When Experience Counts
Older workers are finding a welcome in the job market
It wasn't age that told Marlies Heitmann it was time to end her career in the travel industry. It was the series of bad news that kept costing her jobs: the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the discontinuation of the Concorde flights, the anti-French sentiment regarding the invasion of Iraq. So at 55, Manhattanite Heitmann retired, after having worked as a manager for Lufthansa, Air France, Ritz Paris, and Orient Express.
Only that retirement didn't stick. "I don't feel at all my age," says Heitmann, now 59 and working as a placement agent with the Randstad USA workforce staffing firm. "I plan to work another 15 to 20 years. I see no reason not to, in addition to needing to financially."
Heitmann is not alone. For reasons of personal fulfillment and financial incentive, many people ages 50 and older--"experienced workers" in human resources jargon--are planning to work well past traditional retirement ages. For many of the more than 70 million members of the baby boom generation, that will mean switching jobs, with some moving on to maximize their pension-plan benefits while others are downsized. The good news: The growing demand for highly skilled employees will enable many people ages 50 and older to take their pick of the right job to bridge their way into full retirement.
According to one AARP report, 68 percent of workers between the ages of 50 and 70 say that they plan to work in some capacity during retirement or never retire at all. "People want and are able to work more," says Roselyn Feinsod of the human resources consulting firm Towers Perrin, who prepared the report for AARP. "And it's really going to challenge companies to rethink what a career means."
Fun on the job. Good health, the desire to remain productive, and enjoying the interaction of working with others are chief among the reasons experienced workers offer as they look to extend their careers. "I'm not the kind of guy who's a couch potato," says Dean McDermott, a fast-talking 50-year-old who has worked as a manager at Premier Automotive, an auto logistics company in Dundalk, Md., for five years. "I'm not looking for the rocking chair." Having worked in management for various companies for 30 years, McDermott--who umpires youth league baseball on the weekends--is looking into starting his own wholesale seafood business. He says previous experience lets him choose work that excites him. "You can go to work, and it doesn't seem like a job," McDermott says. "You can have fun."
Of course, there also are financial reasons for mature workers to remain employed. According to a survey from Putnam Investments, 44 percent of those who return to work in their 70s are still paying off their mortgages. Restrictions on pension benefits often force these employees into the job market. The Internal Revenue Service prohibits employers from paying pension benefits to people who continue to work for the company. And, as those benefits are often based on an employee's salary at the time of retirement, it's often better economically for an experienced worker to leave a company outright than to continue to work in a reduced capacity and at a lower income.
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