Newsletter: March 2006

Can people un-retire?
a question debated at a work-life balance conference

Study of working carers
an important project that Anne Butorac is leading

Life albums
turning memorabilia into memoirs

Keeping Your Mind Sharp workshops return

Can people un-retire?

Is it too late for those people currently retiring from the work force, or actually retired, to rethink their future? Several speakers raised this question at the 'Work Life Balance' conference held in Perth in February. Their answers differed.

Some who thought it was too late argued that people's expectations were already set and once set, hard to change. They pointed out that if you were part of the generation that grew up with the idea that paid work should be followed by a 'well deserved' period relaxing and pleasing oneself, what would make you opt out of that pleasant picture? Not much. One might call this the 'pull' of a pleasant retirement. Don't balance life and work, don't work.

Other speakers pointed out that many people were opting for retirement largely because they were fed up with the frustration and stress of an uncongenial workplace. This might be called the 'push' to retirement. Work being so insufferable that it cannot possibly provide a good balance to 'life'. These people won't change their retirement plans because nothing will induce them to stay 'a moment longer than they have to'.

It is hard to get any firm statistics on the number of people who would like to stay working at their same workplace if only it were a nicer place to be. Certainly the downsizing, right-sizing, restructuring, re-engineering, out-sourcing etc of the past ten or twenty years has left many people feeling no loyalty whatever to their organisation. This has been coupled with demands on them to work harder. Current data does show that Australian employees and managers now regularly work an extra four days per month of unpaid overtime. Many find it hard to take four consecutive weeks of annual leave and return to work only to find a mountain of work (and email) awaits them. And while policies permit flexible work arrangements-job sharing, purchasing extra annual leave, mandated flexible hours options for the over 50s in some organisations-it is often challenging to make these arrangements work effectively and realistically both for employees and organisations.

So there are a lot of factors that tempt people in their fifties and sixties to give up trying to balance work and life, and opt for no work.

But that is not always a wise decision - it is an unbalancing, and lack of balance is rarely a good thing. Of course, many people have stimulating and rewarding substitutes for work that 'rebalance' the equation. But many do not. And some recently retired people discover that they have insufficient savings for what will be an extended retirement.

The conference didn't come to any conclusion about 'can people un-retire?' but there is ample evidence that they can. And change their retirement expectations altogether. The myth that as we get older we find it harder to change our minds is just that: a myth.

Certainly our experience at Re.vision is that the space after leaving work is a perfect time to discover new opportunities. Helping people as they find and build new networks and develop ideas for the future proves it can be done - as others have also found. Our answer is firm: It is never too late to un-retire, to rebalance.

Study of working carers

With increasing longevity, the blurring of the 'retirement' age, people remaining longer in the workforce and the trend towards home care for the aged, societies like Australia will see an increase in the number of working carers (especially women) of the frail-aged.

But the specific issues faced by working carers - increasingly likely to be 'middle-aged' or older themselves - and the measures they have adopted to cope with the dual working/caring roles have not been systematically studied. Anne Butorac, who has herself managed the dual roles of ca ring and working, designed a project to do just that. The project has been funded by Carers WA and the Disability Services Commission (WA).

The heart of the project will be extended, probing conversations with 20-30 carers, both individually and in small focus group discussions. There will also be a final workshop involving carers and selected support agency personnel to present findings and explore their implications. It is intended that the project have practical applications both in clarifying the ways support services can help working carers and in how careers themselves can cope better.

It may come as something of a surprise that of the 246,800 primary home carers in Australia, the majority (68 percent) are of working age, half of those between the ages of 45 and 64. Thus, understanding the dual working/caring role is important because it affects the carer's ongoing involvement in work and the benefits working accrues - economically, socially and in terms of the carer's own health and wellbeing.

If you are a primary carer of an elderly parent or partner and are still working, you might be interested in participating in the study. Contact Anne by phone on 08 9370 5345 or by email a.butorac@aaaj.com.au

Life Albums

A life album is a collection of selected memorabilia, photographs, recollections, archival and other material that describe aspects of an individual's life and times in a simple home-made book format. It is not a scrap book - it is deeper and richer than that.

Ann Zubrick has just commenced a ten week course working with a group of adults as they construct Life Albums. She, and the people in the group, find that constructing a Life Album is a powerful process of turning memories into memoirs for oneself or for others-one through which to engage in life review. Memory making brings many rewards for the maker, recipients and others with whom one interacts in the process.

These albums become a powerful reminder of past (and present) associations, changing times, joy, opportunity and other recurring life themes. During the course Ann explores different ways in which Life Albums can be used for personal, family and community enrichment. Ann guarantees that the Life Albums will become real treasures!

The present course is being run through MALA and you can find out more by writing to Mature Adults Learning Association, PO Box 1749, West Perth, WA 6872 or by contacting Ann directly through contact@revision.net.au. Ann can run similar groups either in your setting or at Revision's offices in South Perth.

Keeping Your Mind Sharp workshop