Quote:
Originally Posted by Mortis
I think for the majority of people at retirement age, the ability to continue working is something that most people want.
I worked with a guy that was already 69 when I met him, I remember the age because he joked about it all the time, he was a true dirty old man. He was told by the company that the retirement age was 65 and it was up to him to decide. He continued working until he was 82, he started having trouble reading what he was supposed to be proofing. He decided to leave and passed away 6 weeks later. This old guy had no one in his life except for the guys he worked with, his wife passed away very young in her early 50's they had one son who was killed in a car accident, so work was everything he had.
Doctors have said for years that people need something to live for when they get older and working is a way for them to feel self worth and occupy all the time they have left to live.
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Absolutely. There was a psychology study done back in the 1970's where university students went to a retirement home and gave the residents a single potted plant as a gift. There was nothing significant about this plant -- it was just a simple, green, oxygen-producing living being. Anyway, they split the residents into two groups: one group who would have to take care of the plant by themselves, and the other who would get a student to come in once a week to water the plant and make sure it's getting enough sun and other such things.
They then tracked the lifespan of the residents. A study like this would be totally against any regulations of a university psychology department today, but back then they could do it. And guess what they found? The intuitive answer may be that those residents who had the students come in every week tended to live longer, as they had someone to interact with, socialize with more, etc. But the opposite happened. What did the researchers pin this one? They said that the group that just got the plant and had to take care of it by themselves were given a sense of
control. And that people intrinsically desire being in control. That's why it's nearly impossible to watch a pre-recorded sports game... as silly as it is, people love screaming at the TV and cheering for their team because they believe they can influence the even in real time. Not so fun when the outcome's already determined.