Golden Choices : Work-Some, Play-Some Life Style Appealing to More Older Workers

It once was said that retirement was twice as much spouse and half as much money.

But that appears to be changing.

Now, “what we are seeing is a new definition of retirement,” says Helen Dennis, a lecturer at the USC Andrus Gerontology Center, a project director of the Conference Board and a nationally recognized authority on retirement and older workers.

“Americans are discovering that retirement and work do not need to be mutually exclusive, that the two need not be incompatible,” she says. “Many who retire have found themselves coping with an emptiness or lack of meaning to life. Having a job again can solve this.”

National Phenomenon

This feeling among retirees is coming at a time when employers are increasingly turning to gray as their favorite color. It is a national phenomenon.

“Within 10 years there will be 15 million fewer people ages 18-25 than there are today,” explains Natalie Gold, a Los Angeles project manager with the National Council on the Aging Inc.

Not only will America’s businesses have to compete harder for available young people, Gold continues, but they also will have to look to older, experienced people to fill positions.

Which is one reason for the eighth annual Job Fair for Older Workers to be held statewide Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 13 locations--the first time it has expanded out of the Southland. Fairs will be held at two other locations on other days.

The free events, sponsored jointly by NCOA, Volt Temporary Services and Bank of America, are expected to attract about 10,000 seniors.

“At our first fair, we had to beg employers to participate,” Gold recalls. “Now they ask to be there. Some of the sites will have as many as 50 booths.”

Job Possibilities

Those attending will receive information on job possibilities (part-time and full-time) from large and small companies. They will get application forms and have access to representatives from government agencies. They also may sit in on programs dealing with such subjects as what to expect upon re-entering today’s job market and the probably forgotten art of how to dress for an interview.

Most seniors re-entering the job market are interested in supplemental income. For individuals under age 65 who draw Social Security benefits, the annual earnings limit is $6,480, after which, for every $2 earned, the recipient loses $1 in benefits. From ages 65 to 69, the annual earnings test is $8,880. At age 70 and older, there is no earnings limit.

But money isn’t the sole issue in seniors’ employment.

“What we are increasingly seeing,” Dennis says, “is an appreciation of the skills and abilities of mature, experienced workers.”

In 1981, Art Chancellor of Sherman Oaks, having labored for decades as a swimming pool designer and salesman, decided it was time for a leisurely life of retirement.

“I did chores around the house, got in some gardening, built a wood fence around the yard, and spent a lot of time just sitting around,” he recalls.

“When the Olympics came here in 1984, I volunteered, and was assigned to the Biltmore Hotel, where I drove dignitaries anywhere they asked to go.

“I was enjoying it. Then the Olympics ended, and I sat down and asked myself: ‘What am I going to do now?’

“I was going through the paper, and I saw an ad for a medical laboratory that was looking for a courier. I said, why not?”

Chancellor applied, was hired, and now--five years later and at age 78--is still on the job.

Three days a week, he shuttles medical specimens or reports in a car between the lab and its customers. “My route takes me all the way up to Santa Barbara. I love it. I drive alongside the ocean.”

Chancellor said he is paid $7.50 an hour, and averages about 20 hours a week. “I could get along without the money, but it buys a few luxuries. It allows my wife and I some trips, and some extra dinners out.”

‘Work Ethic Is Gone’

Like many others who have gone back to work after an absence, he said he has noticed changes in the work place and in workers: “As I make my rounds, I notice that people seem to have forgotten how to work. The work ethic is gone. People don’t seem to care much about their jobs anymore.”

Asked what his wife, Vera, thinks of his returning to the work force, he answered: “Any wife in her right mind adores the idea of her husband getting out of the house once in a while. The thought of total retirement is ridiculous, unless you have an all-consuming hobby. The muscles grow slack, depression sets in, and you keep hearing about people who die soon after they retire.”

Anita Benjamin of Sylmar, now 65, doesn’t intend for that to happen to her when she retires Oct. 29.

Ironically, for years she has heralded the value of older workers, in her full-time capacity as director of human resources development with the Volt company: “We have wanted, in part, to reach those who have had their fill of retirement, and want to get back into the real world. There is only so much TV you can watch, or only so many bogeys you can take.”

