Work till you DROP DEAD

 

Retirement. A word that mean a lot to those who had spent half the time of their life working, earning money to support their life and presumably their families too. They'll be jumping for joy like children who received their first ang pow. In a way, the same could be said in the case of retirement. These retirees will either be given pension (government employees) or their cumulative amount of money saved up in the Employee Pension Fund (EPF - for those private sector labours) as they are being release from employment. So what's  the issue?

Well, it would be wrong for me to assume the percentages here but I can say that while most of these weary old people are finally able to spend their days resting at home, finally enjoying all of their hard work all these year in the form of the pension, a few batch of them genuinely longed for the working pace once more. Yes it is true that they might not be thinking straight when they thought of if but when you've worked for a long time someplace somewhere, be it in a private company or government sector, an eight hour 9-5 shift five days a week or six days a week (if you're working in a service industry), you'll bound to be accustomed to the working life.

The sudden change of a slow-paced relaxation at home while catching up on hobbies, entertainments, and recreational activities from the rush and buzz of the fast-paced working is a big adjustment. Some even find the life after retirement to be boring. It's true. They would find it as if they have no more purpose for they have no such goals to achieve or even dream to realise. They dread the long hours spent at home doing absolutely nothing of worth to their meaningful and miss the mountains of work piling up needing their attention at the office.

This may be the case for those people with no family (kids, grandchildren, relatives, etc.) to take care of or even spend time with. This is because most of the young adults and adults alike nowadays would prefer to live alone on their own or with their immediate family (spouses and children) rather than still living beneath the same roof with their growing soon-to-be old parents. While some may beg to differ --- saying that they would prefer to live with their parents so that they instead can take care of the enervated parents, the parents themselves know better not to burden their own children in a sense.

While a few of these post-retirement people find the life to be drudging and colourless, some of these able 50s veteran still work hard to try earn money another way around after being released from companies or government sectors (reached age of retirement) by starting their own business such as food stalls, small retail businesses, or even take up taxi services. I should know, my own grandfather is still out and about every single day driving around Kuala Lumpur picking up passengers to earn just barely enough cash to buy groceries for their home. And he's way over 70s. What do you think of that, huh?

(Back to the main issue......) Fortunately for those 55 year old bored old people, the government have finally extend the retirement age from 55/56 to 60 instead for private sectors. This act will be official and made true by the 1st of July this year. So those who are still working their ass off at private corporations can still made their dues living as an honest labour earning an honest pay till they're 60. Though the pullout age is set to be 60, employees are still able to retire at the optional minimum age which is 55, if they wish to. And as far as what I've heard from the great grapevine, it seems that 70 might be the next maximum age of retirement. I wonder why do they think that a person would still want to break they brittle backbones at the salt mine at their 70s. Isn't it just ridiculous?

p/s: sorry for the lengthy post... I was just building the case over when the focal point of this post is really at the last paragraph. Ehehehe....