Retire in 30 years or semi-retire today?

Retirement – the idea that one should withdraw from work at a specific age – is dead!

It’s an obsolete concept; it is flawed at best.

Retire in 30 years or semi-retire today?

Retirement – the idea that one should withdraw from work at a specific age – is dead!

It’s an obsolete concept; it is flawed at best.

When physical work dominated the labour force, the concept of retirement emerged. Workers were forced to retire when they couldn’t perform the physical work any longer. And although they remained an important part of the community, they were no longer able to work full-time.

As a child, I spent my summers visiting my grandmother. In her younger years, she would still help out in the family, cooking every day and putting her abilities at the service of the community. In some cultures, retirement takes an even more extreme form: the elderly are abandoned for death when they are no longer able to serve their families and become an economic burden.

In today’s world, is retiring well even possible for most of us?

Shouldn’t we all aspire to something else? I have pondered over this and I have come to the conclusion that I don’t want to retire. I enjoy what I do too much to stop doing it!

In fact, here is a question for you: why would you stop doing something you enjoy?

I’ve decided to aim for something different.

Allow me to elaborate:

If retirement is obsolete, why is it still such a popular concept?
Why has no one challenged it over the last few years?
I’ve met a few people that said: “No, I am not ready to retire yet”. I saw a surgeon retire at 95 years of age – this is way past the ‘consensus’ or the ‘acceptable’ retirement age.

I don’t want to retire.

More and more people are working into their 70s and 80s. Some workers do this out of necessity, but others simply enjoy what they do too much to stop.

Yet, retirement is still something that many people aspire for. For many, it is just a target, an ‘end date’ for their misery. It is something that helps to make the unbearable present a little more bearable.

How many people do you know that love what they do? And how many of these people talk about retiring?

What are we doing so wrong in the workplace to make employees say, “You know what, I can’t wait to retire.” In other words: “I need a deadline. I need a deadline for this misery.”

This is an unfortunate reality: in many countries, where the retirement age is on average 67 years, people will spend 35 to 45 years working. If we are spending this much time working, shouldn’t we aspire for work that is fulfilling? Instead of something that we see simply as an obligation.

It should be much more than that. You may notice that when people finally really meet this ‘deadline’, they aren’t always as happy as they thought they would be. Are people more excited about the idea of retiring than they are about their actual retirement?

Is the concept of retirement actually more enjoyable than the reality?

I’ve also realized that I don’t want to work 10, 12, 14 hours every day anymore!

So, I’ve come to the conclusion for myself: I don’t want to retire, I want to semi-retire, possibly this week.

And as I write this, I’m in Spain, traveling and bringing my work with me. I’m now sitting at a restaurant, outside, in one of many plazas in Madrid, taking a long lunch break.

I’ve made the decision to ‘retire’ a bit every day.

I enjoy staying alert, keeping fit and sharp.

Granted there will be 14-hour workdays and that’s just part of the game. There may be some weeks where I have to work 60-80 hours but that’s the exception, not the rule.

Instead, what I aspire for today is to work 4-5 hours a day, every day.

I don’t even mind having to work a few hours on a Saturday or Sunday. In fact, I’m a creative person and it does happen that I get the brightest ideas outside the “usual working time”. And why wouldn’t I jot these ideas down and work on them on a Saturday?

It comes down to working when you feel the most inspired and productive.

I would happily create a video for my clients on a Saturday or Sunday.

Why wouldn’t I take 15 minutes out of my lunch break to do that? And then, why not enjoy the rest of the hour or even Monday afternoon off?

Whilst I am writing this I am picturing some of the great inventors, a great influencer, someone like Leonardo Da Vinci, having an idea and thinking to himself: “Nope, it’s a Sunday, I should not be thinking of work today.” Think about it…

Truth is, life is much more different today than it was 50 years ago. Even five years ago, actually, scrap that, make it two years ago.

Don’t we need to aspire for new models of working?

In reality, I have been aiming to work five hours a day since January. I have had days off and I don’t normally work on Fridays, especially to compensate for some of the crazy early/late hours I do while working remotely with clients on the other end of the globe.

For tomorrow’s (Friday) early retirement dose, I have scheduled doing some physical activity in the morning and then visiting San Sebastian for the first time (which I suspect won’t be the last…).

For me, the new model is working a little bit every day so I don’t feel tired and dying for the weekend.

I have come to realize that I don’t need as many holidays as I used to. I can take them whenever I want and also because I’m structuring my day around my personal, professional and social needs rather than on my work only.

I’m not where I want to be yet, to feel comfortable about taking off four to five days every month. But I am getting there and making more progress than if I was doing the alternative +40-hour workweek.

Working myself to death in my 30s and 40s is no longer an option.

Especially if all that is in lieu of a possible retirement when I reach the age of 60, 70 or even 80.

Looking back over my experience I have noticed that I am much more balanced. I have lost some weight, I eat healthier, overall, I feel less exhausted than I used to. More than that, I have the feeling that my productivity almost doubled. One of the biggest areas I have noticed an increase is in my creativity. I don’t remember the last time I felt as creative as today.

If you are a leader, when you go to work tomorrow, look around, if you are working remotely, look into the cameras:

Are the people genuinely happy to be there or are they just waiting for the ‘deadline’?
Are they counting down the days to retirement?
Shouldn’t we aspire to create better work environments where employees feel fulfilled?
Some more Food for Thought this week.

