Many of you were
kind enough to include comments on your answers and we will endeavour to use these to
illustrate the story the numbers are trying to tell. So sit back and enjoy the results of
the first-ever laterlife Work and Retirement survey…..
First a rundown of
the population we used and a note on the figures:
- Split 57.9% to 42.1% in favour of the chaps.
- 60.5% of our sample are retired.
- Which splits down further to 70.5% of our
male respondents being retired and 46.9% of the women.
- The women respondents averaged about 5 years
younger than the men.
- Where figures are given they will be as a
percentage of a group within the sample (i.e. retired, non-retired, men, women). Where no
information on sub-group is given the percentage is of the entire sample population.
- Our results have to be qualified by
recognising that we have a statistically small sample and therefore can't draw national
implications from them, but nevertheless they provide important indicators which merit
more detailed study
Now onto the main
headlines of the survey:
 1)
“If you aren’t yet retired do you intend to keep on working at some level in
retirement (either paid or voluntary)? If you are retired, are you working or intending to
work?
- Despite a fair few (17.1%) ‘no
comments’ the majority (46.1%) of you felt that you would like to keep working
through retirement, although women who didn't want to, slightly outnumbered those women
who wished to keep working (43.8% v 40.6%).
Comments:
“Although stating no wish to work, I qualify this
with working on a voluntary basis”
“I retired from fulltime working when I was 60 and
went on to two days a week for some five years. I now work for a number of voluntary
organisations.”
“I went
to work the day my husband retired and worked
for 10 years--not quitting till 75.”
2) “Would you value (or if retired would you have
valued) the opportunity to reduce your worktime gradually as you approach retirement,
irrespective of what the retirement age may be set at?’
- A resounding response in favour of reduced
working time as you approach retirement! Nearly 80% of our respondents (78.9% to be exact)
would value the opportunity and women were overwhelmingly (87.5%) in favour. Interestingly
(or perhaps not!) those of you who haven’t yet retired were the strongest supporters
with a positive vote from 88.5% of respondents.
Comments:
“Your questions are slanted to encourage people to
give the answers you want i.e. "I want to reduce my working time gradually". While it might be nice to do so, it's not very
important. I'd far rather have a job, whatever the hours!”
3) “Do you believe reducing your worktime gradually
would enhance your quality of life?”
- Another resounding result in favour with
80.3% of respondents seeing reduced working as an enhancement, with the women again being
the major proponents at 90.6% in favour and 92.3% of non-retirees eager for the chance.
However 20.5% of men thought there would be no improvement.
Comments:
“I had the opportunity to take an early semi
retirement about 5 years ago and have gradually reduced my number of days in the office to
1 per week normally. I also do a few hours from home each week. I was not originally
expecting to still be working, but am glad of the opportunity to
provide more income particularly
as interest rates have fallen so much
lately.”
4) “If retirement age has to be raised to 70 would
you view the opportunity to gradually reduce worktime from a much earlier age as a good
trade off?”
- Although most respondents view this as a good
trade off (65.8%) many think working less for longer is not a greatly attractive prospect.
Especially among retired women where the sample is split nearly down the middle (53.3%
good trade off, 46.7% bad trade off). Some of the comments will definitely help to
illuminate…
Comments:
“The thought that I may have had to work to 70, even
part-time, as a teacher is a terrifying thought!”
“I don’t think it is a good idea to raise the
age to 70 to retire. Maybe reduce it to work
just two to three days a week from the age of sixty would be fine.”
“People are living longer, their health is
better and they will have too many retirement years for the State to support them
financially without contributing more to the system. I think it is right for people to
work for more years.”
5) “Would you like to be able to work from home,
either full or part time?”
- Far more mixed responses to this question
although still in keeping with the general feeling that reducing work time as you approach
retirement is a benefit. Over half (52.6%) would like to work part time from home,
although almost a third (28.9%) would prefer not to work at all. The most interesting
results are that none (0%) of the retired women in our survey would want to work full time
from home, and that 84.7% who have yet to retire are keen on working from home.
Comments:
“Just to add that this has real meaning for me at
present. Due to redundancy (end of September)
I am having to completely rethink the last quarter (?) of my working life. Being free to
make decisions about self-employment, part-time working, and flexible location are all
important considerations. I would welcome more information and choices.”
“My new job post-retirement from Civil Service is
hourly paid Consultancy and this is an ideal situation.”
6) “Would you value the opportunity to start a
business venture in later life, if government action created assistance and a good
environment to do so?”
- An even result with attitudes split nearly
down the middle. 53.9% would value the opportunity whereas 44.7% wouldn’t. This split
continued in most of the groups, however slightly more men than women were interested
(56.8% Vs 50.0%) and a far larger proportion of the non-retired (73.1%) would be eager to
start out on their own if the government provided the framework and support.
7) “If not your own business, would you be interested
in being part of a business start up in later life?”
- Very similar results to the previous question
(55.3% interested, and less than 5% variation across the rest of the sub-groups answers).
It seems that the people who want to be part of their own concern will settle for a piece
rather than the whole pie!
8) “Would you be prepared to work on an
entrepreneurial basis in a start up where a high proportion of your income was related to
the success of the company?”
- Straight away there is an unsurprising drop
in people willing to risk their income on an entrepreneurial business. 61.8% would not get involved. However even so, a large
42.3% of the non-retired group were in favour. A few respondents had taken the chance and
their comments are below.
Comments:
“I started my own business 10 years ago, and it grew
in a way that I hadn't imagined. I gradually employed more staff. Next year I will be 60
yrs old, but do not plan to retire. It keeps my brain moving!”
