Age no bar: Most elderly people seek post-retirement jobs to kill boredom

All through his working life, Abdul Subhan had made grand plans about how he would practise the art of doing nothing when he retired. “I didn’t have a minute to spare during my working days. My job involved people-interface and I had no time for myself,” says the 61-year-old, Hyderabad-based deputy commercial tax officer.

When Subhan retired in 2003, the first three months flew by in bliss. “I would read the newspaper cover to cover, watch TV and potter around the garden in the evenings,” he says. But soon, the absence of work pressure began to tell on him. “Life had made a sudden switch. For 30 years, I had spent my days in the middle of people and files. Now, there was nobody to talk to,” says Subhan. The retired government officer was through with retired life in one year. He now works with a Hyderabad-based private firm, Sarangi Group of Industry, as a tax liaison officer. “I plan to work as long as my health permits,” says Subhan.

Clearly, the retirement rules have changed. Nobody wants to sit idle and watch life go by. K.R. Gangadharan, managing director of the Hyderabad-based Heritage Hospital, found boredom to be the main cause of most ailments in older patients who visited the hospital. “Retirement leaves a vacuum in life. The stress of doing nothing leads to mind and body problems,” says Gangadharan.

Earlier this year, Gangadharan opened Heritage Second Career Centre in the city to help elderly people find jobs. In four months, the Centre had 200 job seekers on its rolls. Most of them are over 60 years. Companies like World Tech, Mahindra & Mahindra and Fast Forward Technologies have hired people from the Centre.

“Most retired people who come to us don’t want to work for money. They only want to kill boredom,” says Gangadharan.

Bangalore-based recruitment firm Teamlease Services (P) Ltd also helps retired people find jobs. Although the numbers are still not high, the trend of working after retirement is catching on, says Kavita Reddy, vice-president, Teamlease. “Till a year ago, this was a non-existent job-seeking segment,” she says.

Reddy says the boom in the BPO industry had made it easier for older folks to find jobs. “Availability of manpower is a big challenge for BPOs. They are always on the lookout for alternative methods of recruitment,” says Reddy. Employing the old has its advantages ? they are more likely to stay put in their jobs. “While the attrition rate in the industry is 45-50 per cent, it is less than 30 per cent among older employees,” says Reddy.

Clearly, it seems to be a win-win situation for both employer and employee. When Ashwini Kumar retired from the Central water department, he didn’t bargain for spending time waiting for his wife to get back home from work. “My wife is a lecturer and is out for a good part of the day. My two children are working overseas. I stay alone at home all day,” says the 68-year-old retired mechanical engineer. Kumar has now applied for jobs in several firms in the city, including BPO organisations, and is awaiting a response.

But money may also be a deciding factor in some cases for taking up employment after retirement. “The BPO is opening a new avenue of income for retired people and is paying good salaries too,” says a former government employee working with a BPO firm in Mumbai. He was drawing a pension, which was not enough for his family that included his wife and son. Hence, he took up a job with the BPO company. He is drawing a good salary, which, along with the pension, helps him run the family.

Finding jobs for older people is not always a smooth sail. Reddy says many BPO firms remain cagey about hiring older employees. “Older people have to work under younger bosses. This often leads to ego clashes,” says Reddy.

Adds Gangadharan, “Issues like work-hours, compensation, a thrust on easy-going jobs, high expectations and a cynicism towards present-day working standards pose problems while finding jobs for older people. Many of them don’t want to compromise and ask for a perfect job.”

When Indumati took voluntary retirement from the Hyderabad-based public sector undertaking (PSU), Nizams Sugar, she opted for a second job only to keep herself busy. “I wanted to work to kill time,” says the 52-year-old, who works in the administration department of Hyderabad’s Sanghi Group of Companies.

Although her time is spent productively now, Indumati is not satisfied with the work conditions. “It’s not easy for former government employees to adjust to the private sector work environment. The strong focus on targets and deadlines is gruelling,” she says.

Gangadharan now plans to teach older job seekers how the new-age job environment works. “We will prepare second-career seekers for the change in work environment and also for the new systems and rules of the game,” he says.

Gangadharan says that the Heritage Second Career Centre has already started giving lessons to prospective older employees in issues like work hours and employer expectations. “This helps them join their jobs with more confidence. They know what to expect from the new workplace,” says Gangadharan.

But for Subhan, work-environment adjustments are minor issues. His post-retirement job has fulfilled greater needs. “Life is back to normal. My time is occupied again,” he says.

Additional reporting by G.S. Radhakrishna in Hyderabad and Sujata Singh Roy in Calcutta