A Second Chance at Career
As companies wake up to the potential of employing the elderly, it promises to be a win-win situation for everybody. The elderly get a chance to re-enter the workforce, while the companies benefit from their extensive experience, writes Swati Saxena from Jaipur.
“Retirement at sixty-five is ridiculous. When I was sixty-five I still had pimples”, wrote George Burns.
This feeling is increasingly finding a resonance among the elderly in India, with senior citizens opting for a second job after retirement. Increased physical fitness provides them the stamina to continue working, and they are helped with the increasing availability of jobs in the market.
As India becomes one of the fastest growing economies in the world, a lack of trained manpower poses a major obstacle to growth. With companies facing an acute talent crunch, senior citizens, with their wealth of experience and reasonable salary expectations, become an attractive alternative.
M K Joshi works as an administrator at Tongia Heart and General Hospital in Jaipur. He retired as a private secretary to the Diesel Commissioner, Jaipur and started working as an administrator at a diagnostic laboratory the following month. He agrees that employers are more receptive to the idea of employing senior citizens. “This would not have been possible 10 years earlier because jobs were scarce. Now, there are more businesses and they prefer experienced people to work with them. Our experience makes us better managers,” he says.
He feels that the decision to continue working has helped him keep fit. “I go to my office at 9 in the morning and come back by 6 in the evening. After 6, sometimes I have to go on marketing calls with doctors. When I go on a call, I come back by 9:30 in the night,” he says. It has been more than seven years since he has been following this schedule, and he has no intention to ‘retire’ anytime soon.
Call Centres: Not Just For the Youth
Apart from jobs in conventional fields, the elderly are also game to trying emerging professions. Call centres are generally considered the bastion of the young. But increasingly, they are also becoming the workplace of choice for the not so young.
Pratima Kaviraj, a lecturer before marriage, left her job to take care of family and children. Her daughter is now married and settled in the US while her son has completed engineering. With spare time on her hand, Pratima, now in her 50s, decided to join GE’s call centre in Jaipur.
Working in a relatively new industry comes with its own set of challenges. For example, the work culture inside the office is more westernised and requires some getting used to. Recounting her experience, Pratima says: “Earlier, the supervisors insisted everybody should call each other by name. This was somewhat strange to me because I was the eldest. The kids also felt strange, but they started calling by name out of compulsion. Then, one day, a boy said, ‘I’ll call you auntie, because you are too senior.’ So now everybody calls me auntie.”
Pratima’s daughter also worked in a call centre before marriage, so she got some valuable tips that helped her adjust easily. “My daughter had warned me that some of the girls might smoke and drink in parties. But they are all good kids and they take good care of me. And if they smoke, or drink, then I just ignore that.”
What About the Age Difference?
“See, when we are working, they forget that I am older or they are younger. We are just colleagues working together. In parties, they insist on dancing with me because they don’t want me to feel left out. I normally wear a sari to work. But if we all have to dress up and the rest of the girls show up in a sari, then I wear a lehenga! So I have fun with these young colleagues of mine,” she says.
Perhaps, because this is a new industry, there are many apprehensions about working in a call centre. This is something Pratima also experienced. She says: “The initial reaction of my family was slightly negative. They felt it was not a prestigious job and didn’t do justice to my qualifications. But I know that if I keep working regularly, I will get regular promotions. I also get annual increments. In addition, everything is so well organised at work – I get free transportation, my salary comes directly into my back account, we work in an air conditioned environment – so there are a lot of benefits on working in this sector.’’
It’s a Win-Win!
Apart from being constructively engaged, taking a second job after retirement is also financially rewarding. Joshi says, “Before retirement, I only got my salary. Now, I get income from three sources – my pension, the interest from the retirement savings, and the salary from the job I have taken up!”
The time is past when on reaching a particular age, people started feeling they have done their bit in the world, and it is now time to sit back and relax. Today’s ‘young old’ generation wants to be with the times. As Pratima says, “Certainly, one ages faster when sitting at home. Going out keeps me motivated, and it has made me a better planner at home as well. My husband works from home. Earlier, we would both be at home, and we would run out of topics to talk about. Now that I go to work, there are so many things to discuss with him. And because I am surrounded by young people, I also feel lively and energetic.”
As companies wake up to the potential of employing the elderly, it promises to be a win-win situation for everybody. The elderly get a chance to re-enter the workforce, while the companies benefit from their extensive experience. Says Joshi, “I agree the young generation can work more effectively and speedily, but they lack experience. They can probably run 10 km but I cannot even run 1 km. However,” he adds tongue-in-cheek, “in professions where running is not required, I can probably do a better job!”