The New ‘Third’ Stage of Life: Semi-retirement is Here to Stay. In Part II of our series on Work and Retirement, Nancy Conroy explores how the trend to retire and work is leading to the introduction of a new ‘third stage’ of life.

Philosophers have always talked about the three stages of life. Baby boomers, however, have decided that that isn’t quite enough for them. They want to have four, and that’s exactly what we are currently witnessing—the creation of a brand new stage of life. The generations behind will benefit from this new take on the life span and before long philosophers will be writing about the four stages of life. The new ‘third stage’ seems to run from about 50 to 70 and is becoming a stage in life characterized by semi-retirement. Although some boomers will still opt for the old third stage, i.e. classic retirement, the rest intend to combine leisure with work for income.

There are several trends that have contributed to this new way of thinking about our life span.

• The average age of mortality keeps moving up. Right now it is 82 for women and 76 for men.
• Canadians are choosing to retire earlier than their parents did. The average age is now 61.
• The length of retirement in Canada has been increasing; Statistics Canada says that Canadians are living on average 20 years after retiring.
• Canadians over 55 are healthier on average than their parents were.
• A recent study commissioned by Health Canada shows that the modern workplace is an increasingly stressful place to be.

All of this adds up to a growing desire on the part of Canadian workers to improve their quality of life through ‘retiring’ from full time work and moving to semi-retirement. In a recent Statistics Canada study, the author found that almost 30% of those who retired between 1992 and 2002 indicated they would have continued working had they been able to move to part time status. As noted in Part I of this series, roughly 7 in 10 Canadian baby boom pre-retirees report that they intend to work, at least part time, in retirement. This attitude, coupled with the huge numbers of baby boom retirees that are expected to leave fulltime work behind, is going to have an impact on how we view work and retirement. Here are some of the changes we have begun to witness.

We’re Not OLD!

Traditionally, retirement was associated with later life and old age. In other words, if you were retired, you must be OLD. Leading edge boomers will simply not accept this descriptor. They are in the process of redefining what it means to be old. Thus in magazines like Fifty-Five Plus we read about the very active lives of retirees who are doing such things as taking to the road on Harley Davidsons or going back to university fulltime or taking on exciting volunteer challenges. Modern retirees are choosing to continue to contribute to their professions in retirement, to launch new businesses or to start new careers. CARP recently launched an award for the Best Employers of the Fifty-Plus. All four winners represent companies who have realized the strength and value of workers who were traditionally considered to be too ‘old’ for work. They include: Home Depot, Avis Rent-A-Car, Merck Frost and the Global Banking Service Centre of RBC Royal Bank. These organizations actively recruit and retain older workers.

Don’t Discriminate Against Me

Ageism is alive and well in Canada and has been documented by Canadian researchers. Older workers have traditionally been discriminated against in the workplace and tend to have more difficulty finding jobs than younger workers. Along come the boomers. They have a history of activism, do not want to be considered ‘old’ and just won’t put up with it. Whether working full time or part time in retirement, boomers will be much less prepared than their parents were to put up with mandatory retirement policies and ageist behaviour from employers. Furthermore, looming labour shortages, particularly in some industries and professions, will cause many employers to rethink policies that discriminate against older workers. As those over 50 become a desirable commodity, ageist attitudes will need to be dropped.

I’m Not Really Retired

Modern researchers are going to find it increasingly difficult to study ‘retirement’ as retirees choose to continue to participate in the labour force. When they ask someone, “Are you retired?” who will say yes and who will say no. Ana, from Part I of this series, will be collecting a private pension and CPP but will be working part time. How will she think of herself—as a worker or as a retiree or as something else? Or when Larry retired from Canada Post but was working as a school bus driver, how did he refer to himself? The lines are becoming blurred as retirement occurrs over an extended period of time. Richard Bolles, the author of The Three Boxes of Life, defined retirement as ‘an orgy of leisure’. This definition simply isn’t adequate any more.

The new ‘third’ stage doesn’t have a new name yet. Some retirement experts have suggested possibilities such as unretirement, or re-retirement or retreading. None have stuck. However, there is no question that retirement is being redefined and the new third stage is here to stay.

If Only I Could Work Part Time

With the appearance of the new ‘third stage’, both employees and employers are realizing that it makes a lot of sense to retain the skills, experience and maturity of older workers, while also allowing them to partially retire. In a research study by Watson Wyatt, it was found that two thirds of workers over 50 would like to scale back their hours or work on a more flexible schedule. Only 16% of companies surveyed by Watson Wyatt offered phased retirement programs. These companies reported that they saw phased retirement as a means to address potential labour shortages. While offering this positive option to employees, it is interesting to note that those employees opting for phased retirement often receive lower and/or fewer benefits than those who work full time. Ken Dychtwald reports that some companies in the U.S. are offering employees “rehearsal” time, i.e. a chance to experience retirement with an option of coming back to work if the employee doesn’t like retirement! He predicts that phased retirement will become a much more common option for workers of the future. Let’s hope so.

Definition of Work and Career

We are witnessing a major change in what it means to be a worker. We watch as younger generations move in and out of the workforce based on a range of personal imperatives. Workers change jobs and careers with greater frequency than ever before. The old paradigm of joining an organization for life is disappearing. Many individuals expect to have more than one career during their lifetime. Modern retirees are demonstrating that they can be workers and retirees at the same time. Statistics Canada reports that the number of people over 65 who say they are working for income increased 20% between 1996 and 2001. Another government study found 18% of those getting close to retirement (age 45 – 59) say they have no plans to retire. Work is increasingly seen as an important part of life and there is a growing belief that continuing to work is a healthy option.

In the Three Boxes of Life, Bolles proposed that we turn our view of the life span on its head. Rather than seeing our lives as consisting of three boxes lined up side by side--learning first when we are young, then work in the middle of our lives, with retirement at the end--we should encompass all three boxes at all stages in our lives. The new ‘third’ stage of life embraces this concept that Bolle. The emergence of this new ‘third’ stage of life is changing our perceptions about aging, work and retirement in many significant ways. We can’t completely appreciate what the full impact of this amazing development will be but it is certainly an exciting time to be contemplating or living retirement. Anything seems possible.

Nancy Conroy, PRP, MA, is the creator of LifeScape, a retirement planning web tool. It is available at www.theconroygroup.com.