Review: Retirement and Its Discontents: Why We Won't Stop Working, Even If We Can

Retirement and Its Discontents: Why We Won't Stop Working, Even If We Can by Michelle Silver
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The author believes that many people will prefer to keep working instead of retiring. I can imagine that is possibly true. But she investigates this by looking at groups of people with specific jobs, or roles, that have retired. She focuses on 5 specific groups. In common, people from these groups traditionally were able to determine their own retirement from productive work. Some, like some CEOs, may have a forced retirement age from their company, but CEOs commonly can continue active work on boards. Other careers discussed had more self determination as to the ending.

Besides the group of CEOs the author discusses, she delves into doctors, professors, elite athletes, and homemakers. I found the choices of careers perplexing. While elite athletes retiring from sports at a young age would have to deal with some aspects of retirement dealt with by a typical 65 year old corporate retiree, they really aren’t retiring from work – they are always continuing their working life. Likewise homemakers – they continue homemaking but just refer to themselves as retired at some point in time. Professors often can continue teaching, researching, or administrating even after retirement. Doctors, especially those in private practice, may be able to choose their own retirement as well. The ability to choose retirement timing, I would think, would greatly impact how people think about retirement. I found it surprising that the author didn’t investigate the majority of careerists, especially those that left the workforce for health or employer age limitations/discrimination.

Overall, I liked the author’s case study method of telling the stories of many retirees in each group. Despite the limitations of focusing on “fringe” groups of retirees, I found many of the stories relatable and felt there were a spectrum of life experiences covered. I felt the author’s conclusions are mostly based on her investigation of these “fringe” groups, and that inclusion of more common retiree groups would have helped make her case. Even so, there is plenty to think about for those considering the impact of retirement on an individual, including the prospective retiree.


View all my reviews