When workers arrive on “the wrong side of 50” (a negative phrase I’m all for phasing out immediately), they often begin looking toward the finish line.
They start thinking about retirement.
This is nothing you don’t already know, of course. It’s a common phase of work life. Multiple times a week, it seems, I hear one of my 50-or-older peers bring up or allude to retirement.
But, in these conversations, I’ve also noticed an interesting trend. Many of these people who are now considering leaving their jobs were, until recently, highly engaged employees. They have long derived a great deal of identity and self-worth from their jobs.
Now, they’re ready to walk away.
This might even describe you.
What changed?
I’ve become fascinated with identifying the tipping points. What was the big change, or maybe just the final straw, that changed how these high performers thought about their work?
Given that every situation is different, it’s tempting to think that if 10 people are asked about their change in attitude, they’ll give 10 different answers. I don’t think that’s the case, however.
Instead, based on the conversations I have with my colleagues, family members, and friends, it’s a much smaller subset of reasons.
Here are the common ones:
Changing life circumstances and family demands
At some point, many workers find themselves caught between the ongoing demands of caring for their children and the growing demands of caring for aging parents or other loved ones.
Juggling these multiple demands can put a squeeze on the time and energy individuals can realistically devote to their jobs. Inevitably, something must give.
That “something” is their careers.
A desire to try something new
Only the most boring of us don’t have multiple interests. By workday, we might be accountants, executive assistants, systems engineers, project managers, chemists, or attorneys. But that doesn’t mean we don’t desire to be something else, to try something new, to take our life down a completely different path.
My sister comes to mind. She toiled for years for the federal government in a job she disliked (to put it mildly). But as a talented and passionate quilter, she dreamed for years of opening a fabric store. I’ve met people who decided mid-career or later that they wanted to teach. Others felt a calling to “make a difference” by working for a non-profit.
These are common stories, and I know you hear them, too. But what I’ve noticed is that when people reach their fifties, they voice their desire for change more loudly.
Financial security
When a former coworker, who’d had a successful career in sales, announced her retirement unexpectedly a few years ago, I contacted her to learn more about her decision. As she lives two states away from aging parents, I thought that might be a factor.
Also, as her decision came just on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, I guessed that may have also had something to do with her hanging ‘em up. Did she suddenly find a need to attain a better work-life balance?
Her answer surprised me: She decided to retire in her early fifties, simply because she could. Financially, she was set. So, why should her life be harder than it needed to be? Working no longer was worth it.
A close friend, who worked as a plant engineer for a large, global chemical company, retired at age 50. To make it happen, he had always lived frugally and had, without complaint, taken job assignments in some of the less desirable parts of the country, and even internationally. His was, in many ways, a hard career, but he enjoyed his job and excelled at.
In the end, he wanted out while he was still young enough to travel, play golf, and do other things he enjoyed.
He, too, retired because he could.
Change fatigue
Workers over age 50 have often spent years mastering their craft, attaining new knowledge, developing new skills, and stepping up to new job responsibilities. Unfortunately, this growth doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
Companies change. Company leadership changes. Business strategies change. Economic conditions change. Colleagues change. Technology and systems change.
Change, change, change … At some point, we all reach a point where we’ve had enough.
Then there’s the reality that change can become familiar. At some point, a restructuring or a newly implemented training program resembles an initiative we’ve seen installed in the company before.
And when change is familiar, it can also become wearying.
They feel less valued at work
THE BIG CHANGE that leads people, including those who are hard-charging and competitive, to begin thinking about heading for the exits (whether they are financially ready to or not) is that they find their work less fulfilling.
So much of our self-worth is tied up in our jobs. But that relationship isn’t a constant. For example, we all know those who’ve had health scares and began questioning why they were devoting so much of their lives to their careers.
But other factors can be in play, too. I recently talked to an acquaintance who had a reputation for always being the smartest guy in the room. He graduated from elite colleges and had, across the arc of his career, always been a high achiever. But when we spoke a few months ago, he told me he had retired. He was in his late fifties.
I asked him why he made this decision and explained my interest in identifying the tipping points that lead people to retire early. He said he loved his job. Until he didn’t.
The change for him came when he found himself reporting to a new supervisor who was controlling and didn’t value employee empowerment. What had been a job my acquaintance loved became a job he hated.
What a loss to his company—and to the workforce as a whole—to have this brilliant, personable, motivated worker retire early, when he still had so much to contribute.
What about you?
Have you retired recently, or begun thinking more seriously about doing so? If so, why? Please share in the comments.
