Retirement Blues For Bosses
By Rhys Haynes, The Age
Australia
July 10, 2004
Thinking of retiring but afraid to admit it?
Australia's top executives are reluctant to talk about the subject with colleagues for fear it could be detrimental to the rest of their career, a survey has found.
Executive recruitment firm Highland Partners has found that many senior executives are reluctant to reveal their retirement plans for fear they will be marginalised.
Highland Partners chief executive Dan Dumitrescu said companies were losing intellectual capital and expertise as a result, which could directly affect their bottom line.
"One of the most significant and worrying outcomes from the survey was the culture of taboo that exists in some organisations surrounding any discussion of retirement," he said.
"Executives told us they were reluctant to mention retirement because they had seen numerous occasions when retiring senior executives were marginalised, dropped from email lists, not invited to meetings, and generally regarded as no longer likely to be pulling their weight," Mr Dumitrescu said.
The survey found that 53 per cent of companies did not have policies or practices to encourage part-time, casual or other work by senior employees in the run-up to, or after, retirement.
"Many senior executives find the transition into retirement extremely difficult," Mr Dumitrescu said.
"Part-time or consulting work allows more time for the transfer of knowledge and can result in a smoother transition into retirement for the individual."
The survey found that a lack of communication about retirement was more apparent in professional services firms.
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