Category Archives: Working Class

Your Employees Can’t Retire. They’re Broke!

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Today’s guest post comes from my fellow HR Blogger, Mike Haberman of Omega HR Solutions. This is definitely a hot topic, as we have so many Boomers in the workforce. I love this guy Mike. Off to the races……

I read an interesting combination of articles. The first described the very poor outlook for older workers who have become the majority of the long term unemployed. The second was the results of a survey called the 13th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey which showed that many workers don’t plan on retiring. So the result is that workers are opting to work longer, the issue is staying employed.

No money to retire

The first article, Sustained Unemployment Rises, shows that the ever increasing numbers of the long-term unemployed are older workers. Because they are exhausting any and all saving they will not be able to retire if and when they do become re-employed. Imagine the pain of being 57 years old and moving back into your parents’ home in order to be able to live?

Not ready to retire

The second article dealt with the retirement survey. Some of the results of that survey include:

  • The 13th Annual Transamerica Survey found low levels of ‘retirement readiness’ among workers, and for many, saving enough to retire by age 65 may be unrealistic.
  • 69 percent of workers agreed that they could work until age 65 and not save enough to meet their retirement needs.
  • Most workers plan to either work past age 65 and/or work part-time in retirement.
  • Few workers (20 percent) have a back-up plan if they are forced into retirement sooner than expected due to life’s unforeseen circumstances.

These two situations are adding up to be a societal disaster. I am part of that Baby Boom generation that did a poor job of saving for retirement. I have been making up for lost time but I know that without work that would be very difficult to do and without work what was saved would rapidly disappear.

One other result of that survey was that many workers would change jobs for a better retirement plan than they currently have. You may want to review what you are offering; it may become the key to retaining your employees. You also may want to offer education to your employees on the value of that retirement. Many employees are very uneducated about what they have or will have at retirement. For many that is a real eye-opener.

About the Author:

Michael (Mike) D. Haberman, SPHR is a consultant, writer, speaker and co-founder of Omega HR Solutions, Inc.  He has been in the field of HR for 30 years as both practitioner and consultant. He specializes in compliance issues for his small business clients but happily discusses many HR subjects. He is the author of the blog HR Observations which can be found at http://www.omegahrsolutions.com and he has been writing blog posts on a full spectrum of HR topics for over six years. He is an active user of Twitter and can be found at @mikehaberman or @HRComplianceGuy. He has been an instructor in HR for 14 years and has helped many people achieve their PHR or SPHR during that time.

Snubbing the Working Class

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I recently attended a BANG up BBQ event for the Fourth of July. This place is owned by a friend and one of my favorite places on the lake. She loves hosting parties at her house and we love attending :)

I think there was a mixed group of friends and family (about 50 adults with a zillion kiddos) that attended and I was meandering around introducing myself to a few folks I did not know, when I happened to speak to a chick bringing out another cheese platter. I said, “Hello! I don’t think I’ve met you yet, I’m Susan.” I was baffled by her response when she refused to tell me her name and simply reply, “Oh no, I’m just here to work.”

I shrugged my shoulders while she walked off seemingly worried about not mixing business with pleasure.

I couldn’t help shake that feeling that perhaps she had been told not to mix with the guests (which I don’t think my friend would ever d0) or perhaps she felt inferior on her own accord. I wondered how many of the folks that work in the everyday places we visit (restaurants, dry cleaners, Starbucks) feel that they are inferior because we’ve created this illusion as a society. Yet, without these workers who would deliver our pizza’s at 10:00 at night?

I have a sister that went to college and earned a degree (many moons ago) and found out she didn’t like that profession after all and she makes more money as part of a serving staff at a local restaurant back home in Alabama. She actually makes really.good.money. Yet, people back home still treat her differently because she’s a “waitress” and she’s been doing it for almost 20 years.

What causes us to snub our noses at the so-called “working class?” These are the people that support our local businesses and US! What causes them to feel inferior? They’re bringing home the bacon and frying it up in the pan. They should be proud of that!

Back to my story

I try helping out wherever I am in cleaning up after myself and I did so all that night. At the end of the night I sat down on the pier to watch the fireworks and I saw the gal mentioned above come out to grab a peek and I offered her my chair. I told her to take a load off, drink a glass of wine and enjoy. After all, she had been working all night. She seemed pleasantly surprised that I would do that for her.

It reminded me that it’s much better to give than to receive. And it kind of made me feel better to give her my seat and see the smile on her face, than to sit comfortably in my own chair while she waited on me.

Photo Credit: AmericanProgress.org