Fewer Seniors Retiring

Fewer Seniors Leaving Job Force for Good

By Bo EmersonATLANTA — Thad Quarles likes retiring so much he’s done it three times.He first retired after 20 years of service in the Marine Corps, then from Delta, where he was a pilot for 28 years, then from a family pharmacy in rural Tennessee, where he filled prescriptions and made ice cream sodas.Today he’s on career No. 4, as executive director of the United Way in five counties of east Mississippi and west Alabama.”It’s a departure,” admitted Quarles, 58, who travels with his wife, Cleta, from their Duluth, Ga. home to an apartment in Meridian, Miss., every Monday, returning on Fridays. The pay is less than half his Delta salary, but the job gives him a chance to exercise his instinct for servant leadership.”People have always told me if you’re a pilot, you can’t do anything else,” he said. “This is a challenge to myself to say there is something else you can do in your life that would be meaningful and fulfilling.”Older Americans, like Quarles, are retiring differently than they did a generation ago. Seniors once accepted a gold watch and moved quietly to the rocking chair. Today they use retirement to switch gears, perhaps move into consulting, work part time for the corporation they leave, start their own business, enter a new career or become a full-time volunteer. Fewer and fewer Americans call it quits after retirement age.Before Medicare and Social Security, older Americans remained in the work force in much greater numbers; almost half of all men 65 and older were working in 1950, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.But by 1985, that number dropped to 15 percent.Today, that figure is steadily creeping back up, said Sara Rix of AARP, as more and more older Americans stay in the work force. Last year, 19 percent of men 65 and older were in the work force.Merrill Lynch in early 2004 asked 2,348 baby boomers (the population bulge born between 1946 and 1964) about their attitudes toward retirement. Of those surveyed, 76 percent said they intend to keep working and earning in retirement.Many will turn to new careers, said Mary Ellen Garrett, first vice president with Merrill Lynch Atlanta Buckhead.”I see the traditional pattern — retire at 65 and sit home or play golf every day — is just not the way it is anymore,” Garrett said. “I see more people leaving companies early — before 65 — and starting brand-new careers.”That describes the employment arc of Jocelyn Bivins-Ford. She left BellSouth after 37 years and began working in administration for Atlanta City Councilwoman Joyce Sheperd. She also leads a Girl Scout troop and serves in the drama ministry at her church.Friends keep asking the 55-year-old, “If you’re retired, why aren’t you in the house?” Bivins-Ford’s answer: “I retired from BellSouth, not from life.”Also, despite income from her BellSouth pension, she needed the money. “I did the math.”While contemporary workers tend to jump from company to company, retirees often follow the same pattern, retiring from a variety of careers.Quarles is the very model of the modern “serial retiree.” Of his 20 years as a Marine Corps pilot, 13 were in the Reserves. During his time in the Reserves, he also flew for Delta, retiring from Delta in 2003 after 28 years of service.Said Quarles, “After I retired from Delta, I stayed in the fetal position for a week or two, until my wife said, “All right, that’s it, out of the bed, you’ve got to do something.’ ” That’s when he began working for the family pharmacy. He soon retired from that, too, and took the United Way job.Sherman Francisco, 70, is another serial retiree who considers work a crucial diversion from the empty calendar.In 1987, he retired from IBM after 30 years of service, first as a salesman, then in the company’s real estate division. An injury led to his early retirement, but after a few years away from work, he was itching to get back into action.First Francisco launched a custom furniture business, and was soon shipping bureaus and cabinetry all over the world. Then, last year, he joined the Home Depot, where he puts in 40 hours a week in the millwork department .Rising medical costs are part of the reason for remaining in the work force. “Things have changed too much now. Everything is going up,” he said.But Francisco also appreciates the opportunity to stay active. “It keeps me out of trouble,” he said. “My wife told me I’d be dead if I didn’t work here.”Cheryll Schramm is, if anything, even more driven in retirement than she was working full time. Formerly chief of the Aging Services Division at the Atlanta Regional Commission, she now works part time on special projects for the organization, while juggling a dozen other interests. Those include travel, baby-sitting grandchildren, attending elder hostels, archaeological digs, teaching special education students and volunteering with a Clayton County resource center for grandparents raising grandchildren.”Some people say work is just critical,” said Schramm, 60. “I like a combination. I like working part time, and I like volunteering.”The debate over privatizing parts of Social Security may have little impact on the retirement decisions of the current crop of seniors, said Garrett of Merrill Lynch, adding that many older Americans have other sources of income.But it may take a lot of income to keep baby boomers happy. Rix of AARP said boomers are accustomed to greater wealth than their parents’ generation, and won’t settle for modest retirements.They are going to be better off than their parents in retirement, but they want to maintain their standard of living from pre-retirement days, she said.This could keep many boomers working well into the golden years, because Social Security won’t pay for that mountain retreat or beach house.The new retirees expect to pay for these things out of their own pockets, said Garrett, which is why more and more of them will keep working — even in second or third careers.”Boomers are betting on themselves,” she said. “And why not? They were taught to bet on themselves.”

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