The many comments prompted by my post on retirement have prompted me, in turn, to think afresh about the subject. There are indeed any number of variables involved: age, physical and mental health, financial means, other interests, etc.
On the question of age, and taking my own experience as an example: up to about three years ago, I was quite "easy" with the prospect of carrying on after the age of 65 in my job as a freelance translator. Not only did I enjoy the work on the whole but I could also have done with the extra retirement benefit generated. But then a combination of declining market conditions and decreased powers of concentration started to take their toll, and by the time last October came round I was more than happy to pack it in. So the question of how much one enjoys one's job and/or how much it takes out of one is obviously a factor - what the French call pénibilité.
It is, in short, an exceedingly complex subject. But, over and above individual circumstances and overriding economic imperatives, we all of us still have to come to terms with the switch from work to retirement at some point or other. I am convinced that by the time retirement comes round, if not long before, we have all become creatures of habit. When I was a young man working in London and living on Primrose Hill I could easily spend the weekend doing precisely nothing. I would find it far more difficult to do that at the moment, but my dearest wish is to get back to that predicament!
This is such a common problem that perhaps someone should be writing a learned paper on the subject. You? You say you now have the time and are missing your deadlines!
ReplyDeleteBut might I suggest that this is probably no more than just another unwelcome sign of old age. Face it, we don't like change! If you look at it from this angle and consider you've just acquired this terrible 'habit' of actually liking work you will soon be prancing around again.
And hark to this: retirement needn't mean just lolling around .....