When People Should be Retired? (TASK 5)

To stop working and start relaxing and enjoying their life at home for some people is such a big dream to be realized as soon as possible. Others think that spending time at home is a terrible, they prefer working hard to get more and more money to doing anything at home, just watching television or listening to the radio. For the latter, retirement is a bad news as they have to stop working means stop earning money. Countries have tried many ways to solve the problem about age of retirement, but until now, there is little agreement about appropriate retirement age. As in some countries people can work until they reached 60 or 70, in others they can work only until 50 or 55. What should be the best age to retire? That’s a big question to be answered.

“Women should retire faster than men because they do not have strength as many as men have. (Kurniati, pers.comm.)” We cannot generalized all the people (workers) to retire from their job at one specific age, because each job has their specification and qualification themselves for the worker they want. Beside that, everyone have different physical condition and mental condition at one age. A 60-years-old man is able to work as a director of a factory or as a doctor but he cannot do a job as a farmer or porter as their health doesn’t support them.

For some jobs, for example doctor or engineer, the increasing age means the increasing of experiences and capabilities. The older you are, the more you have had. In the other hand, the others like athlete, singer, or driver cannot tolerate the effect of increasing age to your physical condition. You cannot run, sing or drive better at the age of 60 than at the age of 30. There must be some deflection as your age increases.

Some countries still on their own rules that a worker should retire from their job at 55 or 60. The reasons for this rule are “it will be more fair for all the people if they have to stop working at one time” and “it is the best way to open more employment for the next generation”. Indonesia, for example, has decided that the age of 55 is enough for their civil workers to work and they have to retire. But for the other job like a politician or lawyer, Indonesia doesn’t make one rule for the retirement age.

I think we cannot determine one age to be age of retirement, because every people has their own capabilities to work for one job and we cannot generalized them. It will be more fair for everyone if we give the problem about age of retirement to each employee because they are the one knows the best for their employers.

References:
Canfield, Jack et al. (1999). Chicken Soup for the Unsinkable Soul. Deerfield Beach, USA: HEALT COMMUNICATION, INC.
Kurniati, L. (2008). Personal communication. (April 15)