Unlearning the puritan work ethic in retirement 1

Retirement Stats, Studies, and Stuff

By Mariella Vigneux, MBA, ACC
Certified Professional Coach

Did you know that retirees with strong work values are not as active or as satisfied in retirement as those with low work values?  This was the finding of a study that related work ethic, daily activities, and retirement satisfaction.   Another study found that 71% of people 45 or older want to work in retirement, and only 29% said they never want to work again.

When I was rereading the articles from the past year of this newsletter, I noticed a similar trend.  Newly retired people have difficulty letting go of the puritan work ethic they grew up with.  Here are some thoughts on the matter from our contributing writers:

• “Here I am, in retirement and still feeling rueful about sleeping in. Still at the mercy of a puritan work ethic. Still not free.” [1]
• “My ingrained (you could say ingrown) work ethic is clamouring for me to be productive.” [2]
• “I look at the list of things that need to be done before winter really settles in and muse, ‘How did I ever find the time to work!’” [3]
• “I’m retired, and it’s a given that retirement should be far less stressful than one’s working life. But how many of us still feel a constant need to fill our waking hours with productivity?” [4]
• “When I encounter another new retiree, I am immediately regaled with tales of how busy he/she is.” [5]

Moral continuity

It seems we are not deemed worthy unless we’re being productive.

“The work ethic historically has identified work with virtue and has held up for esteem a conflation of such traits as habits as diligence, initiative, temperance, industriousness, competitiveness, self-reliance, and the capacity for deferred gratification.” (Eckerdt 1986)

What drives us to busyness?  Eckerdt’s theory is that we abide by a busy ethic in retirement because it helps us move from a life that valued productivity into a life that is “devoid of expectations”.  It provides “moral continuity between work and retirement.”

“But how do individuals adjust when retirement removes the status and achievement engendered by employment?  … Faced with change, aging adults select alternatives that are consistent with their prior social identities and what they have done in the past, sustaining the sense of self.  Consistent with this view, David Ekerdt (1986) posited a moral imperative for active involvement during retirement, which he calls the busy ethic.” 

“Just as there is a work ethic that holds industriousness and self-reliance as virtues, so, too, there is a ‘busy ethic’ for retirement that honors an active life.  It represents people’s attempts to justify retirement in terms of their long-standing beliefs and values.”

“Rather than unlearning the work ethic, people transform it into the busy ethic, giving content to the ‘retiree’ role, once considered devoid of expectations (a ‘roleless role’).

Busyness in retirement provides a defense against the notions that retirees are slack, dead weights on our economy and society; are lacking in status and esteem; and are not productive or valuable.  We can have leisure in retirement, but it must be “earnest, active, and occupied.”

Rejecting the busy ethic

Are there ways we’d rather measure ourselves, other than productivity?  Better yet, are there ways of being satisfied with our endeavours that don’t use measurement at all?  Can we find new ways that don’t embrace the busy ethic?  Can we unlearn the work ethic?

Self-coaching questions

How do you measure the success of your days?

What kinds of activities do you participate in that don’t contribute to your (or someone else’s) health, well-being, or sense of purpose?

How does the value of productivity serve you?  How does it not?

[1] Helen, https://crabapple.ca/2015/08/26/three-year-retirement-retrospective/

[2] Frank, https://crabapple.ca/2015/06/07/the-most-precious-gift/

[3] Peter Follett, https://crabapple.ca/2014/10/15/1082/

[4] Brad Morley, https://crabapple.ca/2015/03/14/the-healing-tea-of-retirement/

[5] Rose Morley, https://crabapple.ca/2015/02/15/in-search-of-the-meaning-of-life-still/