The Changing Face of Retirement: Exploring Retirees’ Communicative Construction of Tensions through Bridge Employment

Abstract

As more adults see bridge employment as part of their retirement, it becomes important to understand the communicative construction of this experience. This point is especially true as bridge employment emphasizes tensions between work and leisure and serves as a way to affirm or create occupational identity. To address this topic we conducted qualitative interviews with retirees and completed an abductive analysis of the data. In doing so, we found two overarching themes: bridge employment is an uncertain experience (negative, positive, or both frames), and bridge employment is an opportunity to (re)establish identities (maintenance, change, or both orientations). Not only do these findings make theoretical contributions, but inform practical implications for retirees and organizations, such as updating retention and recruitment efforts and changing age-based organizational structures.

Keywords:

• Retirement
• Bridge Employment
• Tensions
• Identity

Notes

^1. Pseudonyms were used to protect the privacy of the interviewees.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Maryland [Research and Scholarship Award].