Workplace Wellbeing: Working towards retirement 

Strategic planning needs to commence years before you leave your job 

Research shows that planning is positively associated with a reduced likelihood of mental and physical illness in retirement. Picture: iStock

SANDRA* finds it hard to sleep at night because she worries so much about her impending retirement. She’s about to turn 65 and feels utterly unprepared for this next stage of her life.

“I started working late in life after my kids had grown and my husband and I divorced,” she says. “I haven’t built up a big pension pot and with the cost of living the way it is, I don’t know how I’m going to make ends meet.”

Finances are not her only concern. “I live alone in the countryside, and I wonder if I’ll be lonely out here when I no longer have work to occupy my time,” she says. “Work brings structure to my days. I like having something to get up for in the mornings and things to do all day long. What am I going to do when all of that is gone?”

According to a report published by Retirement Life in 2022, approximately 1,000 people retire every week in Ireland. While research carried out by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission in 2022 found that 77% of them have pension plans in place, they may not be as well prepared for the practical implications of retirement.

“People spend up to 50 years in employment and during those years, roughly a third of their time is spent at work,” says Laura O’Farrell, CEO of the Retirement Planning Council of Ireland, which delivers courses and seminars to help people manage the transition from employment to retirement.

Farrell has found that unless people prepare for this transition, they can be left with a work-shaped hole in their lives that they struggle to fill.

“People can experience what I have heard called ‘relevance deprivation syndrome in the years following retirement,” she says.

“For those who are very attached to their jobs and those whose identity is wrapped up in what they do for a living, the hard stop of retirement can be jarring. The structure of their day disappears. The work-related intellectual challenges, tasks, projects and goals cease to exist. The social network they have built up at work over decades largely evaporates. The vacuum created can be daunting.”

Sense of worth

Dr Mairéad Cahill is an associate professor in occupational therapy at the University of Limerick who co-authored a 2021 study on the retirement experiences of women academics.

She explains why retirement lacks meaning for some people. “Work provides us with a sense of worth, value, fulfilment and satisfaction,” she says. “Without it, people can begin to feel insignificant and without a sense of purpose in life.”

Cahill points to the emerging trend of people returning to work, usually part-time, a few months or years into retirement.

“They enjoy the freedom and the lack of structure of the honeymoon period, doing what they want when they want, but they can then find that they miss the social interaction, cognitive challenge, routine and sense of meaning that comes with work,” she says. “So they go back.”

They may be wise to do so, as studies show that retirement can have a detrimental effect on mental and physical health. A 2006 study by the US National Bureau of Economic Research reported that people experienced a 16% increase in difficulties associated with mobility, a 6% increase in illness and a 9% decline in mental health in the six years post-retirement. These adverse health outcomes were attributed to negative lifestyle changes such as decreased physical activity and social interaction that resulted from no longer going to work.”

Experts advocate taking a proactive approach to planning for retirement so that you can make the most of the opportunities it offers.

They recommend starting this planning process years, not months, before retirement. “Don’t let retirement be something that happens to you,” says Farrell. “Our advice is for people to take ownership of it and start purposefully working towards creating a fulfilling life post-retirement. The earlier they start doing this, the better.”

Cahill agrees, pointing to research that shows retirement planning “is positively associated with a reduced likelihood of mental and physical illness in retirement and identified as an important contributor to retirement satisfaction, adjustment and wellbeing”.

She suggests starting this planning process with a series of questions. “Do you have a bucket list of things you want to achieve? What do you want to do in retirement and with whom? Do you have hobbies and interests that will keep you engaged? The answers to these questions will help you to design your post-retirement life.”

Exploring options

Cahill identifies three priorities for retirees. The first is health. “It’s pivotal to achieving most of the other goals people set for themselves in retirement,” she says. “This is why retirement is a time when many get more physically active.”

The second is your social connections. “Before you retire, consider who you will want to spend time with when you do,” says Cahill. “Will your existing family and friends be free and available? Or will they be still working?”

You may find that you need to make new friends. “This could be through exercise, hobbies, reading groups or any activity that interests you in person or online,” says Cahill.

Starting this process before you stop working is a good idea. “Research shows that connecting with social groups before you retire leads to an easier transition,” she says.

The third priority is finding ways of maintaining a sense of purpose. “For example, there’s evidence to show that volunteering offers a sense of meaning and fulfilment similar to work,” she says.

These positive benefits could explain 22.2% of retired adults volunteer once a week or more.

It could also help to ask retirees for advice. “You could even look on social media for creative and different perspectives on how to spend your time in retirement,” says Cahill.

The time of the year you decide to retire matters too. If possible, try not to retire in winter, says Cahill. “In January, it may be harder to spend time outside, be physically active or link with groups, whereas in summer, the weather is better, and in spring and autumn, there are lots of evening classes on offer.”

And remember as with all major transitions, retirement will bring challenges. “You will have to work at it to have a fulfilling experience and it will take time to find your own rhythm,” says Cahill. “But with intentional planning, you can enjoy life post-retirement.”

Meanwhile, Sandra’s sleepless nights have prompted her to start exploring her options so that she can take control of her post-retirement future.

She had thought she’d have to retire from her job this year once she turned 65. “That’s what was in my contract and I’d been putting off thinking about it,” she says.

“But the recent court case which ruled that eir had discriminated against one of its workers by forcing him to retire at 65, means I can now continue working for longer.

“That gives me a bit of breathing space so I can plan how to have a good quality of life in retirement.”

She has already begun compiling a list of possibilities for generating a post-retirement income and filling her free time once her working life ends.

“Maybe I could take in a lodger to help cover costs,” she says. “My children all have children of their own, and I could spend more time with them. I have a nice group of friends and we all love hillwalking. There are also local senior citizens’ groups and associations.

“I’ve been burying my head in the sand about retiring but now that I’ve started thinking proactively about it, there are probably lots of things I can do.”

• *Name changed