Retire at 65? Not this active group

Virginia Sullivan's into her seventh decade and credits her job with "keeping me active". Photo/Stuart Munro

Virginia Sullivan, Bruce Gust and Brian McCarthy share a common thread.

All are over 65 years old but retirement is not a word in their lexicon.

While Brian is a relative newcomer to the Grey Wave movement, Virginia and Bruce have left 65 well behind.

Their story is not unique.

Indeed, data from the 2013 Census revealed that two out of every five people eligible for the Gold Card were still working, either full-time or part-time.

Last year's Census showed that 40 per cent of 65- to 69-year-olds, and just under a fifth of 70- to 74-year-olds, are either working full- or part-time. This is a significant jump since the last head count in 2006.

So how is that happening if the threescore and five-yearers are still perceived by some as doddery, unreliable and unhealthy?

Geoff Annals, a long-time health professional and now chief executive of a health insurance company, is critical of society's expectations that people should retire at 65.

"So long as older people want to, they should continue to have opportunities to continue to contribute their experience, skills and wisdom," he said.

And he said research offered little support for the argument that the over-65s are too unhealthy for employment.

"While older workers tend to be off work longer when they are sick, they are sick less often. They have fewer workplace accidents, and are less likely to suffer from off-work causes of absences such as sporting injuries and they are less likely than younger workers to throw a sickie."

Virginia could tick a lot of those boxes.

She's got NZ Post in her veins, still working for the corporation's Collectables and Solutions Centre (previously called the Philatelic Bureau) in Wanganui after 29 years and before that worked for NZ Post in her home village of Waitotara for another 14 years. That's close to half century of service.

Come July 4, she'll celebrate her 77th birthday but she's still at her desk at the stamps centre in Bates St every day, Monday to Friday, and has no intention of changing that routine.

"The only way I'll go out of here is in a wheelchair. Sure, I have my moments but I enjoy what I'm doing and who I'm working with," she said.

She has other interests away from work but says it's the job that motivates her more than anything.

"It's not a problem for me to come to work and do what I'm supposed to do. A lot of people think because I work in the stamp centre that all I do is sit here all day and lick stamps. It's nothing like that at all," Virginia says.

The centre specialises in commemorative stamps, first day covers and specially minted coins. Part of Virginia's job is compiling stamps packages and getting them ready for sending out to customers.

Away from work she does kapa haka, works with her church and other groups and organisations. But it's her work that is a main interest because "it's keeping me active."

Her husband, Whitu, died nearly 17 years ago when he was 65 and Virginia was five years younger.

"Before Whitu died I had all intentions of retiring at 65 but his death changed my mind. I needed to keep going and that's why I stayed on," she said.

She has seen plenty of colleagues leave when they reached retirement age "but I have a different attitude to them".

A noted singer in her younger days - she and her sister sang with Howard Morrison in the 1950s in Hawke's Bay as the Clive Trio - she assumes the role of entertainment officer.

"Everyone I've worked with and who has left, I organise a send-off. And I've done it a few times now."

Virginia says she doesn't know when she'll be serenaded as she goes out the door one final time.

"It might be getting close. You know when it's come to that part of your journey but for me that's not just at the moment."

Bruce Gust is a year shy of his seventh decade and he shows many of those attributes research is showing up.

The main man on the forklift at Eastown Timber and Fencing, Mr Gust's workday life is full on but that's one of the reasons he loves his job which has has had for almost eight years.

He used to live in Marton and his late wife commuted to her job in Wanganui.

"She persuaded me to shift to Wanganui and it was one of the best things that happened, It was something we should have done years ago," Bruce said.

He's no stranger to the timber business, having worked for the ITM franchise in Marton, and he's also driven trucks and other machinery.

He loves his job at Eastown but said it can be "quite stressful".

"You get trucks and trailers coming in to be unloaded or loaded. Various parts of the yard will want timber such as the treatment plant so I'm on the go," he said.

Bruce's left 65 well behind and knows he could retire if he wanted, but it's not on his radar.

"The big thing is I'm living on my own now and probably if my wife was alive I would have retired. But I enjoy the job. They're a good company to work for and while forklift driving is a demanding job, it's not hard physical labour.

"My health is good, so why not carry on working, And anyway what would I be doing if I retired?"

Bruce said the job also gave him some social contact with this workmates.

"I've got good friends away from here but it's great coming here and having a chat to the boys and the truck drivers who call in regularly."

He said he would like to keep working but "if I find I'm a burden for the company and can't do my job properly then it will be time to step down".

If he did stop full-time work, he said he'd probably be helping out his daughter and her husband. The son-in-law's got a contracting business and often looking for people to give him hand on the machinery.

But for Bruce, 65 is just another number and should never signal the end of a working life.

"It will depend on individual circumstances. And I've heard of a lot of people who've stopped work as soon as they turned 65 and they haven't lasted for long after that either.

"I know when I leave here tonight I've got to get up at a certain time in the morning and get to work.

"The hardest part is getting up in the middle of winter. On a cold, wet day when you can hear the wind howling that's when you wish you were retired.

"But then you get a great sunny autumn day and you think there's no place you'd rather be."

And when he does call it quits expect to see him fishing on South Beach.

Brian McCarthy is a recent arrival to the "65 Club" and another employee at Eastown Timber and Fencing where he has worked for since 2001.

"I've worked in the timber industry all my life and came here from another similar job," he said.

Nowadays his responsibility is making trellis and gates.

He lives on his own but retirement certainly isn't on his horizon.

"As long as you feel fit enough to keep working why would you want to stop?" Brian asks.

"I haven't made any plans about what age I'll retire. I try and keep myself fit and trim and always held to the belief that if you're going to have a beer one day you've got to be prepared to sweat it out the next."

Away from the Wanganui East yard Brian plays indoor bowls and an avid walker with the local harriers club. Come Queens Birthday weekend and he's off to Christchurch, combining family birthday celebrations with a chance to do a half marathon walk.

"People often say to me why don't I retire but I don't feel old and feel good enough to be working so I keep working.

"The main thing is I enjoy what I'm doing here so why would I want it any other way."