02/19/2008
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Staff photofrom the Kennebec Journal
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Third in a four-day series.
Don’t look for Kim Lane to retire any time soon. Lane, 49, a licensed clinical social worker who teaches at Kennebec Valley Community College, sees her job as far more than a regular paycheck.
“I do like working,” she said. “I think we get a lot from working. It is the social contact. It is the feeling good about what we do. It is the gratification both mentally and emotionally. But I also love my job.”
Lane’s enthusiasm for work is not to be dismissed. As a baby boomer, she is one of roughly 80 million nationwide, most of whom will be eligible for full retirement in a period stretching from 2011 to 2029. If they all take the gold watch immediately, the economy could suffer a severe labor shortage, especially in some critical areas such as health care and education.
This is especially true in Maine, which is the oldest state in the union, with a median age of 41.2. In a report on Maine’s aging economy released last fall, economist Charles S. Colgan puts that aging in perspective. Colgan notes that in 2000 Mainers 65 and over represented 14 percent of the population. But by 2030 that percentage jumps to 26.5 percent of the population, according to a report by the Maine State Planning Office.
During the same period, the proportion of Mainers 18 and younger is expected to fall from 23.6 to 18.1 percent. An aging population does not necessarily lead to an ailing economy, though, Colgan argues. And that’s where people like Lane enter the equation. “It is clear,” Colgan said, “that for the baby boom generation work has become an important part of defining people’s lives and some can’t imagine a future in which they are not doing something. That is a social attitude change that has been under way for a long time.”
ECONOMIC CHANGES
What also has changed, and in a fundamental sense, is the nature of the economy in Maine and across the country.
No longer, Colgan said, is physical labor the foundation of the job market. People are more likely to work in a call center than a construction site and such service jobs tend to be ideal for older people, especially those who enter their retirement-eligible years without enough savings to manage their expenses. Economic necessity may force many baby boomers to postpone retirement for many years, a situation that could in turn help rescue the economy from feared labor shortages. Socialization is part of the equation as well. The day of extended families living in the same community, or even the same state, has grown increasingly less common.
Colgan argues that this has transformed the work world into a place where more and more people connect with one another, building the relationships and support they used to get at home. In other cases, the motivation to work is not so much social, but the fact that many baby boomers derive much of their identity from their jobs. To retire would be to lose a part of who they are. Still, more than a few businesses may have to adjust to this greater reliance on older workers.
This is new territory, a paradigm in formation. Lane is convinced this is the case.
“I think that as a culture we need to change the way we view aging,” she said. “We tend to think that older workers are less productive. I don’t think that is true. They may work slower but they can work longer.”
SUITABLE JOBS
L.L. Bean has no misconceptions about the competence of retirement-age workers: The Maine retail giant knows they can be invaluable employees. The Freeport-headquartered company boasts many retired employees, although the company does not have specific numbers.
Most of them work in one of Bean’s five call centers in Maine, and in most cases they are either part-time or seasonal — 3,600 of the company’s 3,900 call-center workers are part-time or seasonal.
A call center job is ideal for an older worker: The position requires no heavy lifting and working hours are available to fit almost any schedule or preference.
“It is not a warehouse,” Senior Supervisor Deborah Marsh said of Bean’s Waterville call center. “It is a great environment really for all ages. It is a great job for somebody who is taking on a second part-time career.”
Older workers in fact tend to be ideal for Bean since most no longer have child responsibilities and thus are more able to be flexible about their schedules.
John Duff, a former supervisor in the steel industry, and his wife, Alyson, are perfect examples. The Embden couple, both retired, no longer have children to shuttle to soccer games and other after school activities. Workers like the Duffs also bring a strong work ethic and decades of professional experience to the job, Marsh said.
John Duff said Bean provided excellent training to prepare him to be a customer service representative. He said workers are social and supportive.
“I don’t experience any real animosity or anything,” Duff said. “What I get are a lot of smiles and a friendly environment.”
SAVINGS DEFICIT
Regardless of whether suitable jobs exist or not, many boomers will be working well into their 60s and beyond. The truth is they’ll have no choice economically.
A sizable amount of research, according to Colgan, indicates that many, if not most, boomers have not saved enough money for retirement.
“This is partly due to personal decisions and partly to the steady decline in the number and value of private pension schemes, which have been key for many,” he wrote in his report on aging.
Colgan collected further data to support the inadequate savings factor as the lead investigator in a survey of the workforce in Aroostook County last summer. In that survey, 29 percent said they saved enough for “a comfortable retirement.” In fact, 29 percent of respondents said they worried their retirement savings were inadequate.
In the same survey group, nearly 80 percent of respondents indicated they planned to continue with some kind of work after retiring from their careers.
“I’m not sure if that is typical of the rest of Maine,” Colgan said, “but I have no reason to think it would be wildly different.”
Kris Hultgren, who interviewed many of the older workers surveyed, said such an attitude among baby boomers will be especially important in pockets of Maine like Aroostook County that have a decidedly small population of younger workers — a result largely of out-migration. Will it be enough to avert a significant labor shortage? Hultgren is uncertain.
SOCIAL COMPONENT
Money, though, is not the only motivation for working beyond retirement. Linda Neptune, 59, of Augusta retired two years ago from the Veterans Administration Hospital at Togus, ending a 37-year career with the federal government.
But Neptune couldn’t give up work. She valued the social outlet too much. “I go back to work now part time at the VA to keep busy,” she said. “I’ve always liked working with the veterans. I get very attached to them.” This doesn’t mean she plans to work 40 hours a week until her dying day. “If I did choose to work (after retirement),” she said, “it would be part time.” The social component also is about a need to give back to the community. In the Aroostook County survey, about 40 percent of those 55 or older indicated they will work “ as long as they feel they are making a contribution.” Mark Tardif, an associate director of communications at Unity College, shapes his identity largely from his professional life. He puts in long hours and even when he goes home he often spends his evening reading literature associated with his job.
“I like to work,” he said, “and I’ve worked so hard to do the work I do.”
Yet Tardif, 44, is quick to add that he wonders if he has deferred his life by this work-first attitude.
He is single without children, and he does not see that status changing at this point in his life. Tardif names several friends, all of them late boomers, who earned at least an undergraduate degree and became white-collar professionals. Most of them have no children and most are not married, though a couple have long-term girlfriends.
Tardif holds two master’s degrees, a paralegal certificate and an attitude that he must always be vigilant to enhance his knowledge and skill sets.
“It does get a little bit confounding,” he said. “I find it easier to spend more time working. I have to work at this point to do things that are not work.”
As for retirement, Tardif is in no hurry to reach that milestone.
“I cannot see myself retiring before age 70,” he said. “There is no way.”
Colin Hickey — 861-9205 chickey@centralmaine.com
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