Welcome to Retirement. Who Am I Now?
Transitioning from work to retirement can
be bumpy, as we wrestle with questions of identity and rebuilding
relationships. Teresa Amabile presents preliminary findings on the
journey to after-work life.
In an interview with Harvard Business School Professor Teresa
Amabile for a study on retirement, one man on the cusp of exiting his career
spoke openly about how the transition was making him question his identity.
“After I retire, I’m going to have to discover who I really am,” he said.
“I was so struck by that. He clearly felt he was going to become
untethered from the person he’d been for many years, in a fundamental way,”
says Amabile, a Baker Foundation professor at HBS, who is semi-retired herself.
In preliminary results from a large study on how people
transition into retirement, Amabile and colleagues found that, for many, the
transition begins smoothly enough but then develops into retirees questioning
their own identity and puzzling over how to structure their days as their
familiar work life fades into the background.
“Many people will say
that they have to figure out who they are in terms of always having been a
really productive person,” Amabile says. “They are achievement-oriented, and they
enjoyed the sense of progress in their work, so they’re searching for something
to replace that work identity.”
Over four years, the researchers conducted interviews and
surveys of 120 professionals at three quite different companies located in
different parts of the United States. To get a cross-section of how we think
about retirement in different phases of our careers, they talked to millennials
just starting out in the work world, workers inching closer to retirement age,
late-career professionals entering retirement, and those who had already
retired from those same companies.
Amabile and her collaborators presented preliminary results of
the Retirement Transitions Study in August at the Academy of Management
Conference in Chicago. She is still analyzing the data for a working paper with
co-authors Lotte Bailyn of the Sloan School at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Marcy Crary of Bentley University, Douglas T. (Tim) Hall and Kathy
Kram of Boston University’s Questrom School, and HBS doctoral candidate Jeff
Steiner.
The early findings revealed that many retirees follow a typical
pattern of psychological adjustment. They eagerly count down to the day they
can take a final bow at the office, put their feet up, and coast through their
Golden Years. Like a boiling kettle removed from the burner, most retirees
initially feel a blissful release from intense pressure when 40 or more hours
are no longer dedicated to a job each week. An empty calendar and a silent
alarm clock in the morning can be beautiful things.
“Most people are very happy right from that first morning,”
Amabile says.
The rocky
self-reflection stage of retirement
Yet, for many, that giddy glow starts to wear off within weeks
or months, as they shuffle through a sometimes-tough adjustment period where
they struggle with restructuring their lives and letting go of a big part of
their identity as employed people.
Although most welcomed the freedom and flexibility, many
retirees described unexpected feelings of being at loose ends, and it typically
took from six months to two years (or more) for them to sort through their
thoughts and feelings. People varied considerably in whether they saw the open
space of time before them as a blank canvas they were excited to paint—or a
dark, scary void.
“When you work, you are a kind of tenant in a really settled
life structure, where you know where you’re going to be and what you’re going
to be doing Monday through Friday. And you have a clear identity related to
your work,” Amabile says. “You go from that to having to be an architect of a
new life structure and, often, a new identity, where you need to build a new
life and explore new activities, relationships, and ways of thinking about
yourself.”
A central question for many is this: Should they fill their days
with pleasure, like cruises, golf, and meeting friends for breakfast, or should
they devote themselves to more purpose-driven, meaningful activities, like
volunteering or becoming active in local civic organizations?
Retirees may also find that all that extra time at home can
ruffle relationships. In the study, some men whose wives had been homemakers
said they drove their wives crazy soon after retirement by invading the kitchen
and doing things like alphabetizing the spices. “Some people feel like their
relationships deepen and they enjoy spending more time with a partner,” Amabile
says. “But you have to negotiate new physical and psychological boundaries with
your spouse, and people vary in how bumpy that transition is.”
People build ‘identity
bridges’ in retirement
The researchers found that, upon facing the retirement
transition, many people maintain continuity between their pre- and
post-retirement selves by using “identity bridging” strategies. Seven such
strategies have emerged from the study so far:
·
Enhancing a pre-transition identity through greater
engagement: Retirees devote more time and attention to a certain activity,
role, or relationship in a way that wasn’t possible when they worked full time.
A grandmother who saw her grandchildren only on weekends might start caring for
them regularly on weekdays. One man dedicated more energy to his “father
identity,” shepherding his teenage daughter through a bumpy high school period
by helping with schoolwork and spending more time with her.
·
Activating a latent identity: A retiree rediscovers a
passion that had become dormant due to the demands of work. One person had put
aside motorcycling for 25 years, but before retirement, he bought a new
motorcycle to reawaken his biker identity.
·
Retrospectively revising a pre-transition identity: After
retiring, some people reframe who they were while working to mesh with their
new identity. One man who said in an early interview that work had defined “who
he was” ended up saying a year later that he had never really identified with
his career, that work was just for pay, and that his self-concept as a family
man was—and had always been—most important.
·
Maintaining a life philosophy: Many people mentioned
holding onto certain attitudes that were central to their self-concept, which
helped get them through the feelings of uncertainty that came with retirement.
One woman described herself as being “very optimistic and fairly happy most
days.”
·
Enacting a previous identity in a new way: Several retirees
found ways to repurpose valuable skills they had used at work in new ways. A
retired engineer threw himself into doing hands-on engineering work as a
volunteer for the new community center being built in town.
·
Finding a new source for valued affirmation: Retirees often
miss the recognition and positive feedback work provides, so they will forge
closer relationships with friends and relatives or start small businesses as a
new source of fulfillment. One woman who had been mentoring junior workers at
her old firm volunteered her coaching services through a community
organization.
·
Putting a material stake in the ground: Some people find a
material anchor for their reinvented identity. One man opened a handyman shop
more as a hobby than a business, yet he said the business cards he created gave
him “a new sense of purpose.”
“These are important findings because they can make people more
aware of the psychological challenges of moving into retirement,” Amabile says.
“If people can be more consciously aware of the need to bridge with one or more
of these strategies, they might feel less discomfort along the way.”
How companies can
help
Companies can help an older employee ease into retirement by
organizing a send-off with a personal touch or ritual that expresses how much
the worker is appreciated. “If the company treats people with dignity and
respect and shows them they’re valued, they feel more positive about going into
that transition,” Amabile says.
And companies could consider offering seniors lighter schedules
so they’ll stick around longer. That’s what HBS did by allowing Amabile to cut
back her hours to part time this summer. She enjoys having more time at home,
but she still cherishes her professor identity.
“For now, it feels very right to say, ‘Yes, there’s that office
at HBS, and I know what meetings I have, what work I’ll be doing, and what
seminars I’ll attend,’” Amabile says. “Instead of leaping off a cliff into
retirement, I feel like I’m walking down the stairs.”
by Dina Gerdeman
https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/welcome-to-retirement-who-am-i-now?cid=spmailing-21999411-WK%20Newsletter%2009-19-2018%20(1)-September%2019,%202018
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