Putting older people to the test - at work

Can people in their 70s continue to hold down jobs in the workplace? That was the question that was asked by a new two part series on BBC1 and it delivered a mixed response from those who participated in a somewhat revealing exercise.

The programme follows on from a controversial move by the British Government to raise the state pension age and it basically took people in their seventies and threw them into the workplace long after they retired. Some adapted well but there were others who simply couldn’t hack it.

The documentary, entitled The Town That Never Retired, was trying to show what it would be like for people in the seventies to be still holding down a day job but it was slightly unrealistic in that it used people that had retired from their previous professions for up to 10 years and put them back in new jobs.

It wasn’t as if any of the participants had continued working through their mid-sixties as is planned by the British Government – and no doubt Enda Kenny and his gang will be thinking of something similar – but rather they were snatched out of retirement and put into a new working environment.

A retired nurse was put back into a medical centre; a plasterer, electrician and plumber were brought to a building site; a retired secretary was put working as a waitress while two retired folk were sent to an estate agents in the hope that their mature charm would help sell houses.

There was an hilarious moment when the nurse was doing a practice run on one of the staff before being actually let loose on an actual patient. She asked the staff member if she drank much and the reply was that she drank a bottle and a half of red wine a week.

In response the retired nurse advised her that red wine was good for her and that she should limit herself to a couple of glasses each night and could possibly allow a few more at weekends. A young supervisor advised the retired nurse that such advice was not really recommended in this day and age and it was not long before her services were dispensed with.

However, some of the retired tradesmen showed that they were well up to the job although some did admit that they were not ready for 8am starts and working 10 hour days at this stage of their lives. But two of them were kept on the particular contract that they were accommodated as part of the experiment.

The 75 year old woman who was sent to work as a waitress got on extremely well and was seen working serving tables at 11pm when she admitted that she would normally be in bed two hours earlier. She enjoyed herself and would like the opportunity to continue working.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.