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I was catching up with one of my former employees recently, someone who’d been critical to my business for years. She left a few weeks after I sold the company and has moved into a senior managerial role elsewhere. As we were wrapping up our conversation, she laughed and said she had to get back to being a productive member of society. Then she headed off to work.
It was meant as a joke, obviously. But it stuck with me. The implication was clear enough: I’m no longer productive. I’m retired, which apparently means I’ve stopped contributing anything meaningful to the world.
Is that really true, though?
I’m still participating in the economy, my portfolio generates capital gains that I convert into spending on goods and services. That spending keeps people employed just like signing paychecks did, even if it’s less direct.
But I contribute in ways that have nothing to do with money. I childmind my grandkids regularly, which lets my daughters go to work and have something resembling a social life. That’s not nothing. My daughters earn income, pay taxes, and support their own families. None of that happens without me showing up. The ripples from that weekly childminding spread further than I can see.
Beyond family, I’ve found ways to contribute to my wider community. I play racket sports and now help with development courses, encouraging people, young and old, to stay active. I’ve also gotten more involved in teaching financial literacy, helping people in my family and social circle learn to invest and manage their money. I do it because I enjoy it, but there’s real value in it. Society benefits when people are healthier and more financially secure, and I’ve got the time now to help make that happen.
Here’s the part I think we overlook entirely: past contributions don’t just disappear when you retire. They ripple forward. I built a business over nearly three decades that still exists today. It still employs people, still generates wealth, still serves customers, all because of work I did years ago. I’m not actively running it anymore, but my effort continues to matter.
This isn’t unique to me. Think about teachers whose students go on to become engineers, doctors, or entrepreneurs. Think about emergency responders who saved lives that went on to touch countless others. Past contributions echo into the future, shaping society long after we’ve stepped away from our desks.
Maybe the real issue is that we’ve defined productivity too narrowly. We equate it with employment, with earning, with being “on the clock.” But contribution comes in many forms, and some of the most meaningful ones don’t show up in GDP figures or tax receipts.
So when that nagging voice in the back of your mind suggests you’re no longer useful now that you’re retired, reject it. You’re not less valuable because you’re not working. You’re just contributing differently. And if you built something worthwhile in your career, you’re still contributing even when you’re doing nothing at all. The ripples are still spreading. You just can’t always see them.
Right on, Mark. Your thinking hits the bulls eye. I think as a retired electronic engineer, I provide more help to the 325 seniors I live with than when I designed industrial ink jet printers. Those little everyday quirks on your TV, Computer, iPad, Smartphone, etc makes life a little easier for the many. And it is great fun seeing someone day improve.
My father-in-law was an audio, TV and video engineer before he retired. I still get people asking me if he could come to look at a problem…I tell them it’s a bit difficult, he moved to Spain 10 years ago.
First of all, I assume your former colleague was trying to be funny, but that’s a snotty and ageist thing to say to you.
Second, of course you’re still productive in lots of ways that you detailed, both from your present involvement in the economy, your family, and your community, and in your past accomplishments. (That last point made me think about students whom I’ve trained to be teachers who are now training my “grandchildren (students of my students),” books and articles I’ve written that have helped other teachers, the academic journal I was the founding editor of that is now into its 11th volume year, and curriculum I’ve authored. I may be gone and even forgotten by some at the university, but my fingerprints are still there.)
Third, I realized in reading your piece that I don’t even care that much how “productive” I might be going forward. I mean, I do care some because I don’t want to just twiddle my thumbs for the rest of my life, but I was plenty productive during my career and don’t feel that I need to continue to justify my existence to anyone other than myself. I made my contributions, and as you note, they continue to matter.
Great points in your article. I will remember to use these on some of the days I think I’m not doing anything productive that day. Happy holidays!
My CCRC just had it’s annual fund raising and party for our employees. I asked one of them if she had enjoyed the party (very enthusiastic “yes”), and then said that we appreciated them. She replied that they appreciated us, because we were why they had jobs.
I think we can put too much emphasis on “production”. An awful lot of things are produced (like fast fashion) that consume resources and effort without being very useful.
This article could have been written about stay at home moms, too. Loved and agreed with the comments about teachers. Chris
In addition to teachers “whose students go on to become engineers, doctors, or entrepreneurs” I’m exponentially happy when some of my students have gone on to become teachers. 🙂
Very good point. I find it quite bizarre sometimes—I’m good friends with two of my former teachers who are married to each other. Just yesterday, after playing tennis together, I was hugging them and congratulating them on the birth of their first grandchild, which they’d been waiting a long time for.
Yes, talk about the “multiplier effect”; teachers are the gift that keeps on giving. There’s no doctors, engineers, or entrepreneurs without teachers.
It has been 64 years since I graduated high school and I can still name and visualize teachers going back to grammar school who had a significant positive impact on me. I still have a book my 6th grade teacher gave me to thank my father for helping her buy a car. Everything important and lasting I learned from teachers through high school.
It sure wasn’t the calculus professor who struggled speaking English. 🥵
Well, Mark, you’re pretty productive on HD 😎
What was your business, publishing?
Seriously, not sure it is being productive that matters, but contributing and that is a wide field as you noted.
I don’t consider myself productive – except possibly putting shopping carts where they belong – but I still contribute in small ways, like spending money and creating income for others.
Maybe stimulating ideas and providing information on my blog – to a few thousand people counts, but hey, don’t the years of working get any credit?
Definitely not publishing, though I do enjoy spinning a yarn—and really, what’s writing but jotting down a story in words? I imagine the work you did helping retirees during your career is still having a ripple effect today.
Funny you should mention that. Just today a retiree on my old company retiree Facebook page posted this. He reads HD too. The topic was a lack of information now being given to employees.
“They also don’t have a Dick Quinn type person sending out emails with knowledge of various plans and moves that can be made with PIP’s. And overtime monies… my retirement is great bc of many of those emails…Thank you, Sir.”
That’s a great example of the article thesis in reality.
Mark, you made my day. It seems that I’m not an old worthless drag on the economy deadbeat after all!
Strictly talking about money/spending, I asked AI three questions about Gross Domestic Product in the US. How much of the GDP can be attributed to the spending of defined benefit pensions, Social Security income, and IRA distributions. If AI is to be believed, those sources of spending add up to about 11% of GDP. That seems pretty substantial to me.
I wonder what will happen to the economy in the not very distant future if recipients of Social Security see their benefits cut by 30%.
Dan, I’m glad I could clear the “deadbeat” worry up for you. After all, it would have been a very poor show to not only be a deadbeat during your youth but to double down and revisit the condition in your senior years.😜
Oh my, I may be developing a pattern here…..
Even the current population of Capital Hill is not that stupid, although some are considering a replacement for SS modeled after Australia – with a population 10% of the US🤠
How would we even begin to implement Australia’s plan with millions of Americans holding Social Security credits?
Of course we can, Dan. Look how smoothly the replacement of Obamacare has gone!
Good one, Mike!
🤣