G
General Veers
Guest
May 1, 2010
The silver lining
Working overtime
<!-- by line --> By Radha Basu, Senior Correspondent
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Still bartending at Tanglin Club after 40 years, Mr Seng says meeting people and chatting with members keep him alert and active. He earns less than he did before but he has more free time and does not need to work past midnight. -- ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG
When he turned 62, Mr Lai was rehired by Toppan Printing at the same pay and perks. Now 66, the senior supervisor is in charge of a group of 20 workers. -- ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG
Mr Then teaching a class at the Centre for Seniors, which prepares workers who are approaching the retirement age for re-employment. He helps them understand why they may need to keep working, and how to negotiate new contracts and remain employable. -- ST PHOTO: KELVIN LIM
IN A classroom, students peer diligently at hard copy handouts as lecturer Jim Then proceeds with a PowerPoint presentation. But this is not the usual batch of energetic young adults itching to enter the workforce. Instead, most of them are grey, balding and male. Gone is the cocky assurance of youth. Diffident and serious, many look like they carry the weight of the world on their hunched shoulders. Mr Then, 64, a training manager with the Centre for Seniors, a voluntary welfare organisation at Bishan, is teaching marine, retail and electronics company workers on the cusp of retirement how to seek re-employment.
The former operations director of an investment firm, now in his second career as a trainer, asks how many in the class have enough money to retire. Fewer than five hands rise in the class of 50. 'How many of you want to continue to work as long as you can?' asks Mr Then. Nearly 50 hands shoot up. Gone are the days when even as Singapore's population aged, the workforce stayed forever young. Whether by choice or circumstances, more older people than ever before are delaying retirement.
Read the Saturday Special report in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times
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