Would be happy to hear your insights and opinions on this subject.

Back to you soon,
Dom

P.S. This post was written a few months ago. While writing this piece, I was sitting at Mica Restobar in Madrid. A beautiful place with great service, incredible food, and super friendly people. Today I am sitting across the ocean on the beautiful Portuguese island of Madeira.

Are practices like 40-hours/week, 9-5 work schedule, and permanent employment heading towards extinction?

So I had a conversation with one of my peers the other day and although I had similar talks in the past, I felt it worth writing about this particular event.

She currently works in a C-level position at a startup.

She called and said:

“Hmm, my boss called me and was excited to share the news that we could all go back to working full time.”

At that time, the company had reverted to reduced working hours, given the extensive impact of the pandemic. After working from home part-time for a couple of months, she had already gotten used to it. She then continued: “Dom, what if I don’t want to go back? How the hell do I tell my boss that I don’t want to go back full time?”

Initially, I was surprised to hear this. Most people choose to work at startups because you can get a different experience you do not get in other organizations. Enthusiasm, passion, hope, the fast-paced and diverse nature of work are all traits that are synonymous with startups.

This begs the question: Why don’t people want to come back?

Which brings us to the next two questions:

• What can we do to make people want to come back?
• What can we do to have people excited, eager for an email, call, text, or slack?

You know the kind of excitement I am talking about. The same people get when they camp outside or queue in line to see the latest Star Wars or to buy the new iPhone.

What should we as an organization and business do to ensure that our employees and customers are also queuing outside?

What should we be doing to have people saying “This is where I want to work! Here, because they have listened to and supported us throughout this crisis.”

Another thought occurred to me:

What is wrong with not wanting to work full time?

In this day and age, everyone has access to some of the most powerful productivity tools available. We, like many other organizations, have already been operating for months with many staff working part-time.

Is it better to prioritize quantity above quality? Is it really necessary to work full-time in order to achieve our goals? Are we at risk of alienating an army of high-quality, hard-working, talented individuals who could transform our business simply because they do not want to work 5 days a week, every week?

This begs a new question: What do we value?

Shouldn’t we be aiming for people that consistently excel?

Shouldn’t we strive to create settings in which our employees can thrive? Environments that have a direct impact on efficiency?

And finally, is it really necessary to measure whether or not people work full time in 2021?

I personally don’t care about full-time vs. part-time work. I believe it’s time to stop measuring productivity in hours spent on the job and start measuring employee success in terms of timely meeting their work goals.

I recall spending far too many days at my desk simply because I had to be there, even if I had completed my work for the day, week, or even month.

And I know what you’re thinking: “Why didn’t you ask for more work?” or “How come you didn’t take the initiative to work on other projects?”

Believe me, I did it plenty of times. However, too many times I heard: “Chill, relax, you’re making everyone else look bad!” So eventually you become institutionalized.

We should never fear being labelled an overachiever.

The point I am trying to make is this:

Why are we putting people in a position where they should choose between working full time or finding an alternative?

And, in doing so, do we alienate the ones we most need? Isn’t it better to have a great employee working part-time rather than losing them in the first place?

Looking back on my career, I can pinpoint plenty of instances where I left a particular position and sought a new source of inspiration because I felt under-challenged.

I frequently wonder what would have happened or how my career may have turned out if my boss at the time had just said: “Dom, if you are done with your job on Thursday, just go take the day off, maybe go to the beach, take that scuba diving course you mentioned”.

I think about parents, and how many of them would not have given up on their dream job if their employers had been more flexible in their work-life integration.

Just yesterday, I had a long-time friend, a recent dad, telling me that he is shifting to part-time, 20 hours a week. It fits in better with his new lifestyle choices and will allow him to spend more time with his daughter. The employer really supported him in his choice. In fact, the organization has been preparing for it over the last couple of months by training and upskilling other staff members to take over some of his tasks.

Sometimes, it may just be a matter of weeks or months, instances of minor priorities that are important to employees. It may be all they need to remain engaged and loyal to the organization.

I understand that some jobs/industries may require a 5-day workweek or 24/7 availability, but in my experience, when employees are given the freedom to choose their own tasks, plan their own schedules, and collaborate to meet weekly goals, they will more often than not find a way that works for everyone. More often than not, it results in a better solution than the one proposed by their leaders. More often than not, it results in increased employee autonomy, ownership, efficiency, and satisfaction.

So what’s wrong with having a C-level executive work part-time? Shouldn’t that be encouraged?

In some ways, wouldn’t that mean we’d have two or three more extra hands on deck? Maybe a couple more employees in our organization that we can now afford to hire, ready to step up if they are needed?

I am absolutely convinced that work-life integration is the way forward. A work world in which employees are empowered to contribute and think for themselves. To put it in Semco Style terms, a work world where employees are truly treated like adults. Responsible adults that are happy to solve challenges, contribute and come up with rational solutions that serve all stakeholders.

At the same time, I am left wondering, almost curious. How much great talent is out there who would love to work for your organization but maybe on a part-time basis. That person might be all you need to push the division to the next level. I hope we are not going to filter them out solely because they can get the job done in 3 days instead of 5…
I am going to leave you on this note with a lot of Food for Thought.

Cannot wait to hear your thoughts and comments in regards.

Back to you soon,
Dom