Approaching 60, should I stay in my current role or accept it’s time to retire?
I’ve been teaching at an FE college for more than 20 years and will be 60 next July. This means I will be eligible to retire and claim my teachers’ pension.
There are many changes taking place at the college, which is looking at merging with other institutions. The job has become very stressful, plus I have diabetes. To claim my pension from July 2017 I have to give between six weeks’ and six months’ notice, which means decision time is looming.
I have no concrete plans of what to do after retirement. Colleagues say I should reduce my teaching hours and carry on. Personally, I want a less demanding role, perhaps as a teaching or learning support tutor.
I don’t know whether I should approach my head or HR to discuss this now. I’m worried this may put doubts in their minds about my competence – and my fitness. Or should I just give in my notice and plan something new? If so, what?
Jeremy says
You are sensibly giving all this serious thought right now rather than waiting for the deadline, but I suspect the luxury of time is causing you to worry too much and see problems where none may exist.
To start with your last question first: should you just give in your notice and plan something new on retirement? Nothing you’ve told me suggests this should be your choice. If you had long harboured the ambition to do something entirely different on retirement you would certainly have mentioned it. You’re sensitive to stress and have diabetes. Although you find your present role unsatisfactory in certain respects, you’re familiar with your college and clearly comfortable there. Your ideal would be a less demanding role that would enable you to stay, so your priority must surely be to see if that’s a real possibility.
I don’t share your concern that discussing post-retirement options with HR (rather than your head) might cause them to question your commitment as a teacher. At this stage you don’t even have to reveal where your inclination lies. It’s entirely reasonable to ask for information, and part of HR’s role is to supply it. You could even depersonalise things by asking: “What are the choices open to people in my position?”
Whatever you learn, it’s bound to help you make the right decision.
Readers say
• Don’t be afraid to be selfish – you seem to have done your stint for your fellow man already. I suggest you take a 100% break from your current working environment and experience life from a different perspective. I started volunteering for Citizens Advice, while a colleague volunteered for the local canal trust doing restorative and maintenance work after 40 years behind a desk!
Good luck. daveginboav
• Phased retirement is an option for those in the teachers’ pension scheme. I was able to step away from a head of department role and take a part-time senior role in another field.
I am now in the last year of the phased bit, my fourth, and it has been wholly positive. I realised how much I leant on the work status, the feeling of effecting change, the title, the daily interactions, but I have naturally distanced myself from that and engineered some creative situations instead, such as editing a book and making a film.
It was a chance to step back and consider what it was I really liked doing as opposed to what I thought I did. I tried a few things that didn’t work out but that’s all part of the fun. frankmills
Is wanting to work in the heritage sector a daydream?
In 2012 I completed a PGCE. After some time on the supply circuit and being unable to obtain a full-time teaching post, I worked from 2014 to this last academic term as a higher-level teaching assistant at a primary school to get some stability and guaranteed pay.
However, though I’ve always wanted to work in education, I aimed for roles outside schools, within libraries or the heritage/arts sector, running education and projects for museums, theatre companies, etc. My degree was in English and history, my two passions.
I spent a year volunteering with the National Trust. Over the past two years I have had at least 10-15 interviews for education officer/librarian roles (out of the at least 50 cross-country jobs I’ve applied for), and each time was told I was a good candidate but the job went to someone with more experience. As my contract has been ended at my last post, I will be returning to a supply agency next week.
At nearly 30, what do I do? Seek further unpaid work experience and continue to apply for education roles within the heritage sector, or is it time to accept this may be a castle in the sky?
Jeremy says
I urge you not to make a decision now that you could well regret for the rest of your working life. The first option you mention, to seek further unpaid work experience and continue to apply for roles within the heritage sector, seems to me the right one. The more experience you have, the better – and at least as valuable, it is also evidence to potential employers of how committed you are to working in this sector. If you can convey that commitment in future interviews (which there will be) you have every chance of finally embarking on the career to which you’ve long aspired.
Readers say
• Continue to look for a mainstream education role and use the holidays to volunteer in local arts organisations. School holidays are the period with strongest demand. I would also suggest you seek help with your interview skills. Your track record suggests there may be issues. JulesMaigret
Do you need advice on a work issue? For Jeremy’s and readers’ help, send a brief email to dear.jeremy@theguardian.com. Please note that he is unable to answer questions of a legal nature or to reply personally.
