For those of you who have not connected, I retired 6 months ago from being a full-time academic after researching retirement planning for nearly 20 years. Now I am focusing on implementing my findings: for myself, for individuals and for organisations. As I promised when I retired, I am providing a month-by-month account of my findings from the other side. This month I am exploring career and possible reasons for hanging on to identity.
Work Identity
I’ve been thinking about a lot in the last month – largely because I found myself wandering back to similar work that I’d walked away from just 6 months ago. It meant temporarily parking up other plans – new plans - and reverting back to a well-trodden path in Educational Leadership. I didn’t especially need the money but I was committed to the Program (which I think is great). I found myself pulling my pants over my tights in Supergirl style to save the day. I was back to old patterns. Worse still new routines I had in place around eating and exercise came to a stand-still. When I was not working, I was thinking about work even though it was only part-time and a short-term contract.
My dietician asked me “Why did you agree to do it?” and my reply shocked me “Because they needed someone who could jump in quickly and I had the skill set”. Really? Just me? The only person in the whole wide world who could fix the problem? Highly unlikely. Then I listened to my SBS Insights interview where I say something relating to having the responsibility to share what we’ve learned about retirement planning so other people could benefit.
I started to reflect on my identity and what might best explain this irrational behaviour. I’ve never fully bought the identity crisis issue because it implies everyone is wedded to their work (spoiler alert – they are not) and that leaving is mostly involuntary. I’d buy the identity argument if people experienced ill-health, carer responsibilities or jobs were made redundant but if people are so highly invested in their work identities why did they voluntarily leave work in the first place?
Retirement theory to explain the reality
So what are the other possible explanations?
1. Psychologists might best explain my behaviour as evidence of Continuity Theory. Robert Atchley examined the role of continuity theory in 1971 in his article "Retirement and Leisure Participation: Continuity or Crisis?" published in The Gerontologist. Definitely worth reading. His early work largely focused on the role of leisure. According to this theory I might have agreed to participate because I wanted to keep my previous work identity alive and this was one way of doing it. There are some parts of my old work life I voluntarily continue. I mean, I see the benefits of progressing my retirement research, counselling and consulting – I’m obsessed – but chaotic administrative roles were not on my list.
2. Behaviour Economists might explain it differently. Perhaps what I was witnessing was not a willingness to let go of old identities but a sunk cost fallacy – something like “It was hard to get into my course. I studied for years and years. I completed four university degrees. I made great progress. I still need to keep going to make the best use of it. Anything else would be a waste.” Maybe that’s true, but not all parts of it need to be retained, only the selected bits that still make sense. In any case it was only a month-long contract and great lessons were learned.
Recognising the useful bits
So what can I tell myself and other people who are hanging on to old work identities and can’t move forward, who share a similar compulsion? I reminded myself about a white woollen pant suit I once bought. Fitted me perfectly, made me feel like a million dollars but it was totally impractical. Every time I tried it on, I talked myself out of wearing it until one day I said “no more – that pant suit has outlived its usefulness”. How did I feel donating that suit to make room for more suitable clothes? Relieved. Refreshed. Brave.
Retirement can be chaotic too
The other challenge I am coming to terms with is that, despite my very best efforts, some days (and weeks) are very chaotic. I imagined I would be able to easily partition off time for work but in reality, sometimes there are many different things simultaneously converging. In addition to the educational leadership role, the SBS episode I participated in aired one day before leaving for a holiday. I only found out two days ahead of airing and I was bombarded with requests for radio interviews. I found myself in the ridiculous situation where I was participating in radio interviews before, during and after a Conexus Institute round table. I could have said no, but I’d invested about 8 hours in the SBS episode and, you guessed it I wanted to make the most of it… sunk cost fallacy. In reality, at least for me, it is very difficult to smooth out work demands. That's something I need to examine more closely.
Spending
I think sunk cost fallacy might also be applied to explain a lack of spending behaviour in retirement. In this case ‘saving’ is the goal and then continuing to do that seems like the more comfortable option. The mindset is something like “I don’t want to touch this money after I spent so long saving it”. I caught myself shopping for a birthday card last week and (illogically) thought I should buy several more in case the price goes up. It reminded me of the period about 12 months ago as I started to slide into retirement. I started buying things imagining that “I won’t be able to afford these when I retire”. Of course, that’s not true but as a result I now most likely have enough cards to last me until I die – if only I could find them amongst the bars of soap, shampoo, toothpaste and dishwashing liquid I’d hoarded alongside them.
So how important really is identity to you? If it’s that important why leave work? If you do leave work, which bits will you hang on to and which bits will you happily leave behind? If you do work part-time or casually how do you organise your time so that it doesn’t absorb your whole week? How will you manage the psychological switch from accumulating wealth to spending it?
Joanne Earl is a Psychologist and Honorary Professor of Psychology and Retirement Planning. You can read more about Joanne’s retirement journey via LinkedIn or visit her website: www.retirementdr.com.au.