By Andi Cockroft, chair, CORANZ
I am 75, heading toward 76, and still working. Not because I have to in any immediate sense, but because the idea of simply stopping never quite made sense. Like many of my generation, I grew up with a model of life that was straightforward: work hard, reach 65, retire, and step away. That model no longer reflects reality, if it ever truly did.
My own working life has not followed a straight line. I spent decades in office-based roles in IT and engineering. Today, I drive a bus in Wellington. It is a different kind of work, more practical, more immediate, and in many ways more connected to people and place. It is not a step down, nor a fallback. It is simply a different phase.
The debate around raising the retirement age often assumes a binary choice - either you are working, or you are retired. In practice, many of us occupy a space somewhere in between. We adjust what we do, how we do it, and how much we take on. The question is not whether we continue working past 65, but how that work evolves.
There are, of course, limits. Not all work can be done indefinitely, and not all health holds up the same way. A labourer, a nurse, or a driver working long shifts will face different constraints from someone in a more flexible or less physically demanding role. That variation exists, and it makes a single retirement age a blunt instrument for a complex reality.
At the same time, there is value in remaining active and engaged. Work provides structure, purpose, and connection. It keeps skills in use and, in some cases, develops new ones. The idea that work beyond a certain age is somehow undesirable does not match my experience, nor the experience of many others I meet.
Recreation fits into this differently than it once did. When I first stepped away from work, I had time in abundance but found that time alone did not create satisfaction. Returning to work reduced the amount of leisure time available, but it did not change the nature of what I enjoy. My pastimes remained the same; only the balance shifted. That continuity is important, because it shows that recreation is not something that begins at retirement, but something that runs alongside working life. In some ways, that has made those moments more valuable. It suggests that recreation is not simply a function of time available, but of how that time is used and appreciated.
The system we have was designed for a different time, when life expectancy was shorter and work was often more physically demanding throughout. Today, people live longer, stay healthier for longer, and have more opportunity to shift roles as they age. The expectation that everyone will stop at a fixed point is increasingly out of step with how people actually live.
This is not an argument for or against raising the retirement age. It is an observation that the framework itself may no longer fit. Some will want or need to stop at 65. Others will continue in some form well beyond it. The system needs to recognise that range rather than assume a single pathway.
Retirement, if it still means anything, is no longer a moment. It is a transition - and increasingly, one that runs alongside continued work rather than replacing it.
I am still doing33hours every fortnight ,sometimes more if they short staffed as a residential community support worker. I do 2 awake night shifts at weekends. assisting physically and intellectual people in their own home (4) have been doing this parttime since 2012 when I realised that with super and part time I was taking home more than I was doing the same work full time (11yrs). I pay more tax than as super is taxed at secondary rate. One reason for staying as helping establish a union base for caregivers and support worker early 2000’s. have been fighting for equal pay and that is still on going.
Keep busy in retirement. If you enjoy your work, and are iun good health, keep at it.
What has happened to the work ethic amongst today’s young? I am speaking generally, some youngsters are diligent and industrious. When I was a young kiddo, you worked hard avoiding being called a “softie” or a “shirker”.
Too many loll on the dole.
It bemuses me we celebrate the 40 hour working week with Labour Day in October. It is a pretence; so many now work 60, 70 days a week and are stressed out which impacts on family and society.
Politicians have a lot to answer for. They have eroded the standard of living so a young couple both need to work to eat and pay the rent or mortgage not forgetting power bills and rates, insurance all which have sky rocketed no thanks to politicians. And uit’s all come about stemming from Rogernomics and its flawed neo-liberal economics.
Many that have retired at 65 have said that they’re busier in retirement than when they were when they were working, 65 only worked for some, many others have had to work on, like myself, still guiding at 74 and will keep going as long as the body tells me I’m still safe to do so.
I retired at 70. It took a couple of years to adjust and develop a slower pace. Now I do not stress about not completing everything on the daily list and I find it easier to drop everything and go and fish. I have develop new interests that I’d always wanted to etc. and have the time to keep fit. I am finding that retirement is better than I envisaged, “Viva la Retirement”