There is no reason why you cannot look forward to a second career after retirement

Television adspace these days seems to be full of images of people retiring early. Insurance companies suggest that, if you go in for their wares, you can end up doing just that. The objective of insurance is to take care of your family if, in insurances peak, you encounter a God-forbid moment. So what the principal bread-earner is doing in these ads (when he is supposed to be dead, leaving his or her family provided for) is a mystery. But in the world of advertising, you can have your hubby and his insurance payout too.

These columns have talked about retirement before (Who wants to retire, June 10, 2008). But, like Microsoft founder Bill Gates who recently showed the way, there could be a world beyond that. Gates stepped down at 52 to steer his philanthropic Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Not everyone can run a foundation bestowing largesse on the world. You either need the money or the ability to raise it. But there is no reason why you cannot look forward to a second career after retirement. This is an idea fast catching on in the West. “In the future, the pull to meaningful work, with reasonable salary and benefits, may encourage people to retool for new chapters promising significance,” says Marc Freedman, the author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life.

The “second innings” has even acquired a jargon of its own. Leon Gettler, the author of Organisations Behaving Badly: A Greek Tragedy of Corporate Pathology, refers to it as worktirement “where older workers are staying on the job, or taking on other kinds of work, well beyond the standard retirement age of 65”.

Earlier this year, insurance company Metlife did a survey with Civic Ventures, a firm dedicated to “helping society find the greatest return on experience”. Styled the Encore Career Survey , its key findings were:

• Millions of Americans have already launched encore careers combining income and personal meaning with social impact.

• The number of people in encore careers could grow rapidly in the coming years, creating a new workforce for social change.

• Those currently in encore careers express deep satisfaction with their work.

Does this have any relevance for India? Yes it does, because the late Midnight’s Children (those born a few years after Independence) are now approaching retirement age. And they don’t want to ride off into the sunset.

There is a distinction that needs to be made between encore careerists and people who want to carry on doing what they have done all their lives. We need to encourage the former, who are into something new for them, often at a lower pay, because it is self-fulfilling. They may work as teachers or in NGOs. They are giving back to society.

Quite a few of the people who stick on to their regular jobs, getting an extension or a couple of years as a consultant, are actually being rewarded for services rendered. Yes, they are a storehouse of knowledge. But, in any efficient organisation, this knowledge should have been transferred to the next in line before the incumbent’s retirement became due. “In some organisations, people in their 20s and 30s are discovering that their career paths are stuck, blocked by underperforming managers in their 50s who, like rusty nails, can’t be pulled out,” says Gettler.

The latter variety is a greater danger in the Indian environment. The key difference between the West and this country is that the former is greying; India is getting younger.

In the US, for instance, the greybeards are needed to man posts for which there are no takers. (All these protests about job losses to India and China are because Americans want cushy jobs and not because there are no jobs.)

The younger generation in India is also more adaptable and tech savvy. Unfortunately, the world is still ruled by those who need secretaries to manipulate a mouse and spreadsheet.

The young vs old is therefore another conflict facing the Indian workplace. It happens every generation. But this time may be more bitter than most.

You may click to see:->A second chance to work after retirement

THE SECOND COMING

Findings of the Encore Career Survey

Those in encore careers are working in (%):

Education 30

Healthcare 23

Government 16

Non-profit organisations 13

For-profit businesses that serve a public good 9

Those in encore careers seem to be able to combine commitment and flexibility.

59% work 40 hrs / week or more.

73% say they have the flexibility they need and want.

85% say they have the time to do the things outside of work that are important to them.

Source: Metlife Foundation/Civic Ventures survey of 3,500 Americans, February-April 2008