But something new has happened for her: “I have become a grandmother for the first time--a grandson named Michael--and I want to enjoy this new aspect of my life, so I am going to take retirement. But I know I will become bored to death if I have to stay home all the time.” What she has done--as have more and more American workers--is to arrange to return to her soon-to-be former employer in a part-time capacity. “I want a job relationship, but on my terms,” she said. She views it as a chance to “slow down the merry-go-round.”

Can’t ‘Quit Cold Turkey’

In the past, Benjamin has made arrangements for her company’s float in the annual Hollywood Christmas Parade. “I will do it for them this year on a fee basis, and will be paid for doing other projects for them. After all these years of working, I couldn’t just quit cold turkey.”

Not that she is resisting entirely the idea of partial retirement: “Workaholics miss so much of what life is all about. From now on, it’s work some, play some. That has always been the healthiest combination.”

But the work-some portion is important to a growing number of seniors. “If I suddenly lost this job, it would be like driving a stake into my heart,” Chancellor said.

The theme of Tuesday’s statewide Job Fair for Older Workers is “Experience Works.”

Not only that, but Denise D. Jessup, associate director of the Los Angeles Council on Careers for Older Americans, points out that “fewer jobs require strenuous physical labor” and “older people are better educated now than at any time in our history.”

Although many types of businesses will be represented at the various sites, Dennis, of USC, says that as the years go by, demand will especially increase for older workers to fill jobs such as secretaries, bank tellers, retail salespeople, and positions in high tech.

Bank of America, among other firms, has been active in recruiting older workers. Robert N. Beck, executive vice president for corporate human resources at the bank, says of such employees: “We are pleased to have them, including Bank of America retirees, because their many years of experience gives them a broader view of the business situation.

A Special Asset

“Once on the job, they tend to have less turnover, and are less concerned about career management. Also, they are a special asset in working with the growing number of customers who are in the retirement population.”

Still, though, there is the challenge of convincing mature Americans that employment should still be part of their futures.

“I think a lot of Americans are ill-prepared for the last third of their lives--in terms of what they want to do,” Dennis says. “We talk about goals, and yet for some reasons the goals switch turns off at about age 58. What is it you want to do during that time? What reason will you have to get up in the morning?”

This should be answered, she continues, because those who make it to retirement have up until then been strong people: “They are survivors. They have possibly been through a Depression, been through wars, career changes, family problems.”

Nagging Concern

Now there is the supposed euphoria of finally being able to live a carefree life. “But with the increased life expectancy, plus inflation, there is a nagging concern over the possibility of outliving one’s assets,” Dennis says.

Which is one of the reasons that, at the same time employers now are courting them, retirees are becoming available.

The other reason, Dennis says, is the meaning of work: “Work has more value than just financial. It gives a sense of purpose, and of being part of a team. Many older Americans are finding they miss this--and employers are finding they miss them.”

Listings for Tuesday’s Job Fairs

Here are scheduled sites for Tuesday’s Southern California job fairs:

* International Institute of Los Angeles, 435 S. Boyle Ave., Los Angeles.

* Long Beach Senior Center, 1150 E. Fourth St., Long Beach.

* Patriotic Hall, 1816 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles.

* Family Service Center, 17400 Victory Blvd., Building “A,” Van Nuys.

* Lake Avenue Congregational Church, 393 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena.

* Project Center, 10957 S. Central Ave., Los Angeles.

* Costa Mesa Neighborhood Community Center, 1845 Park Ave., Costa Mesa.

* War Memorial Building, 3325 Zoo Drive, San Diego.

* San Bernardino County Government Center, 385 N. Arrowhead Ave., San Bernardino.

In Ventura County, the job fair will be Saturday at The Oaks Shopping Center Community Room, 222 W. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks.

In Northern California, fairs will be Tuesday in San Mateo, Oakland, Stockton and Fresno and on Thursday in San Jose.

Further information on the fairs is available by calling, toll-free (800) 255-5599.