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Hire Calling
By Mary Quigley and Loretta E. Kaufman, November & December 2004
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For some, the emotional reward of a job is as important as any financial
payoff. Ruth Roberson, 83, had a long career in retail sales, first in her home
state of North Carolina and then at Macy's in Las Vegas, where she'd
moved after her husband died in 1982. Ruth retired in 2001 and shortly
afterward moved back to North Carolina upon the death of her 47-year-old
daughter. She quickly found herself at loose ends. "I was spending too
much time in the cemetery," she says. "I had never been alone in my
life and I was not handling it well."
Ruth was unsure of what to do with herself until she came across an
advertisement for Home Instead Senior Care in Greensboro. The idea of working
as a caregiver appealed to her, and she sent in her resumé.
"Whoever they gave me as a client would help me more than I helped
them," she says. "I have income and insurance and investments, but I
wanted more."
She now works 38 hours a week caring for a 76-year-old woman and her
50-year-old autistic son, as well as assisting a 92-year-old couple. Ruth gets
a great deal of personal satisfaction from helping others, and, apparently,
others appreciate her, too: she was recognized as the 2003 Caregiver of the
Year for Home Instead Senior Care.
Then there are those for whom work is rejuvenating, a way to stay sharp and
engaged with the world around them. Bruce Spacek of Cordova, Tennessee, freely
admits he had no plans for his postretirement from a successful, varied career
as an accountant, gas company executive, business owner, and consultant.
"You need to do some planning and I didn't do any," he says.
"After about five years I had run out of all the little projects. My wife
said, 'You find something to do!' "
Bruce knew first and foremost that he wanted to do something that could help
other people. A friend mentioned selling long-term care insurance and Bruce was
intrigued, as he knew from friends' experiences how a catastrophic illness
could devastate a family's finances. So, on his 65th birthday Bruce began
training to become a long-term health-care insurance agent. "It's a
kitchen table kind of thing," he says. "You sit there and walk them
through why long-term health insurance is a good idea."
There's a plus to being an older worker in his new field, Bruce says
with a laugh: "Being in your 60s, you can relate to the people you are
talking to. The same body parts creak when you get out of bed." The
biggest payoff, he says, has not been the paycheck but the mental stimulation
of the job. "Working as long as you are physically capable keeps your mind
sharp and makes you younger. You feel involved again in everything that's
going now; you're not on the sidelines."
Once you've figured out why you want to work, the next big question is
where. But before you go formulating an altogether new career, stop to evaluate
the employment prospects where you're working now or the company you
recently left. More savvy companies now recruit retired and former employees,
offering such age-friendly enticements as flexible schedules and health
benefits for part-timers.
If working for your current or past employer isn't an option, follow
Cathy Whalen's lead and network the companies and individuals you've
done business with over the years. "If you've developed strong
relationships, you don't have to sell yourself again when you tell them you
are considering a new career," she says. "I knew it was important to
develop a good network of friends and business relationships—but not how
important until I needed some help. As a result, I had lots of leads and
several opportunities."
In Cathy's case, dogged networking not only resulted in a job at the
Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau but also brought her to the attention of
her former employer. In late 2003 Delta came calling again, and she returned as
a contract employee, working in the employee-pass bureau on a flexible
schedule. Now Cathy has a full-time contract job with Delta and a temp job with
the convention bureau. Best of all, both are on her terms.
If you don't relish the idea of working for the same employer you've
come to know and perhaps not love, it makes sense to investigate industries
that are suffering from worker shortages and recruiting older workers, advises
Deborah Russell, AARP's manager of economic security and work. Best bets are health care, education, retail,
and customer service, she says.
Numerous smart companies, like the 35 firms that appear on our
"AARP's Best Employers for Workers Over 50" list, have already
begun to institute practices aimed at retaining valuable older workers. In
addition to flexible schedules, retraining, and health benefits for
part-timers, many also offer second-career counseling, outplacement support,
mentoring programs, and retirement planning. "Business as usual is no
longer the name of the game," says Russell. "Part-time opportunities
with benefits are going to be key."
One popular and prudent way to go is to sign on with a staffing
firm—formerly known as a temp agency. You are actually hired by the
staffing agency as its employee. The staffing agency matches employer and
employee, conducts the interview, and gets you in the door, a process that can
circumvent antigray bias.
Training programs are often the big draw at staffing firms—everything
from learning to work a computer to recrafting a resumé. You can test
one of the many flexible work arrangements on a temporary basis before deciding
if it fills the bill. "One of the fastest-growing areas in the staffing
industry is so-called temp-to-perm," says Steven Berchem, vice president
of the American Staffing Association. "It lets employees try different
environments and see what's best for them."
Ginny Lalka, 58, needed to find part-time work to pay for her health-care
insurance. She went the staffing-firm route a few years after she moved to
Delray Beach, Florida, from Rochester, New York, where she had worked for 21
years, most recently as a manager of corporate communications. Through Careers
USA, she has temped in a variety of positions, from "mystery shopper"
testing customer service at banks and other companies to managing
human-resource records for a local government. "I love it because it's
like working for a lot of different employers, and it is always
interesting," she says. Ginny also finds that temp work meshes well with
her lifestyle. "I name my own hours each week. Most days I leave by 2:30
and have a whole day to go to the gym, walk along the ocean, do some volunteer
work."
The notion of working into what used to be called retirement is still
relatively new, and as AARP's Russell says, "Many people tend to focus
on that day when they stop punching a clock or putting on a suit and put little
thought into what they are going to do with their time." Then there are
those fortunate few whose retirement plans get upended by a better deal.
That was the case for Allen "Jocko" Hughes, who come football
season can be found huddling with the Detroit Lions field coaches as the
club's executive director of team relations. "I am the go-to
guy," says Jocko. "I know just about everybody in Detroit. If
there's a problem with the staff or a football player, I try to solve
it." Jocko handles a range of duties, from administering the players'
per diem expenses to advising them on how to handle their finances and finding
them places to live. "There's never a dull moment," he says.
"Every day brings challenges."
Jocko knows the Motor City well from his 28 years on the Detroit police
force, starting as a patrolman during the mid-'60s race riots and rising to
third deputy chief by the time of his retirement in 1994. He'd planned to
manage some rental houses he owned and to take it easy. That lasted about six
months. Out of the blue, he got a call from a Detroit Lions executive asking
him to interview for a position as the team's director of security. "I
thought he was kidding," says Jocko with a laugh. "But when I
realized he wasn't, I just kept asking questions. I was ready to go back to
work. I'm not the kind of guy who can sit around."
Ten years later, Jocko, 66, is going strong. During football season he works
every day, including travel time with the team. But following Super Bowl Sunday
and the end of the season, his responsibilities lighten, and he likes to travel
with his wife, who recently retired from the postal service.
Recently, Jocko realized he was financially set and figured it was time to
hang up his hat. Then he had a chat with his high school basketball coach, Will
Robinson, who phased into retirement himself as an assistant to the director of
the Detroit Pistons. "You will get bored," Will warned him.
"Work as long as you can. Your body will tell you when to
retire."
Great advice from a man who just retired himself—at age 93.
Mary Quigley and Loretta E. Kaufman are the authors of Going Back to
Work: A Survival Guide for Comeback Moms (St. Martin's Press, 2004).
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