Staying on the job - for (a healthy) life

Dave Carpenter, The Associated Press

CHICAGO – Adelaide Yanow, 89, jokes that she wants to leave her job as a judicial assistant only on a gurney. Herb Minds still works three days a week at 87, then goes home and logs into Facebook.


Harry Bahrick, an 84-year-old memory psychologist, points out that Michelangelo was still doing fine work as an octogenarian. So what's the big deal about working at that age, more than four centuries later?

Americans who fear having to work longer because of their finances can draw comfort and inspiration from some of the half-million octogenarians in the workforce. Plenty still have a zest for labor and life.

"It's a nice way to end your life," said Zetta Bauer, who works three days a week as a cashier at a Niagara Falls gift shop at the age of 91. "I'm so happy to be working."

It has become almost commonplace to work not only into one's 70s but often beyond.

About 5.1 percent of Americans 80 or older, or 511,000, were in the workforce last year, up from 3.7 percent five years earlier and 3.1 percent in 2000, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The numbers are certain to rise as people live and remain active longer – and must stretch their often-fixed incomes.

"It used to be that retirement was something that everyone universally looked forward to," said Dr. Gary Kennedy, director of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center in New York.

"Now I think most people are starting to think twice about whether they want to retire at 55, 65, 75" – or later.


Financial pluses

Anyone with a 401(k) or any other retirement plan knows the financial pluses of working longer. Putting in extra years on the job is the fastest way to restore savings depleted by the plunge in stocks and reduce the number of years over which dollars must be stretched.

Financial security is the primary reason why 72 percent of Americans responding to a telephone survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute this year expect to work after they officially retire, up from 63 percent in 2008.

But more people are discovering other payoffs to working deep into usual retirement age. Continuing to work, Kennedy said, supports three pillars of healthy aging: being socially engaged, intellectually stimulated and physically active.

Not only that, he noted, but studies suggest that people who work longer live longer.

Yanow, still working virtually full time at the U.S. District Court in Chicago, never gave retirement a second thought. But her longtime wish of working until she keels over apparently isn't going to happen since she finishes work on July 31. That's only because she outlived her boss of the last 28 years, Judge James Moran.

"Had my judge not died [in April], I would not even consider it," she said. "They were going to roll me out, because I never was going to retire. I figured I'd have to drop dead first."

A sign on her desk reads "Things Get Better With Age ... I'm Approaching Magnificent." She put it there 20 years ago.

Today, Yanow still edits legal opinions and argues with law clerks about proper wording. Her typing speed has slowed, but not her enthusiasm for the job. The big-time cases, the exciting atmosphere, the appearances of drug lords, white-collar criminals and occasional celebrities – she loves it all.

In some ways, she still is a young woman.

"If you think young, you're young," she said. "You have to maintain a sense of humor, and you have to think young. Some people are 50, and they're old."

According to Minds, of Northbrook, Ill., working later "keeps you in the mix of things."

Retiring from a career in financial services at 70, he went back as a consultant for a few years and now works half the year at a golf course and the other half writing and publishing newsletters for numerous organizations.

The money, while not much, covers the cost of some basic household services for him and wife Jo Ann. He does it to keep busy – and to keep from "staring at the stupid computer all day long," including Facebook.

"I think most people would prefer to work unless they are just so lousy rich they can afford to go from one cruise to another," Minds said. "But even that would get boring after awhile."


Fear of idle hands

These elders in the workplace dread the notion of being idle as much as younger workers might the idea of laboring into their 80s.

David Wolf, an 81-year-old intellectual property lawyer in Boston who still handles a full workload, revels in the challenge of new cases and loves working with young people. He shudders at some popular alternatives to working, such as sitting on the sand in Florida.

"I remember going down there to see one of my relatives, and the big event of the day was to drive down to the beach to see the sunset," he said. "That's not exactly my idea of being engaged and doing things."

Bahrick, a psychology professor and now memory researcher at Ohio Wesleyan University since 1949, says older workers can avoid the isolation that aging typically brings by staying on the job. He puts in 30 hours a week in his office doing reading and research, and works more at home.

"I love it, as long as I'm not under pressure and can take vacations," he said.

It helps to be a people person, too, if you plan on sticking around in any workplace.

Bauer has worked the last 21 years at a Delaware North gift shop at the lip of Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls, N.Y. She doesn't put in 18 hours a week for the $8.25-an-hour pay, although it helps. She does it because she loves bantering with customers and co-workers.

"I don't see too well, I don't hear too well, but I have a heck of a good time at work, honey."

Dave Carpenter,