Longer Lives, Longer Careers?
This blog was first published in 2023
Man-of-the-moment King Charles is in the probationary period of what we might call a significant new role at 73, an age when most people’s daily routine involves little more than an enthusiastic foray into the garden for a spot of pruning followed by a snooze, and which makes him the oldest new monarch in British history. Meanwhile, over the pond, Joe Biden, a sprightly octogenarian who habitually jogs to his lectern, recently announced that he will stand for a second term of office, making him the oldest ever President-elect. Outdoing them both is Nancy Pelosi, who stepped down from her role as House Speaker last year at the tender age of 82, and the evergreen David Attenborough, still lending his considerable expertise and honeyed tones to BBC nature programmes and climate conferences, having just turned 97.
Looking MUCH closer to home, the ever-helpful ONS has a handy calculator which informs me that my average life expectancy is 87 years, and that I have a 1 in 4 chance of living to 95. Quite what economic benefits I will be capable of bringing to society by that point, remains to be seen, was my first thought, and figures like these certainly raise eyebrows when I deliver workshops to students who cannot believe that I think I am only at the midpoint of my career - at MY age!
So, should we consider our four famous elderly employees to be anomalies - or indicators of a more general extension to the length of a productive life and something to which we should aspire?
Currently, the question of how long an economically productive life should be is the subject of passionate protest in France, where citizens are facing an increase in the pension age from a comparatively low 62 years. Many people are demonstrably furious, not only with the decision but the way it was made. Indications are that they feel 62 is quite old enough to be at work; thank you.
There have always been concerns raised about the length of the working life affecting the quality and length of retirement. When I first began my teaching career, I used to ‘pop’ down to the local pub with the rest of the staff on a Friday lunchtime (yes, teachers really did do that), leaving a few senior leaders to keep an eye on things (what could possibly go wrong?). Whilst there, I was regularly regaled by older teachers with all manner of anecdotes about the effects of teaching on mind, body and soul, one of which was not to expect a long retirement, as teachers, I was assured, were known to drop dead quite swiftly after leaving their classrooms for the final time.
Statistics simply do not support that claim however, with data suggesting that our socio-economic group has more to do with our life expectancy after retirement than the job we did or the stress it caused us. The age at which we retire doesn’t seem to be much of a predictor for retirement life expectancy either, because data suggesting that early retirees die more quickly is muddied by the fact that people often retire early because they are suffering life-limiting health conditions.
The dilemma of retirement vs continuing as a so-called ‘economic producer’ into your 80s is really more of a question of socio-economic status. People in leadership and management positions, for example, have a very different set of parameters to consider when looking at how long they want to/can work, compared to a paramedic or landscape gardener, whose day-to-day activities include rather a lot of lifting. A paramedic is also unlikely to have saved enough money to pay for the kind of medical MOT that Joe Biden needs regularly or the team of staffers to ensure he doesn’t have to do any heavy lifting whilst he continues to work full time long after he could have officially retired.
And therein lies the rub - if we are going to live longer lives (and again, this varies for different socio-economic groups), won’t we also need to work additional years to build up the funds to enjoy our retirement? (1) What career development activities will we need to complete to plan such a long career? (2) And will our economy benefit from longer working lives delivered by an ageing population? (3) Questions, questions…
The answer to the third question is that, unfortunately, an ageing population isn’t just an economic nightmare for the embattled French President but an issue for all nations, including Britain. There are nearly 12 million people living in the UK who are aged 65 and above, 1.6 million of whom have already passed their 85th birthday. This cohort is also the fastest growing. If we aim to retire by 65, and can expect to have a further 20+ years to live, millions of us face the prospect of running rather short on cash, especially as a longer life doesn’t make us immune from costly health issues and the need to buy in care. (The latest figures I could source indicate that, in England, so-called ‘healthy life’ expectancy is a mere 63.) We also know that cognitive function can decline with retirement, something that gerontologists are investigating, which suggests that a longer working life mitigates the expected health decline experienced in old age.
Pity the gerontologist and their researcher peers, however, because the seismic events experienced recently, including the pandemic, Brexit, war in Ukraine, worsening climate crisis and significant inflation increases, have seriously disrupted the labour market and all related trends, with a ‘great resignation’ occurring in the over 50 cohort, some of whom have since re-entered the workplace, having realised that early retirement is no longer affordable. This phenomenon helps us to answer our first question. A longer life absolutely needs paying for, and we are all at the mercy of inflation rates. The workforce also needs experienced workers. As Gaëlle Blake, UK and Ireland director for permanent appointments at recruitment firm Hays, says, ‘the people who’ve chosen to retire are exactly the people that are needed in the labour market – knowledge workers like teachers, nurses, doctors, surveyors, technology professionals. “Where there is demand, they have the matching skill set’.
What we do know and can safely predict is that a longer life and a longer career need a career development plan - intellectual and financial capital, and physical and emotional health - the answer to question two. We cannot hope to navigate the complexities of the modern world over a career spanning more than 50 years unless we have one. Factoring into our plan how much retirement costs, how long we are likely to live, what influences our retirement date and how we can ensure that our retirement is as healthy as possible are all important considerations as we move through our career journey, but what is more important is to put our personal and skills development at the heart of that plan.
We can return to one of our famous elderly employees - Joe Biden - to see how career planning works out. He is certainly making use of skills honed through decades in politics, including 8 years as Vice President. He has also been relentless in gaining experience, knowledge and social capital, and he has remained in the same sector where he acquired his expertise. Having said that, however, I can’t imagine that his career plan involved him running for President in 2024, so perhaps what is even more important for a career development plan is an understanding that any career journey will be subjected to unexpected twists and turns. This means that our plan must help us to build resilience so that we can handle those hairpin bends and continue to jog our way, Biden-stylee, through a productive eightieth decade, not forgetting to lop off the odd deadhead in the garden on our way.
