The motives of people who delay retirement: An occupational perspective

Abstract

Background

Increasing numbers of people are delaying retirement. Studies of their motives are scarce and biased to Western contexts.

Aims

The aim was to explore internal and external motives of older Slovenians who continue to work after becoming eligible for retirement.

Methods

Nine workers, aged 59–72, were interviewed. The interviews were analysed using thematic analysis.

Findings

Three main themes were extracted. The ‘Foundations’ described the prerequisites for continued work engagement that were often non-negotiable. The ‘Rewards’ included the benefits of working and suggested a strong pull towards the non-material aspects of work. ‘Negotiating occupational challenges’ summarized an internal crisis that was experienced when faced with a potential occupational void of retirement.

Conclusions

Although the participants’ motivations were not homogenous, we identified a pattern in the way they constructed their motives in relation to the occupational life trajectories and contextual factors. Based on our findings and multidisciplinary theories, we proposed a hierarchy of motives for prolonged work activity.

Significance

The study offers an occupational perspective of the phenomenon of delayed retirement and argues that the efforts of the discipline of occupational therapy should be directed at different levels of motives, including empowering people to nurture higher level occupational motives.

Keywords:

• Active ageing
• occupational science
• occupational therapy
• older workers
• qualitative method
• reward
• self-transcendence
• work engagement

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the participants who took time to share their stories. We also wish to thank Dr. Eric Asaba for reviewing the article and providing valuable reflections.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.