January 2008 – The need for age management

Jeremiah Coleman, the man who founded Coleman’s Mustard, once said that his fortune was made not from the mustard eaten with a meal but from the bit left on the side of the plate.

The same can be said for guide books. I’m always buying guide books that weigh down my luggage, but they are rarely consulted. Like mustard, most of the guide book is wasted.

But the great thing for writers and publishers is that guide books need to be updated regularly. The other day I received the Good Non Retirement Guide 2008,* which must be a contender for the least catchy title in publishing. If ever a book was struggling to make up its mind it must be this one.

It gets thicker with every edition. Why is this? The answer must have everything to do with that little prefix, “non.” Many of us are simply not retiring any more. That needs some elaboration because people still attach some meaning to retirement in relation to their pensions. But it is losing its meaning as an end to work and that should be seen as a good thing. Retirement used to be a full stop - the end of your working life - and for some people that really was the end since many men, in particular, failed to live much beyond retirement.

There is evidence to suggest that one of the worst things any of us can do is to carry on working at full tilt to a definite cut-off point at 65.

In 2002, Sing Lin, a member of the National Council of Chinese Institute of Engineers, presented a paper in New York that noted how many large US companies, such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, at that time had over funded pension funds.

The funds were in surplus because many of those who had opted to retire after reaching the age of 65 had died within two years of their retirement, thereby failing to claim anything close to the value of their individual pension savings.

The paper included a table, based on employees retiring from Boeing at different ages from just before the age of 50 to just after the age of 65. A retiring 50 year-old, on average, could look forward to reaching the age of 86. An average 65-year-old retiree, in contrast, would be dead before the age of 67.

When you look at the retiring ages in between you can see a progressively declining age-expectation relative to the age of those staying on beyond 50. A 55-year-old, for example, could expect to make 83, while a 60-year-old retiree was unlikely to live beyond the age of 77. “An important conclusion from this study is that for every year one works beyond age 55, one loses 2 years of life span on average,” wrote Mr Lin.

The reality for 65 year-olds - and the vast majority of these would have been men - leaving companies such as Boeing, Lockheed and Ford at that time were that they could look forward to a retirement of just 18 months before they died.
Mr Lin concluded that hard-working late retirees were putting enough stress on their aging bodies and minds to kill them off within two years of retirement. The earlier retirees, on the other hand, were better able to plan and manage their life, health and career.
“These early retirees are not really idling after their early retirements,” he wrote. “They still continue doing some work. But they do the work on the part-time basis at a more leisure pace so that they do not get too stressed out. Furthermore, they have the luxury to pick and chose the types of part-time work of real interest to them so that they can enjoy and love doing that “fun” work at a more leisure pace.”

These findings explain why organisations such as TAEN, the Age and Employment Network, are beginning to talk about “age management”. Its annual conference in October focused on the need to ensure that there was plenty “good work” for older people. It defined “good work” as work that offered job security, job satisfaction, a supportive workplace, some personal autonomy and the opportunity to find fulfilment.

It’s clear from Mr Lin’s studies, that this kind of work is important if we are to have any later years, never mind enjoy them.

Having managed my own age for a few years now, I would argue that it’s never too early to start thinking about melding your working style with lifestyle. Now that I have passed the age of 50 I feel better equipped for working than I did earlier in my career since today I have far more autonomy in my work. I have plenty of energy too as long as I don’t try to burn the candle at both ends.

But I know that many employers see things differently. Selina Scott, the former newsreader, highlighted employer attitudes earlier this week when she accused the BBC of excluding women over the age of 50. She was complaining about the way that a fellow newsreader, Moira Stuart, had been “bumped off” her job.

Her complaints seemed all the more pointed as this was the week that ITV restored 68-year-old Trevor McDonald to his former job presenting the News at Ten.

So some employer attitudes are changing but the picture is patchy. It probably helped Sir Trevor that Michael Grade had taken on the job of executive chairman of the ITV at a time that many men of his age are concentrating on their golf handicaps.

It takes time to shift attitudes. From the perspective of a 50-year-old it’s tempting to argue that someone of my age can still look forward to 15 years of solid work – that’s a long time at any single employer. But I’m not sure that’s the answer. It’s that phrase “solid work” that lacks appeal. I know that I’m not alone in that belief.

One aspect of “age management,” therefore, is probably about understanding these realities rather than fighting them. The problem with The Good Non Retirement Guide as I see it is that it is still focused primarily on retirement. More than half the book is covering pensions, investments and tax planning, all worthy material, but is it the right kind of reading for someone wanting to continue working on friendlier terms?

If Mr Lin’s study tells us anything, it is to stop worrying about retirement. Put away the tax plans, don’t get hung up on your pension or lack of it and start thinking about today and what needs to be done. There is so much to do. Our emphasis has to be on doing it.

*The Good Non Retirement Guide 2008, edited by Frances Kay, is published by Kogan Page, price £16.99.

See also: Age is no measure of performance

and: Blogging on age management