There was a time when turning 50 at work meant receiving a well-rehearsed speech, a gold watch and a polite nudge out the door. You were suddenly too old to innovate, too tired to hustle and expensive to keep.
Retirement was seen as a slow fade into irrelevance – golf courses, rocking chairs and early bird discounts.
That, my friends, is a myth long overdue for retirement itself.
We need to rebrand retirement.
Let’s be honest. The world of work has shifted dramatically.
Millennials now make up most of the workforce; Gen Zs are fast catching up and baby boomers? Many are still showing up sharp, competent and seasoned.
Ironically, while companies once rushed to swap experience for energy, they’re now grappling with leadership gaps and shallow benches. The seasoned players still have a few championship plays up their sleeves.
What we have today is “Old school thinking, new world problems.”
It used to be that hitting your mid-50s meant exiting the main stage. Executives were politely “off-ramped” in favor of younger, cheaper, supposedly more agile hires.
The assumption? Older leaders lacked the fire to keep up with digital disruption, rapid innovation and agile working methods.
But many fail to see that maturity brings resilience, wisdom and a deep intuition that can’t be taught in a crash course – or downloaded from an app.
Today, many organizations are waking up to a bitter truth: the retirement rush has left them talent-starved at the top. Senior professionals were shown the door when their strategic clarity and people savvy were most needed.
Experienced leaders don’t just know how the business works – they feel it.
They carry the institutional memory, the relationships, the cultural nuance and the subtle understanding of what makes the engine run.
You can’t Google that. You can’t fast-track that in a six-month onboarding plan.
Case in point: A regional bank that retired most of its senior managers in favor of younger digital natives ended up hiring three retirees as consultants within a year.
“We didn’t know how much they knew until we had to Google everything they used to do by instinct,” said one senior VP sheepishly.
The seniors should not be treated as just a headcount – but a heartbeat.
To be fair, the golden generation can still shine – as long as they’re not stuck polishing their trophies from 1998.
But if they stop learning and start treating change like a threat, well… let’s just say their retirement party was fashionably late.
Unfortunately, pulling them back as consultants often feels like a band-aid, not a real solution. It’s ad hoc, transactional and frankly, it sends the wrong message: “You’re valuable, but only if you’re out of the system.”
Retirement isn’t a complete stop. It’s a new chapter.
If retirement used to mean an end, today it should mean a pivot – a transition, a reimagining of contribution.
We are living longer, healthier lives. A person in their 60s or 70s today can still lead strategy sessions, mentor rising stars and drive innovation.
Consider this: Peter Drucker published his last book at 94. Colonel Sanders started KFC at 65. And if you think age slows down tech-savvy, look up Masako Wakamiya, who developed her first iPhone app at 81.
The truth?
The fire doesn’t die. It just needs a platform.
Here are the reasons why the old retirement model no longer works:
1. We’re living longer: Retiring at 60 and living to 90 means three decades of productivity potentially wasted.
2. Shallow leadership bench: Younger talent is often not ready or willing to step up. There’s a missing middle.
3. Evolving identity: For many, work is not just a paycheck – it’s a sense of purpose.
4. Knowledge drain: When seasoned leaders leave, they take invaluable insights with them.
So, what do we call this new era? How should we rebrand retirement?
Let’s not call it retirement.
Let’s call it:
· “Professional renaissance”
· “The encore chapter”
· “Act II leadership”
These aren’t people fading out – they’re warming up for a new role. The titles may change, but the impact can be just as powerful.
Maybe it’s time for a “Returnship,” a structured program that invites experienced professionals to transition into mentoring, advisory or coaching roles.
Or how about “Legacy leadership labs,” where veterans partner with next-gen talent to build bridges instead of silos?
The saying “You don’t retire from something; you retire to something” holds true.
Companies need to shift their perspective on retirement from a polite departure to a strategic transformation.
The goal is not to retire from competition – but to transform the game’s rules.
So, let’s not retire retirement.
We should rebrand it – with purpose, power and a punchline that still packs wisdom.
Experience costs nothing. Wasted experience is.
(Stay tuned for the launch of Francis Kong’s new YouTube and podcast channel – KONGVERSATIONS. Where sharp minds meet smart talk – one meaningful conversation at a time).
