What are You Doing After Work?

Reimagining Retirement

The final jobs of a career are often the most challenging. There are many examples of people in their fifties and sixties feeling isolated, unheard, and merely tolerated by their peers and senior management. Years of service may have also elevated their salaries beyond what an organization targeted paying for the function.

Larger companies may purposefully bring in a “disruptor” to change a role. Other senior employees find their jobs restructured, succumb to layoffs, or leave when an exit package is offered. This week I met an Uber driver, who reflects on a devastating setback seven years ago as the setup to freedom and success he enjoys today. We’ll call my Uber driver, “C.”

After a decade of climbing the career ladder at a family-owned logistics company, “C” managed the dispatchers, and enjoyed a livable wage including benefits until the business was restructured and a family member replaced him. He was sixty-one and trying not to deplete his 401(k) savings. “C” decided to use Uber as a ‘side gig’ as unemployment ended and his job search continued.

With no opportunities on the horizon, Uber became his full-time job. With help from a state health insurance program, he secured healthcare coverage until he became eligible for Medicare. He leveraged his knowledge of traffic patterns from his decade in logistics to his advantage as a rideshare driver. Now, he’s a nearly 5-star rated Uber driver, relishes being only responsible for himself and while he earns less there’s a trade-off. He explained that after

60-hour weeks at the logistics company; he works 30-40 hours a week. After adjusting spending to accommodate current earnings, he’s enjoying life in a way he didn’t as an employee. “C” told me he plans to work for the rideshare company as long as the work is enjoyable. In addition to supplemental income to Social Security and his pension, he says he loves waking up each morning, meeting new people (like me), and staying up-to-date with technology.

At a holiday party, a friend was faced with the “What do you do?” question. Without missing a beat, he replied, “Whatever I want, I’m retired.” His response intrigued me. My life, at the time, was consumed with Zoom calls from morning to evening. It startled me into thinking, what would I do if I could do anything? It dawned on me, that our life after work is whatever we choose and it is different for everyone.

At breakfast last month, a retired friend told me she feels like a kid again. A life of traveling with her husband, painting, volunteer work, gardening, and household projects fills her days. I just read the first draft of a historical novel she completed over the past few years (it was hard to put down). As a frustrated memoirist with a work-in-progress, that refuses to progress; I wanted to know her secret. There was no schedule, some days she researched, and other days she wrote. Primarily, my friend looked forward to completing the manuscript of a book she wanted to read. That was a great moment of clarity for me.

There’s a slogan in the U.S. for a burger chain that declares, “Have it your way.” After joining the ranks of the officially retired, it is also my anthem. How are you approaching life after work?