Retirement brings with it the promises of leisure and freedom as well
as the risks of boredom and isolation. When retirees rid their
schedules of anything resembling the kinds of obligations that once had
been imposed by work, they will experience a sometimes-uncomfortable
absence of structure. In The Experience of Retirement, the
distinguished sociologist Robert S. Weiss provides a detailed
description of how some people plan their retirement, what life in
retirement is like, and what makes for a fulfilling retirement. His
engaging book can thus serve as a most useful guide. Weiss shows us
both retirement’s benefits and its possible costs, both the relief
retirees can feel once free of work’s stresses and constraints and the
discomfort that can be caused by loss of the positive aspects of
working life.
The
book is based on extensive interviews with eighty-nine men and women
before and after their retirement from middle-income careers. Weiss
makes vivid their experiences by presenting, in their own words, their
descriptions of leaving their careers, considering what to do with
their time, confronting issues of income in retirement,
dealing—sometimes—with social isolation, and reorganizing their lives.
The interviews reveal the way in which retirement affects marriages and
other familial relationships. Weiss concludes by presenting advice
about retirement based on the actual experiences of retirees. For
anyone approaching the age of retirement or already retired and looking
for a more satisfying post-career life, for personnel managers, health
care professionals, and all those who provide services for the retired,
The Experience of Retirement will be an illuminating guidebook to this
phase of life.
Reviews
“Based on interviews with 89 retirees from professional careers . . .
the book presents much of the data in the interviewees' own words. This
gives the book emotional and textual immediacy, as the retirees voice
their feelings of obsolescence and social isolation and their
difficulties missing the daily structure previously provided by the
workplace. However, Weiss notes that volunteerism, part-time jobs,
hobbies and, for some, a strong marriage can at least partially offset
the social connections and sense of identity many people lose when they
stop working. . . . Weiss provides . . . a better understanding of the
emotional pitfalls that future retirees can anticipate, and that their
family, friends, and colleagues can help them combat.”—Publishers
Weekly, 12 September 2005
“This marvelous book provides a fascinating
look at the experiences of men and women as they make the transition
from work to retirement. It's full of interesting life stories coupled
with valuable advice for people approaching retirement.”—Jill Quadagno,
author of One Nation, Uninsured: Why the US Has No National Health
Insurance
“This
is a sensitive, thoughtful, and highly readable chronicle of the ways
people move from their career jobs to and through retirement. Robert S.
Weiss is a leading scholar of careers, work, and now retirement. He
draws on his considerable insights and analytical skills to capture the
multilayered meanings, gains, and losses this status passage invokes in
people from a variety of occupations and life circumstances. The
Experience of Retirement is a must-read for men and women‘on the verge’
of this key life transition.”—Phyllis Moen, McKnight Presidential Chair
in Sociology, University of Minnesota, coauthor of The Career Mystique
“The
Experience of Retirement illuminates how people experience the
transition to retirement, with special attention to the financial,
interpersonal, and emotional dimensions of this process. It is fluidly
written and well-organized and will appeal to current and prospective
retirees as well as scholars and practitioners in the fields of
gerontology, social planning, and labor relations.”—Joel S.
Savishinsky, Ithaca College, author of Breaking the Watch: The Meanings
of Retirement in America
“ ‘Is there life after retirement?’ In
The Experience of Retirement, Robert S. Weiss puts a human face on
current workplace trends. By brilliantly using in-depth interviewing
techniques and analysis to depict retirees’ status ‘on the ground,’
Weiss makes a compelling case for questioning the incongruence of
modern workplace trends such as downsizing,reorganization, and
‘voluntary’ retirement with public policies that aim to support and
sustain quality of ‘after-work’ life. This applies especially to
today’s career women who are disproportionately burdened by financial
and health-care costs later in life that stem both from the gender pay
gap and time out from work for care giving. The Experience of
Retirement takes its readers on the retirees’ journeys through the web
of social relations at work, in the family, and in the community.
Across a broad spectrum of social and economic issues, the author
reveals the realities retirees must confront, such as: financial
security, quality health care, establishment of new routines and
meaningful activities, ways to cope with the loss of a work community,
and explaining these work/life changes to family members and friends.
This book is critical reading for new retirees, as well as individuals
either anticipating or confronted with the dilemma of voluntary or
forced retirement. It is also a comprehensive resource for academics
and practitioners, such as human resource directors, managers, and
health-care professionals. The Experience of Retirement is both an
important research contribution to the literature and a guidebook for
what we can anticipate.”—Francine Moccio, Institute for Women and Work,
School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University