Retirement and Its Discontents by Michelle Pannor Silver

Author:Michelle Pannor Silver
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SOC026000, Social Science/Sociology/General, SOC013000, Social Science/Gerontology
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2018-08-06T16:00:00+00:00

A Mandatory Retirement

When Tomas turned 65, he was required by his university to retire. Tomas was given a date to clear out his office and accept his change in title. Just days before this date, a conference was held to honor Tomas’s career. For two days, colleagues and students presented talks based on articles they had written, inspired by or related to Tomas’s work. These writings would be compiled in a Festschrift—a formal, written commemoration of his life’s work. There were also three retirement dinners to celebrate his career, but Tomas clarified, “I just didn’t view it as a culmination of my career. I knew I had to retire. Retirement hasn’t stopped me from what I’ve always enjoying doing. It just created new avenues for doing it.”

Tomas never questioned his retirement. Retirement at 65 was a given part of the work–life cycle at the university. Nonetheless, he was surprised by his reaction to it. The year he retired was a difficult one in several ways. His sister died a few months after his retirement, and her death exacerbated his feelings of loss. During this time, Tomas described himself as depressed and lonely. He felt cast aside and abandoned. Yet, he viewed it as an important time for him to mourn and reconnect with other interests in his life. He began to play the violin again, after years of barely touching it. He spent more time going out to hear live music with Lucy. But he came to a point at which retirement felt like a void that he wanted to fill. He explained,

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