A Final Word About Work

You hear a lot about how the coming wave of baby-boomer retirements is going to swamp the Social Security and Medicare systems. I’ve even read some articles on how the government and businesses need to encourage us to continue working longer, in order to keep the economy and the national budget healthy, as well as to stave off an impending brain drain and labor shortage in the business world. Encourage us how?

As far as I’m concerned, the way to encourage people to keep working is to make them love their jobs, and give them enough flexibility to have a fulfilling, healthy life outside of work. However, the trend in business seems to be just the opposite: more mergers that produce gigantic conglomerates where people feel like numbers; “streamlining” initiatives designed to squeeze more productivity out of fewer employees; the constant threat of being downsized, outsourced, re-engineered. Even the wonders of modern technology, the cell phones, pagers, blackberries and laptops are often used not to make work easier, but to make it harder to escape from it, even at home. Few companies have programs to retain retirement-aged workers or any workers, for that matter.

Of course, we all know that companies are in business to make money; we’ve heard it often enough. Their primary purpose is not to have happy employees and not to help the federal government bail out Social Security and Medicare. Ultimately they are going to do what they must to remain profitable, we are going to do what we must to live fulfilled and happy lives, and the two don’t always coincide.

Perhaps the way to help our country’s economy without working into the grave is by keeping healthy and volunteering our time in ways that will give back to society. One of the staggering opportunities of having free time in retirement is the chance to do meaningful work for no pay at all. I know that many employed people are dedicated community volunteers, but many are also like I was, too caught up in the insular world of the corporation to look beyond at the greater world. I scan the web and find almost too many opportunities to get involved in something that has meaning. It may take me awhile to find the perfect fit – but that will be my next big project.