Family in Later Life: Work and Retirement

Currently, there is continued discrimination against older workers—a corporate mentality more interested in creating incentives to retire older workers than in developing them as a resource for the company. It remains unclear, however, whether the coming labor market will be an ally or a nemesis of older workers. As contingent labor grows, will more workers entering the labor force encounter lives as employees regularly moving between jobs and risking a pensionless future? Individual, corporate, and societal decisions regarding the future of employment carry the potential for dramatically reshaping the way we organize the time and sequencing of events in our lives. This in turn will impact the family in later life.

As a human service and public service leader, how can you prepare yourself for working with the family in later life? In the discussion, integrate the role of a human service and public service leader and address the following:

1. What are three social problems where the family in later life might help society? What might these programs do, and what challenges would they face?
2. How do work and retirement impact a family in later life when pensions become less reliable and baby boomers show some hesitancy to retire?
3. What would be a good retirement, and does society currently enable a family in later life opportunities to achieve a safe retirement? How does this impact a family?

Support your discussion with resources from current professional literature.