STREAM Newsletter 2

‘All those things together made me retire’ – Results from a qualitative study on early retirement
A qualitative study was conducted among thirty STREAM participants (60-64 years) who retired early, i.e. before the age of 65. The study aimed to explore reasons for this early  retirement. We found that for most employees, a combination of factors played a role in the transition from work to early retirement, and the specific factors involved differed  between individuals. Participants reported various factors that pushed towards early retirement (‘push factors’), including organizational changes at work, conflicts at work, high work pressure, high physical job demands, and insufficient use of their skills and knowledge by others in the organization. Employees who reported such push factors towards early  retirement often felt unable to find another job. Factors attracting towards early retirement (‘pull factors’) included the wish to do other things outside of work, enjoy life, have more flexibility, spend more time with a spouse or grandchildren, and care for others. In addition, the financial opportunity to retire early played an important role. Push and pull factors led to changes in motivation, ability and opportunity to continue working, which in turn influenced early retirement.

More specifically, this study aimed to identify in which ways health influences early retirement. Health, both poor and good, played a role for half of the participants. For poor health, four pathways to early retirement were identified: 1. employees felt unable to work at all due to health problems, 2. health problems resulted in a self-perceived (future) decline in the ability to work, and employees chose to retire early, 3. employees with health problems were afraid of a further decline in health, and chose to retire early, and 4. employees with poor health retired early because they felt pushed out by their employer, although they themselves did not experience a reduced work ability. A good health influenced early retirement, since persons wanted to enjoy life while their health still allowed them to do so.

These results suggest that it is important to improve the fit between the physical and psychosocial job characteristics on the one hand, and the abilities and wishes on the employee on the other hand. Next to improvements in the work environment that enable and motivate employees to prolong their careers, a continuous dialogue between the employer and employee on the (future) person-job fit and tailored interventions might be helpful.

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