Retirement from active service after a defined period at work is a compulsion that many employees thought would never come. After fruitful years of meritorious service, the worker attains the golden age , and must return home to rest in preparation for old age to enjoy the fruit of his/her labour and work towards fulfilling other opportunities that couldn’t be realized in active service days.
Unfortunately, that dream looses it luster when retirement is not properly envisaged and it becomes characterized with stress, dejection, frustration and depression.
One clear reality is that transition to retirement reshapes and transforms the workers life completely because such transformation could result in positive or negative stress as it could be disruptive or empowering, hence every retiree must design a plan to remain engaged after retirement. But many employee thought retirement would never come , hence the attendant reality shock and subsequent stressful consequences .
Retirement should be a period of enjoyment not stress, hence the need for effective understanding of the stressors. The three basic retirees stressors are health, housing and boredom. Others include improper savings , unstable governmental policies, shabby implementation of governmental policies, whereby the main government policy for stress free retirement is gratuity and pensions which unfortunately, doesn’t come handy and the implementation of the pension scheme B. The pension Board is marred with fraud and irregularities . This hardly Dawn on workers until imminent retirement is glaring .
The role of retiree in retirement stress management is, foremost to think positive and enter full retirement with hope and not pessimism. Others include Remaining Engaged like designing a plan to remain busy and as occupation keeps one active while docility create negativity of the mind. This could include practical participation in the activities of any political party of your choice , teaching , community services coaching sports teams and greater involvement in church group activities goes a long way. Another is to reduce expenses like downsizing in all spending and going low profile; Get Advice to reduce your burden: create relaxation to reduce stress, anxiety and depression ; Self empowerment Training for self- sponsored entrepreneurial development programmes to prepare ones self ahead of retirement and save for retirement.
Retirement is ordinarily the time to start ripping the fruits of ones labour at youth. It is not a punishment, neither is it a period of excruciating stress. Retirement could be fun, depending on the extent of preparedness for it . Creating additional income generating outfit should be considered at least ten years earlier as starting something with retirement benefits could be risky due to business maturity time and the time danger of adjustments before perfection in business ventures. Again, places of work must remain memorable and should not be looked back as a death trap, hence, workers must relate with all categories of staff with good heart as they will remain custodians of the office in your absence and those to meet for solutions when visiting the office years after retirement. Therefore , retirement stakeholders collectivism in managing retirement stress is necessary for those who have committed their youth to services to enjoy stress free retirement. The Nigerian government and private organization should consider the American model of abolishing retirement age, as working longer creates a healthier , happier and more mentally fit society.
