Retirement, Effects on Relationships

Retirement heralds a new stage in the life cycle. It marks the end of paid employment and the start of life as a senior citizen. Relationships with coworkers are important during a career, but how does retirement affect them? Relationships with coworkers are apt to change, and so are relationships at home, with the extended family and with nonkin. This entry discusses the extent to which personal relationships are affected by retirement. Social relationships at the workplace enhance enjoyment, creativity, and career development and [Page 1377]are thus meaningful. They also contribute to one's sense of personal worth and importance. In addition, the support provided in these relationships may diminish the effects of work-related stress and often contributes to well-being. However, most relationships with coworkers are not preserved beyond the workplace and do not become personal relationships. Work relationships are more likely to become personal if people work in the vicinity of their home or when coworkers have common interests. If coworkers have shared activities beyond the working environment, the likelihood of coworker relationships continuing after retirement increases.

Three theoretical perspectives predict a retirement-related loss of personal relationships. Holding that old age is a stage of life with limited social expectations about the roles that older adults play, disengagement theory notes that older people tend to withdraw from society. Not only work-related but also other types of relationships deteriorate. For disengaged retirees, loss of the work role places constraints on them, and they are forced to withdraw from certain activities and relationships. In particular, people who have no control over when and how they stop working face greater disruptions in their relationships than people whose retirement occurs as anticipated.

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory predicts that older people disengage from relatively superficial relationships, such as with former coworkers, because they find their emotional engagement with network members such as close kin and close friends more effective for maintaining their social identity and sharing their joys and sorrows. Reengaged retirees also identify retirement with disengagement, but are selective and content with it. If the partner or other significant others in the personal network no longer have a job or never did, the new retiree may be absorbed into a post-retirement world. The retiree typically spends a great deal of time at home, focusing on kin relationships and leisure activities with significant others. It is unlikely that relationships with former coworkers would be continued in a situation of this kind.

According to Social Convoy Theory, networks consist of close relationships determined by attachments and peripheral relationships determined by role requirements. Role-guided relationships (e.g., with coworkers) can be important and affectionate, but are primarily linked to the role setting, which generally limits their duration and content. Realigned retirees may look forward to retirement to release them from the pressures of their work role. Retirement decreases the likelihood of coworker relationships continuing. These retirees see retirement as a time for extending their lives in different and more meaningful directions. The initial period after retirement is full of positive changes. Retirees may explore and enjoy new possibilities. Retirees may take new social roles, and people from other role settings such as volunteer work, leisure activities, or grandparenting might replace coworker relationships, although sometimes still some contact is maintained with former coworkers.

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