"I started up a new business aged 53 and intend to
continue working full-time until at least 65. Company seems to be doing well because of
the experience brought to it. But thankfully we still make and learn from mistakes. But
probably worry less about getting things wrong - the only way you go forward!”
9) “Has your working life changed for the better over
the last 5-10 years (or over the last 5-10 years you were working)? What is the main
reason for this?”
- Sadly it appears that for the majority of
people (53.9% worse v 34.2% better) working life has been getting worse. In every
sub-group we used to analyse the responses, more than half felt that things had gone down
hill. It’s in the comments that we received however, that the reasons for these
attitudes become apparent and also where we can see that perhaps there is a silver lining
for some people.
Comments:
“My four children are all in their 30s being a
chartered accountant, an architect, in IT, and a school teacher are all expected to work
much longer hours than the usual 37 or so. It will be hard to change the status quo.”
“Changing conditions in the workplace and the need to work full time because of the
final salary pension.”
“Worse - conflict between old training and ultra new
ideas i.e. national curriculum stifling creative teaching.”
“Loss of trust in individuals doing the job they are
paid to do. Too much form filling and too many unproductive meetings.”
“Employers are requiring younger people.”
“Illness not appreciated by younger management.”
“Non stimulating work, staying only for pension at
60(?)- difficult to find comparable income in more interesting/rewarding post.”
“I was upgraded; gained opportunity to learn
computers, and gained income from it.”
“Computerisation made a big difference to my
job.”
“I started music classes, became my own boss and have
9 staff working for me.”
“Only been working full time for the last 13 years -
family grown up, less home responsibilities, more freedom, more free time. Responsible
job, job satisfaction. Not just MUM.”
10/11) “Have you ever been impacted by ageist views
or policies in the workplace?” “Have you ever seen colleagues impacted by ageist
views or policies in the workplace?”
- We’ve chosen to combine these questions
together as they are obviously related and there is a distinct variation in the responses.
Many more people reported colleagues being affected than themselves (43.4% v 28.9%).
Interestingly more women than men reported ageism against themselves (37.5% v 22.7%), a
result increased perhaps by sexist views and policies combining with ageism?
The majority had neither experienced ageism themselves (63.2%) nor seen it in action
against others (53.9%). However the non-retirees came out far more even (ageism self:
42.3% Yes; 53.8% No. Ageism others: 50.0% Yes; 50.0% No).
Comments:
“Sexism is also a big problem when self employed in
particular in relation to property ownership. A woman developer is charged much more for
work by tradesmen than men are.”
“Opportunities for an interesting social life for the
over fifties doesn't seem to have kept pace with the changes. We are marginalised by the
entertainment, leisure and fashion industries and the media.”
“Ageism gives power to employers to dictate worse
working conditions & give lower payscales for all grades of candidates.”
“Unable to get another job in current role because of
age.”
“I was made redundant from full-time post because of
my age and salary - company lost my expertise and knowledge for short term gains.”
“I felt forced to take early retirement through
ageism.”
“Employers are requiring younger people.”
Conclusions
All in all
it’s hard to draw firm conclusions from our results. However they certainly suggest
trends which merit further investigation.
Entrepreneurial
in laterlife! While believing that there would be a significant number of people
who would be interested in starting or being part of a start up business in later life, we
were surprised that over 50% of respondents expressed interest. This would seem to
indicate a genuine entrepreneurial spirit and if refelected nationally, something that we
should be capitalising on.
Reducing
working time consensus - the biggest consensus of all was around the value that
individuals would put on being able to gradually reduce working time as they approached
retirement, even where this meant working for more years. Again we believe this is an
important indicator for both employers and Government.
Working
life going down hill - the responses to whether or not working life has got
better could support an entire survey themselves! For many of our respondents (apologies
for the comments we couldn’t include) the last 5-10 years have brought about many
changes – some good and some bad. It is very worrying that over 50% of us feel it has
got worse.
Home-working and
flexible hours have enabled more freedom in how we create our work-life balance and the
opportunity to start your own business has led to positive outcomes for at least some of
the people in our survey.
Perhaps not
surprisingly our survey confirms the results of other surveys, that ageism in the
workplace is a big issue and of course Government is already trying to take action on this
with their Age Positive campaign and planned legislation.
Wider
concerns
In processing the
results it became apparent that many people had wider concerns than the deliberately
narrow questions we used in the survey. Whilst we appreciate that we have not dealt with
issues such as illness and its effect on work life, and the much broader issue of ageism
in society, unfortunately we had to restrict the scope of our analysis for this survey.
All of the various comments have been noted however and will be used to help direct
further surveys that we undertake. We would encourage you to use the framework of this
survey on the discussion boards in laterlife café. We will post this analysis so you can
initiate a discussion on any of the questions. Your opinions are valued and we would love
to see a real debate on these issues.
Final
words
In closing we
would like to finish with a quote from one of our respondents, which we feel has a real
resonance for many in later life:
“Life seems to be turned around. You have money and
possessions that you worked hard for many times at the expense of family and friends. Now
we have more of everything except family and friends whom we would have enjoyed sharing
these pleasures with. Life is a funny old thing.”
and that is in a
sense where we came in with the survey - would reducing work time gradually, be the
opportunity that enhances our quality of life? We'd like to hear your thoughts on this and
any of the other aspects of the survey in the laterlife cafe.
In the meantime
don't forget laterlife.com is all about helping to enjoy later life to the full, including
meeting new friends and making the most of relationships with friends and family.
So make sure you
make the most of your laterlife!
If you didn't originally participate in the survey we would
very much like to hear your views as part of our new survey – simply
click here to complete the survey
and to read the associated article
'The opportunity of
a lifetime'..
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