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The dangers of post-retirement part-time jobs

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Longevity costs money. Suppose you live to 100. It’s no longer rare. The number of centenarians in Japan stood as of September at 69,785. Suppose, like most people, you retire in your 60s. What will you do for 40 years? What money will you do it on? Your pension? Savings? For some it’s possible. For most, it may not be. Many elderly must work to live. Many elderly want to work. More and more elderly are working part-time. There are advantages and disadvantages in this. The advantages are the monetary boost and the activity. Shukan Post (Oct. 5) looks at the key disadvantage: it can be dangerous.

The dangers are hidden. Stuffing printed advertisements into mailboxes seems benign enough. You’re out in the fresh air, walking around. So far so good, but there are stairs to climb, and in July an 82-year-old man stumbled on one, fell backwards, and died.

That shouldn’t necessarily set off alarm bells. An accident can happen anywhere, anytime. If each one sounded a warning, no one would do anything. But the Silver Human Resource Center, an agency that introduces job-seekers to potential employers, reports 5,701 work accidents in fiscal 2017 among its 710,000 members aged 60 and over – a 6.5-fold increase over four years.

The largest category of mishap, the agency finds, is, not surprisingly, falls – 1,783, among which three were fatal. The second-largest category does seem rather surprising: dog-bites, bee stings and snake bites – 956 episodes, one fatality. Traffic accidents numbered 417, with seven fatalities.

“Mr A,” 72, felt lucky to get a job cutting grass at a country golf course. The scenery was nice, the work physical but light, and the pay would give him the financial elbow room his small pension by itself wouldn’t permit. One day at work he had a “strange feeling.” He paused and looked around. Sure enough, he had stumbled on “a beehive the size of a softball.” The bees seemed engaged in an internecine territorial struggle, of which Mr A ended up collateral damage – he got stung. It was not terribly serious; the pain wore off, but left him with a terror of bees he can’t seem to get over. Still, he’s better off than another elderly grass-cutter – not at a golf course but elsewhere (Shukan Post doesn’t tell us where). Two men were working together. The cutting done, one man tossed bags full of dead grass to the second man on the platform of a pickup truck. “Mr B,” 78, was the second man. Whether because his partner tossed a bag a little too vigorously or for some other reason, Mr B fell out of the truck – fatally.

“Mr C,” 71, took a job as a part-time apartment building superintendent. There wasn’t much to do, but one day he was cleaning the entrance and slipped, spraining his hip. He’ll recover, but for now finds walking difficult.

Then there’s the case of “Mr D,” 73 – rather old, one would think, to be a beach lifeguard, but he accepted the job, and was accepted in turn, and one day in August, rushing into the surf to assist a father and daughter who were being carried off by the tide, drowned.

Post-retirement work is more of a good than an evil. It permits the healthy elderly to be active, useful, financially productive and financially independent. But realize, Shukan Post advises, that in old age we’re not as agile as we once were, our bones are more brittle, and we may not be quite as vigorous as we feel. Work by all means, is the magazine’s message – but know and respect your limitations.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

10 Comments
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A 73 yr old lifeguard !? An accident waiting to happen

4 ( +5 / -1 )

I doubt anyone "accepts" a job as a lifeguard. The Hoff and Pamela Anderson maybe, but they were only pretend ones.

Shukan Post should have got themselves to Nagano. They could have juiced up the story with old timers falling off roofs while shoveling snow or being run over by snowblowers. There'll be a lot worse out there than bee stings.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Is it just me or is there a certain level of stupidity involved in some of these examples...……..

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Meanwhile their counterparts at kasumigaseki collect a healthy sum of money for napping at the Kokkai.

Abenomics at work.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

@GW - It is not at all just you

0 ( +0 / -0 )

73 year old lifeguard? Too old?

As I recall the famed American fitness guru Jack Lalanne

was still swimming and towing people in a

boat (trailing behind) at age 73.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Are you putting your health and life at-risk - attempting physically demanding part-time jobs to add to your pension? Live in comfort and security - earning a FULL TIME income doing part-time work - just once. 

For an invitation AND a valuable BONUS - send a blank email to lpmystore53@gmail.com with the subject line 'Japan'.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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