Not Shy Or Retiring

The Age

Saturday July 26, 2008

Josh Jennings

THE prospect of jetting to exotic holiday destinations, taking in midweek rounds of golf and passing breezy afternoons poolside might be enough to lure some people into retirement, but not electrical engineer Phil Bannister.

Why? Because retiring now would make him "bored stupid".

Mr Bannister, 66, says he has lots of interests outside of work, "but I like the challenge of doing engineering and I don't think I'd like to give that up for 100% leisure time".

"My brain is clear, I'm still reasonably fit and I don't feel tired, but I wonder whether a lot of people feel tired and want to sit in front of the fire and twiddle their thumbs," he says. "I never feel like that - I still go riding and kayaking and hiking in the bush, and you can do that whether you're retired or working."

Mr Bannister is one of a growing number of Australians who feel this way about retirement, according to 2007 data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. More than 850,000 workers aged 55-59 were in the workforce last year, almost double the number of a decade ago, and almost half of Australians in their early 60s were working last year, compared with a third a decade ago.

Mr Bannister, an electrical engineer with Production Services Network (PSN), an independent international service contactor to oil and gas and other process industries, works nine days a fortnight, up to 10 hours a day, and says he's glad that doing his job is about a lot more than merely paying the bills.

"If you love what you do, it makes a huge difference," he says. "I'd say we're in a situation where we have an awful lot of people doing what they do because it's a way to pay the bills, but I enjoy the fact that in my job every project is different and you're dealing with a new set of conditions every time, which keeps my interest."

Professional group Engineers Australia estimates that 70,000 Australian engineers will retire by the time of the 2011 census, but only about 45,000 engineering graduates will enter the profession, going by the current rate of admission. The industry has an ongoing agenda to better use the mature-age talent pool, and a growing body of research supports the idea that traditional retirement ages should not be a barrier for people who want to keep working.

Mr Bannister says one way he adds value to PSN is by providing guidance for younger people. The company has a mentoring program to guide the young engineers. "I have a policy of helping people wherever I can in growing in their engineering," he says. "It means that they get confidence a lot earlier than they would otherwise."

To create a supportive environment for its mature-age employees, PSN offers flexible working hours, company-sponsored medical checks and free financial planning advice in areas such as superannuation. MrBannister says it's important for employers to offer mature-age staff attractive working conditions in today's job market. "If you get known in the industry, people will snap you up from one job to the next. I often have people ringing me and asking what I'm doing because they have such and such on. It's fairly common." -- JOSH JENNINGS

© 2008 The Age

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