Work until you drop?

Comment by Sarah Collins on August 28, 2011 at 17:30

Of course, with the disastrous falls in the stock market many of the 'baby boom' generation are seeing our retirement date slip further and further into the future! My pensions and investments will not bring in anything like the return I expected when I took out my pension plans and I can't see myself retiring at 60 or 65! I'm self-employed, so when I go is my choice but this article makes me stop and think about the predicament of other people of my generation.

Luckily for us, advances in healthcare mean that we live longer and remain healthier than people used to. Most of us have given up smoking, watch our drinking habits and eat well. We should be able to carry on working productively for longer than our parents did and this should help our financial position. 

It is all well and dandy for employers to look at how to 'let us go' if they think we're not quite 'as sharp as we once were' - what happens if we just can't afford to retire? I hear an awful lot about the rights of parents to flexible working whilst they have young children, but what about extending this right to older workers, especially since so many of us either care for very elderly parents or help look after grandchildren? 

With a bit of common sense and imagination, I am sure companies could continue to get the best out of their older, more experienced and well-qualified workers without resorting to 'capability procedures' and dismissal! 

Comment by Mara Thorne on August 30, 2011 at 11:13

I entirely agree, Sandra, the pensions that our parents were lucky enough to enjoy are not necessarily going to be available to our generation, and we may have to work longer, which is not necessarily what everybody wants to do.  It's a conundrum.  Clearly that's why the Government has abolished the right to enforce retirement on people at an arbitrary age, as well as extending the right to request flexible working to carers of adults such as elderly parents. 

I genuinely urge companies to value the experience and wisdom of more mature workers and not just to consign them to the scrap heap because they reach a particular age.  And flexibility is an obvious option to explore - it is a huge shock to the system to go from working 5 days per week to 0 days per week from one day to the next, so a phased approach to retirement may make sense for both parties.

Unfortunately there are situations where performance does decline with age - think about manual labourers whose bodies may just no longer be able to sustain the physical effort of the job - and it is not fair on either party to pretend it's not happening.  Whereas in the past organisations may have tolerated declining performance because there was a clear end date in sight, nowadays they may have to take a more proactive approach before the business starts to suffer, perhaps putting at risk the livelihoods of all the other employees who depend upon it.  Reaching a consensus with the person is always the first and best option to go for.  Only where this is not possible, and there is a pressing case for action, would capability procedures and dismissal be required.

Comment by Sarah Collins on August 30, 2011 at 11:24

Yes, I agree that for some occupations retirement is in fact necessary when you reach the point where you can't physically carry on. My own father was a surveyor, and he worked on large construction projects such as tower blocks. Climbing 25 stories up the scaffolding was not funny once he was in his fifties, let alone sixties! 

 

The way the whole NVQ structure has developed interests me, though. I was working in vocational education when it was introduced and there was much talk of 'on the job' training. It looked like a whole new way of training - young people found an employer who would train them and assess their skills. Then they would receive a qualification. In no time at all, further education colleges found ways of delivering the qualifications and assessing in-house. Ideas like 'case studies' done on friends and family came along for health and beauty courses and for other sectors like construction, working in simulated situations came along.

 

It is a pity - in the original vision for the qualifications, older workers could well have had a role in training the new generations, genuinely in the workplace. This would have meant that older plumbers, say, or bricklayers, could be taken off-site and trained as trainers, thus prolonging their working lives. It didn't really happen, but I hope that the government's new plans to grow apprenticeship schemes work out as this should offer new avenues both for young people coming into the workforce, and to older workers who could be used to hand on their experience as they plan their retirement. 

 

 

Comment by Mara Thorne on August 30, 2011 at 12:31

A very interesting angle, Sarah.  I do believe organisations should find ways of involving older workers in passing on their knowledge and experience to the up and coming ones.  They are seriously missing a trick otherwise.  Many organisations that made wholesale redundancies in the early nineties quickly found when the economy improved that they had lost a great deal of very valuable experience that could not easily be replaced - the so-called "war for talent" of the early noughties was the result.

The guy who installed my boiler about 7 years ago was only in his 40s and was already re-training to become a gas engineer trainer as opposed to a fitter, because he could see that in the future the punishment his body took when scrambling around on the floor doing contorsions to get into awkward places would catch up with him!  I suspect that people with that much foresight are in the minority, unfortunately. 

But even desk bound jobs can be bad for your health - I had neck and shoulder pains for several years because of excessive "mouse" use at work, combined with a long commute.  I do question the notion that we should all be working until we are in our seventies and beyond, just to have a decent standard of living when we eventually do decide to step off the hamster wheel.  We may have increasing life expectancy but how much of that is good quality, healthy life?  Surely pension provision needs to be improved to give people real choices? 

I was a trustee of a number of final salary pension schemes during my corporate career, and until the Maxwell scandal and the subsequent Government "intervention", they delivered excellent benefits and allowed people a good standard of living after a lifetime of work.  If they hadn't messed around with SERPS and tax concessions etc. they might not have had to reinvent the wheel time and again, firstly with Stakeholder Pensions and from next year with NEST.  The demise of the final salary pension scheme has saddened me a great deal.

Comment by Sarah Collins on August 30, 2011 at 19:10

I agree with you that pensions have been messed around with horribly! What we need is a simple system for people to save for retirement - and then it should be left strictly alone. SERPS was such a straightforward system and of course the old final salary schemes were excellent. Of course, cost is the issue for companies - but if future pensioners end up without enough to live on, then it could well cost even more to subsidise everyone's pension all with means-tested benefits! I think one of the problems is that Government don't understand financial planning as well as they like to think they do!

 

On a personal note - if you still have neck and shoulder pains, then I may be able to help. I am offering 20% my treatments for all Networking in Surrey members until Xmas and one of the treatments I offer is aromatherapy massage. A back and shoulder treatment may be relaxing and help ease tension and stiffness. My phone number is 01428 654598 and my website is www.holistic-energy.co.uk 

 

 

 

 

Comment by Mara Thorne on September 5, 2011 at 9:33

Aromatherapy massage sounds wonderful!!!  I am sure it would be lovely, and I shall look at your website shortly.

I despaired about my neck and shoulder pains while I was working in the corporate world - I tried so many things, from osteopathy, physiotherapy, private consultations involving ice and electric therapy, NHS treatment (what a waste of time!  It took them six months just to arrange a referral....) and ended up taking daily medication and thinking it was just something I would have to live with.  Then one day I mentioned it to somebody at the gym who told me of a sports massage therapist who had recently set up her own practice; I went to see her, she told me what the problem was and that it could be solved with a course of sessions, and I was so happy I burst into tears!  What she did hurt a fair bit at times, but she released the muscles and restored movement and I have never looked back. 

Well, have a good day, it's been lovely "chatting" with you.

Comment by Sarah Collins on September 5, 2011 at 12:12

Hi Mara

 

Aromatherapy oils add an extra dimension to massage as they each have their own properties. Some of them are muscle relaxant, and some are neurasthenic so they help relieve pain. Others balance hormones or simply relax and delight you! 

 

Pleased you have had such a positive experience of massage.  It can achieve a lot. 

 

Have a good day.

 

 

 

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