that older people have skills and experience that can benefit the company. If more employers do this, we will see more older people continuing to do satisfying jobs.’
Goksel adds: ‘When I talk to my friends, it seems there are lots of women like me.
‘We have so much energy and we don’t want to just pack up and sit by the fire or play bridge. We still have an awful lot to offer.’