The Experience of Retirement (ILR Press Book)

'Is there life after retirement?' In The Experience of Retirement, Robert S. Weiss puts a human face on current workplace trends. By brilliantly using in-depth interviewing techniques and analysis to depict retirees' status 'on the ground,' Weiss makes a compelling case for questioning the incongruence of modern workplace trends such as downsizing,reorganization, and 'voluntary' retirement with public policies that aim to support and sustain quality of 'after-work' life. This applies especially to today's career women who are disproportionately burdened by financial and health-care costs later in life that stem both from the gender pay gap and time out from work for care giving. The Experience of Retirement takes its readers on the retirees' journeys through the web of social relations at work, in the family, and in the community. Across a broad spectrum of social and economic issues, the author reveals the realities retirees must confront, such as: financial security, quality health care, establishment of new routines and meaningful activities, ways to cope with the loss of a work community, and explaining these work/life changes to family members and friends. This book is critical reading for new retirees, as well as individuals either anticipating or confronted with the dilemma of voluntary or forced retirement. It is also a comprehensive resource for academics and practitioners, such as human resource directors, managers, and health-care professionals. The Experience of Retirement is both an important research contribution to the literature and a guidebook for what we can anticipate.

Based on interviews with 89 retirees from professional careers... the book presents much of the data in the interviewees' own words. This gives the book emotional and textual immediacy, as the retirees voice their feelings of obsolescence and social isolation and their difficulties missing the daily structure previously provided by the workplace. However, Weiss notes that volunteerism, part-time jobs, hobbies and, for some, a strong marriage can at least partially offset the social connections and sense of identity many people lose when they stop working.... Weiss provides... a better understanding of the emotional pitfalls that future retirees can anticipate, and that their family, friends, and colleagues can help them combat.

The Experience of Retirement illuminates how people experience the transition to retirement, with special attention to the financial, interpersonal, and emotional dimensions of this process. It is fluidly written and well-organized and will appeal to current and prospective retirees as well as scholars and practitioners in the fields of gerontology, social planning, and labor relations.

This is a sensitive, thoughtful, and highly readable chronicle of the ways people move from their career jobs to and through retirement. Robert S. Weiss is a leading scholar of careers, work, and now retirement. He draws on his considerable insights and analytical skills to capture the multilayered meanings, gains, and losses this status passage invokes in people from a variety of occupations and life circumstances. The Experience of Retirement is a must-read for men and women'on the verge' of this key life transition.

This marvelous book provides a fascinating look at the experiences of men and women as they make the transition from work to retirement. It's full of interesting life stories coupled with valuable advice for people approaching retirement.