Passing into another world: Retirement (Australia, 2012)

The writer of this paper is a retiree after about 63 years of work. He illustrates his own experience of retirement and how it was difficult to understand the process of passing into another world, supported with different research. He defines retirement as “Retirement is a condition in which an individual is forced, or allowed to be, and is, unemployed and in which his or her income is derived from sources other than salary or wages or fees for service, and in addition, where the individual has no possibility or intention of returning to work. Both these conditions must be met for an individual to be retired”.

 He stresses that retirement is usually connected with financial aspects in the society, and states his experience in how he couldn’t find suitable resources, which help him to understand himself at that important stage.

Based on some other research, the author summarizes the two contrasting stereotypes of retirement and how people deals with retirement as follows:

Types of retirement as seen by retirees:

·            Retirement is a time for rest and relaxation.

·            Retirement is a time for boredom, poverty, ill-health, loss of status and friends.

Categories of retirees based on how they deal with retirement:

·            Continuers: who continue using current skills and interests.

·            Adventurers who start a new endeavor.

·            Searchers who explore new options through trial and error.

·            Easy Gliders who enjoy unscheduled time.

·            Involved Spectators who care deeply about the world, but engage in less active ways.

·            Retreaters who take time out or disengage from life.

The main challenges:

The main challenges retirees are facing from the author perspective are:

·        How to deal with the decline of income, especially those who are not eligible for any assistance from the Government.

·       How to find valuable occupation that could fill their time that suddenly available. Most of the retirees concerns and find that there is no thing worse than waking up in the morning and having nothing to do.

·     How to cope with loss of status, loss of identity that comes with when a person no longer has an occupation, a job description, or a title and a familiar routine. The author compares this situation by how refugee can lose identity by being stateless.

Retirement and stress:

Although retirement seems to a relaxing and enjoyable time, the vast majority of the retirees found that it is an extremely stressful life shift. According to the author, other life shifts such as starting school and entering into marriage and founding a family are stressful enough but they are very well documented and discussed constantly in the media compared with retirement, which makes it unclear for many people ‘how it looks like?.

 Stages in retirement:

       Pre-retirement:

The phase before to the actual retirement experience usually involves both separation from the workplace and planning for what retirement will entail. The first element to include on the planning agenda is to set a date for the event and when to leave the workplace, especially for casual temporary part-time workers. The author states that the crucial factor is not whether to go gradually or abruptly to retirement, but whether the retiree has control over when to go. Even when a date is set, planning for a new phase of life is difficult enough for a single person who must face the challenges of their budget, the way to spend the time, and the way they believe their associates now perceive them and indeed how they perceive themselves.

Retirement:

This is the stage of the actual retirement and the person is no longer participates in paid employment. Retirees usually follow one of three possible paths:

• The ‘honeymoon’ path, characterized by feeling and acting as if one is on vacation indefinitely.

• The ‘immediate retirement routine’ path, followed by people who already have a full schedule in addition to their employment. For these individuals, it is easy to establish comfortable and busy schedules soon after retirement.

Disenchantment:

For some people, adjusting to retirement is not an easy experience. Following a honeymoon period or a time of continued rest and relaxation, there may be a period of disappointment or uncertainty. A person may miss the feelings of productivity they experienced when working. For some people for example, they said “I wanted to go to work, wanted to have a full diary and a to-do list. I wanted to take off my casual clothes

and dress for a professional office, I wanted to start early and do interesting and important work all day”. On the other hand, they said” I did not want to go back to my office, or any other office. I did not want to be tied down and lose my independence”.  Which leads them to stage four.

Reorientation:

In this stage, people usually attempt to improve their retirement role, by Becoming more involved in community activities, taking up a new hobby or relocating to a more affordable setting may contribute to this ‘second chance’ at retirement. A common goal of reorientation is to design a retirement lifestyle that is satisfying and enjoyable.

Retirement Routine:

Mastering a comfortable and rewarding retirement routine is the ultimate goal of retirement. Some adults are able to do this soon after they leave employment, while others take longer, only finding their way after years of extended leisure or a period of disenchantment. Once a fulfilling and comfortable retirement routine has been found, this phase of retirement can last for many years.

    Termination of Retirement:

Eventually the retirement role becomes less relevant in the lives of older adults. When a person becomes unable to live independently due to disability or illness, the role of disabled elder becomes the primary focus of his or her life.