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A PHILOSOPHICAL DEBATE
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Are you maladjusted if you
want to keep on working?
By MURRY FRYMER
of TheColumnists.com
I have friends of a similar age to mine who have retired. And I have friends who have chosen to keep working.
I note that there is a philosophical debate between the two, as to whether one or the other has made the wiser choice. I have wondered about the question for a time.
Among the retirees, there is the argument that some free time in the latter years of one’s life is a good thing, especially if the economics of the move are acceptable. Among the workers, I hear some say that they plan to work until they die. Here the argument seems to take the worker to the heartfelt decision that life without a job or career is time wasted. Or there is the often expressed point—“I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I quit working.”
I certainly have had my share of days when I did not know what to do with myself, especially if there is nothing worth seeing on TV. And I debate my decision to retire many times in my mind.
But I must say that I am not convinced that working on a job, especially in later years, has in itself some inherent benefit to it. So many of these workers, outside of keeping busy, really cannot point to some accomplishment that was not already built in earlier in their lives. I know a tax accountant who is working into his late 70s and says he will carry on. It is not something he particularly enjoys, but he feels, like so many, that to quit the work would leave him feeling useless and searching for activities.
I think so many of us, perhaps a majority, have little idea of what to do when the job is gone. We can be told we have freedom, but the freedom to do what? And working, if nothing else, does provide that great reason—income.
And so the workers of this way of thinking go on to the bitter end, drawing their last check and their last breath about the same time. I remember my father doing that. He was a fine custom tailor, but picked up an alterations job at a dry cleaning store to finish out his time. I did note that he made new friends within the context of that job. But he never did travel or spend any excess time with family. I cannot judge the wisdom of his choice.
I do think that if I or others do not know how to pass our time without the job, perhaps we have fallen short in understanding the uses of our lifetime, of where to go when you can go anywhere, of what to do when you can do anything, of filling your days usefully when the job lacked that opportunity.
I am not sure of this argument. Obviously, many retire because their work is unrewarding or intimidating in some way. There are countless reasons.
However there is one new wrinkle. We are living longer. Retire at 65 when you might live to 90? But then, should you work to 80?
I’m mulling this.
©2007 by Murry Frymer. The Murry Frymer caricature is ©2000 by Jim Hummel. The cartoons are from IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA. This column first posted Dec. 10, 2007.
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