OC Register

March 24, 2004

Let's Put Notion of Retirement out to Pasture

By Jane Glenn Haas

Is it time to retire the concept of "retirement"?

I mean, isn't 20 or 30 years a long time to play bocce ball?

You think this is heresy, don't you? You think you're entitled to a time of leisure after years of work, don't you?

Well, think again.

Retirement _ the kickback and playtime version _ evolved recently. Until the Great Depression, people worked until they dropped, futurist Ken Dychtwald says. Desperate to make room on the job for young workers, government, unions and employers created retirement programs as we know them today, with Social Security and pension plans.

At that time, the life span was 20 years less than today, and plenty of younger, educated workers were eager to replace those leaving the work force. Eager, even, to pay Social Security taxes.

Demographics upset that apple cart. Right now, the ranks of workers between the ages of 35 and 44 are declining. While the 16- to 24-year-old work force is growing by 15 percent, the 25- to 34-year-old segment is growing at just half that rate.

Hence the need to retire retirement.

Rethinking late-life years of leisure is the new buzz as boomers age and potentially create a work force brain drain.

You know the concept is serious when Harvard joins the chorus, noting in a recent Harvard Business Review that companies that continue to push older workers off the payroll will be driving themselves over a demographic cliff.

In six years, the oldest boomers will hit 65 and the 76 million boomer bubble will continue to reach that birthday at the rate of one every 7 seconds.

In 1989, Dychtwald predicted the boomer impact on consumer goods and services, lifestyles and the work force in his seminal book, "Age Wave."

Now he's back, writing for the Harvard Business Review and planning a new book on the topic.

He admits he's ahead of the curve, "but not that far ahead," he tells me.

Current retirees tell him retirement is "boring," he says. Most boomers want to keep their minds more active and maintain more active social connections.

"People want to change how they work and when they work as they get older," Dychtwald says. "They want to balance work and leisure with flexible schedules."

But employers haven't figured out that job flexibility will be the wave of the future, he says.

"This whole thing reminds me of the women's movement," he says. "Women said: 'Work is important and I need it and I want it, but I need it on my own terms because I'm also a mom,'" Dychtwald says. "When businesses found out working women were so productive and talented, they figured out ways to be more flexible for women workers."

The same scenario is on the horizon for older workers.

But (and there are always buts) older workers must give up the notion they are worth more simply because of years on the job.

"They'll have to get used to downshifting and dealing with comparable pay," Dychtwald says.

Continuing to work, either at the same job or maybe an exciting new venture such as the Peace Corps, is the new old age, Dychtwald says.

Not "new old age," I tell him.

This is the "new maturity."

I voluntarily cut my work hours in half a year ago. I spend my "free" time pursuing a personal goal to help women achieve their full potential in the second stage of life.

Retire? I'm just getting started – again.