For many years there has been an occurring debate regarding the retirement by reaching a certain age. Should elderly people work within their capabilities in their 70s or retire strictly at a certain age? Personally, I strongly believe that there should be a restricted age for seniors to take their rest by law. While my perspective has its merits, it’s essential to acknowledge all advantages as well as disadvantages for a more balanced understanding of this dilemma.
One major advantage of a forced retirement is a chance for young talents to prove themselves and provide a modern and unbiased view on the working process. It is hard to deny that young professionals are often considered as inexperienced and less educated than their elderly collueges. Often such stereotypes, accusations, and rumors are spread by co-workers of the pre-retirement age because they are scared to lose their position to the younger generation. Another notable benefit of forced retirement is that in our technological world not every senior employee can use modern software, AI, programmes, and other advantages of our today’s workload. This may provide a negative impact on the efficiency of companies.
However, one cannot ignore the drawbacks such as personal shortage in some professions. As a Gen Z representative, I can say with confidence that our generation prefers occupations, where one can earn real money, rather than be useful to the society but with lower salary. In the long-term perspective this phenomenon will be more noticeble. As an outcome, there will be a lack of employees in certain fields of work and seniors can continue their career path there. Moreover, in some countries of Eastern Europe, for instance, the pension is extremely low for a comfortable retirement. Because of that, people in their 70s are forced to search for part-time jobs or even still work full-time, although they have health problems and would like to enjoy their retirement.
Overall, while the positives of forced retirement are apparent, each country should consider this very carefully due to their economic situation, job market opportunities and amount of pension.