Last December I turned 75 and finally decided to pack it in, workwise.
For the prior few years, I hadn't been doing all that much work, and was down to just one client that I wrote a bi-weekly blogpost for. Not exactly heavy lifting. I loved the client. I'd been working with this small electronics engineering outfit for years, and had always said that, if I were ever going to return to work full time, it would have been for them.
Still, I was done with coming up with embedded systems topics and pretending I was an EE. (I wrote the posts in the name of one of the company's founders.) So I quit.
It's not as if I don't work at all.
I volunteer Monday, Thursday, and every other Friday at a homeless shelter, and on any given day, depending on what the needs are, I'm there for four to six hours. Although I do occasionally have to schlepp boxes full of shampoo or razors for short distances, this job doesn't require a lot of heavy lifting either. What I'm doing is handing out shampoo, razors, and other stuff, or serving lunch.
But it's tiring being on my feet for four to six hours at a whack, and it can be emotionally exhausting, as well.
The people we serve have had hard lives. Bad childhoods, bad educations, bad health, bad marriages, bad choices, and - and this is the universal - bad luck. It's not an official part of my volunteer work, but a lot of the guests talk to me. Sometimes the talk is just baseball or 'hey, you sound like you're from Chicago." Sometimes it's hearing their stories. Gulp.
Plus, there's often a level of tension. Folks complain. They yell. They blow off steam. They fight. They OD. (Blessedly, that's rare.)
When I get home, I'm exhausted. On many days, I take an official nap. On many other days, I drift off for mini-cat-naps with a book in my hand.
I'm a healthy and vigorous 75. I'm no exercise queen, but I average 5 miles a day walking. (Used to do 7 miles, but I have way too many joints where the arthritis started kicking in.) If I had to, I could keep working. I'm just happy I don't have to.
Still, there are many folks my age who do remain happily working. And many more who are working because they unhappily have to.
Painfully funny, painfully true. Or at least painfully true-ish.
Looking forward to your golden years, but afraid you’ll never be able to afford it? Our state-of-the-art facility offers elderly corporate drones the comfort of a living space with the same lack of character as an office cubicle. Be surrounded by like-minded residents like yourself, who will be working on their laptops to pay off their bills until the day they die.
Lots of amenities at WeStillWork. Like day-to-day leases in case you get fired or die. (These are for touch-and-go members. You can opt for a longer lease if you like.) A play area so you can take your grandkids to work with you. The Fun Room features "wooden blocks, one singular Barbie with its head ripped off, and a TV from 2002 that doesn’t work." IT support provided by techies in hospice. (Now that's grim.)
And:
On-the-Clock Job Coaches for When You’re Fired for Being Too Old. At WeStillWork, we know ageism is real. But as we say here, “You still gotta pay the bills.” That’s why we have on-site job coaches to help you find your next gig when you get canned from your current one for hugging the vice president of HR uncomfortably long.
There are testimonials from "happy" westillworkers. A terminally ill ninety-six year old graphic designer. An eighty-five year old digital marketing manager who always loved working six days a week because he hated his wife and kids.
Then there's Gus, an eighty-one year old social media influencer:
“WeStillWork makes it easy to both live and work. I just got off my yearly performance review call, while Stephanie, my night nurse, bathed me. Flexibility at its finest.”
I know plenty of people who are working at volunteer or work-work well into their 70's and 80's. Most of the work-workers who come to mind are people who worked for themselves in some capacity. If I didn't have my volunteer work, I might have hung on to my work-work for a little longer, as it was completely flexible in terms of where, when, and for whom I worked. My fellow volunteers - roughly my age, mid to late 70's - include a retired Delta pilot and a retired judge.
I also know plenty of people who are completely retired and enjoy having time to do whatever they damned well please: golf, travel, hang with the grandkids, join a book club, take courses.
Whether we're working as volunteers, work-working at something we enjoy, or just plain kicking it, we are the lucky ones.
The ones working at crappy jobs they hate are the elders I feel bad for.
WeStillWork may be satirical, but like all good satire, there's a goodly element of truth in there.
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