I was browsing the work wanted ads on Craigslist (Resumes) when this one caught my eye. Will work for free. This startled me because even though I am totally neurotic about staying employed, I can honestly say, the only thing I liked about my last ten jobs was the paycheck. Who was this person willing to work for free? He/she went on to say what his various talents were, and outlined the various mornings and afternoons he was available to do the unpaid work.

That weekend, I attended a party where the mean age was 60. There were some youngsters there, (thank goodness, they brought the good beer instead of the good desserts) but I found myself sidling up to perhaps the oldest person there, to gently cross examine him about what it is like to not work. I got the feeling that he would work for free too, just to get out of the house, after he mentioned twice, that he could be available to check on our summer house, if the weather got tough that winter, or we had a stretch where we could not check on the house ourselves.

My husband thinks I am crazy. He has a job he actually likes and not just because he gets a paycheck. But he looks forward to the day when he no longer has to put a tie on and go into an office every day. He doesn’t understand it when I say I will never retire, he responds: “You hate your job, why do you want to work forever?”

It is true. I do hate my job. I work for an awful company that cares not one whit for the people who toil for them. I have no peers and sit in a large office all alone for nine hours every day staring at a computer screen and servicing an unhappy, uncooperative client with no expectation of promotion, raise or variety in job function. But I am very concerned about what the next phase will bring. What do you do every day? How do you face getting out of bed? “I’ll find something to do,” he assures me. But I am skeptical. I am as worried about what he will do as I am worried about what I would do.

I have a number of friends, who would love to be working, but were forced into early retirement because of the soft economy. People who have been shown the door because their managers had no trouble figuring out that they can hire talented, untrained young workers at half the price. So what if you have to train them? The simple math is in favor of the younger workers. What do they do all day? I try to figure it out without asking the obnoxious question. The answer is there is plenty to do, but one unintended consequence of leaving the work force before your time is that able bodied, energetic people meet some challenges when they are forced to spend 24/7 with another able bodied energetic person who would be better off with the structure of a full or even part time job.

Hmm…Is retirement all it is cracked up to be? Or should I be figuring out what I should offer to do for free?