The realization of retirement is beginning to creep in my conscious, and frankly I can’t see myself “retired.” Retirement means different things to different people. I speak to some of my co-workers and the majority have retirement plans that includes moving to Florida and playing golf everyday – BORING! The last thing I think about is moving to Florida – heat, humidity, bugs, old people with sagging ultra tanned skin and dressed in prints and colors that are at least two standard deviations away from the social norm! No, I don’t want to be associated with “those people.” Playing golf? What a useless way to kill time. It would be a good exercise to keep yourself in shape if you didn’t have a golf cart full of beer, wine and other assorted goodies. There has to be better things to do than to go to Florida and play golf!
My wife is paranoid about coming into retirement age, although for her, retirement is still several years away. Her main concern is: What if I lose my job? What if I lose my insurance? How are we going to pay for our last son’s college? How are we going to be able to afford our lifestyle? What!? What lifestyle? Going to work every day and not even having time for a decent vacation? It’s not like we would be thrown into pauperville, our small pensions and social security, no matter how many cuts the Republicans in Congress want to make to it, is enough for a modest but decent lifestyle. If she loses her job, hey, that’s great we get to do a little travelling, who knows, maybe learn how to freeload off our kids, it’s not like we didn’t support them as they were growing up. I think her real fear, the fear of many older people that have lost much of their pensions in this recession; to be left without a means of support.
But what if you don’t want to retire? Or worst yet, be close or at an age of retirement and are laid off from your job? Although the unemployment rate is still very high, for a younger person, that is not much of a problem. You might have to hustle, be short of cash for a short time, might have to move to a different location, maybe get a little extra training, but overall the chances of finding a new job are pretty good. Older people, on the other hand have a harder time of finding meaningful employment. The standard joke is that we can always be a Wal Mart greeter (although I think those jobs no longer exist). Last year we had a 71 year-old laid off. His main concern is that he did not know what to do with himself, his job was his life. He was devastated and at the same time delusional that his services were essential to the continuation of the functions of the office. It is a sad case when you have the resources to retire and be in total fear of being at home with nothing to do.
Rejection is one of the worst emotions that a person can feel, and rejection from your job at that age can be devastating, because most companies, although claiming “fair human resources policies” want to invest in younger more trainable people and will look for any reason and any justification to get rid of older people. I think the real problem and my real fear is when 45 to 65 year olds who get laid off, especially if they have limited or very specialized skills. Many older workers who get laid off use up their retirement savings in less than three years, and most Americans’ have no confidence in their ability to retire. Worse, women who entered the workforce after raising a family do not build up their social security benefits to a point where their social security and any pension they may have build would not be enough to live on. "A worker between ages 50 and 61 who has been unemployed for 17 months has only about a 9 percent chance of finding a new job… ” wrote economists Dean Baker and Kevin Hassett noted in a New York Times op-ed piece last spring. “A worker who is 62 or older and in the same situation has only about a 6 percent chance. As unemployment increases in duration, these slim chances drop steadily."
A friend of mine just got laid off from General Motors, I’m certain he is the test case for companies taking advantage of the new Michigan Right to Work Law, a misnomer if there ever was one. It should have been called “The Employer’s Right to get Rid of People Without any Repercussions Law.” Although he is optimistic, and he should be since he has some very marketable skills, his age will be a great barrier that he must overcome. More recently however, a coworker lost her job due to the sequestration of government funds. I was panicked trying to figure out some alternatives. In her case, although she meets the age of people who find it hard to find a job, her story might have a happy ending: a combination of marketable skills, good network of friends and a new employer who is willing to take a risk on her rather than an untested recent college graduate. The pay might not be the greatest, but I’m glad the new Michigan law is not having the repression in salaries as Lawmakers in Lansing who pushed this law had hoped.
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