A New Life: Retirement doesn't suit every one. Sylvia Thompson meets one man who aims to work his way for a very long time.
As the number of older workers in Ireland - and across Europe - continues to increase, many businesses will need to develop new creative ways to help them get the best out of older workers.
Some workers, such as Liam Bluett, a former financial director with a multinational company, will take the decision to change their lifelong patterns of work into their own hands and possibly become a model for others.
After 27 years working with the Canadian multinational company, Nortel, 58-year-old Liam Bluett took a voluntary redundancy package and left his job last year. He says he simply didn't want to continue working full-time until retirement but instead wanted to create a new way of working that would allow him to work well beyond the standard retirement age.
"I hope I will work beyond the age of 80 and I decided that this was the right time to develop the skills that will help me plan my work into the future," he says. And what initially seemed like a radical step was, in fact, a carefully thought-out decision that had been reflected on for some time.
"I had been saving towards this decision and my wife, Annette, who is a lecturer at the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology [ GMIT] fully supported me. I wanted to spend more time with our children, Kate (21), Rory (18) and Fiona (17). I wanted to do community work and do further study," he says.
And so he designed a business plan for himself, dividing his time into four segments: paid mentoring work with young entrepreneurs; voluntary work; time with his family; and studying. He began a three-year course in psychotherapy last year.
Reflecting on his work in Nortel, he says: "Nortel was one of the first multinational companies to come to the west of Ireland and I worked for them during the period of accelerated growth through the 1980s and 1990s. Galway itself was growing and expanding during those years too.
"I learned a lot and the company expected a lot from its workers. I often worked late into the evening, at weekends and during the Christmas holidays," he says.
The Canadian telecommunications manufacturer paid its employees good salaries and Bluett admits that he was "seduced by the buzz" of working for an expanding multinational company.
"I was quite a good manager. We all worked in one big office and wanted to do the best we could. I saw people blossom and take up opportunities in places like San Francisco, Hong Kong and across Europe but I never wanted to uproot my family and move away from Galway."
During his time at Nortel, Bluett was a regular theatre-goer and was instrumental in Nortel's sponsorship of the Galway Arts Festival for a number of years. He was also a board member of the Galway Civic Trust.
He says his decision to leave his job in Nortel was fuelled by a desire to give something back to the community after years of full-time work.
Since last year, he has joined the board of the Galway Volunteering Centre, the Alan Kerins African Project (which gives monetary and practical aid to an orphanage run by the Presentation Nuns in Zambia) and, most recently, the Rape Crisis Centre in Galway.
In a fortuitous turn of events, Bluett has also been able to combine his desire for community involvement with part-time work as the new chief executive officer of the Céifin Centre, based in Shannon, Co Clare.
Céifin, which was founded by Father Harry Bohan, has been making its mark on Irish society through its annual conferences held in Ennis, Co Clare since 1998. This year's conference, Freedom - licence or liberty? - engaging with a transforming Ireland - will explore the impact of the economic boom and our developing multicultural society on the Irish and immigrants alike.
"Father Harry Bohan is very concerned that people are too busy to connect with other people and in this year's conference we will be looking at how people have more freedom to do things but asking if they are really free. The pace is so fast now and people get comfort from being busy and are uncomfortable with reflection," says Bluett.
Reflecting on his own change of pace, he says, "I've had to learn how to be comfortable with not being busy all the time. Many people who change their jobs go 100 per cent into something else and become exhausted by their new work. People get great satisfaction from being wanted and being busy. I hope the path I've chosen will allow me to continue working longer," says Bluett.
Freedom - Licence or liberty? engaging with a transforming Ireland is the theme of this year's Céifin conference in the West County Hotel and Conference Centre, Ennis, Co Clare on November 7th and 8th. Contact Liam Bluett on tel: 061 365912 or e-mail ceifinconference@eircom.net for more information. See also www.ceifin.com