This thread is in response to comments from the following thread: https://www.nairaland.com/6910634/hr-expert

When I joined the labour force in Canada after years of working in the same industry in Nigeria, the first thing that struck me was the fact that hierarchy was very fluid. You will see your boss suddenly downgrading and taking a lower role, thereby becoming your junior, and no one will bat an eyelid.

Coming from Nigeria, this seemed very strange and difficult to understand as I was used to people working while getting promoted and retiring at their peak to go live out their old age in supposed peace with friends and family.

When I braved it to as my experienced manager why this was happening, she was kind enough to break it down into bits for me. Turned out she herself was a Vice President at some point before downgrading to become a manager.

Her explanation:
Life is a cycle and it varies from human to human. As you grow on the job, you require more strength to keep performing at the expected level with each elevation. When you get to a position where you are personally unable to keep up and it feels like your age, health, relationships, etc., are being affected by position, the best thing is to downgrade to a level with acceptable stress to you.

So in the real sense of it, Canadians never retire. You only adjust to your strength level and keep adjusting until you die.

This is done for the following reasons:

1. You have acquired a great wealth of knowledge by working in the industry for a long time and have invaluable transferable skills which you will pass on to new hires ( who are also going to become leaders soon). This experience will go to waste if you just retire and become idle when you still have the strength and stamina to continue working, and this will cost the company in terms of lost human assets , retraining costs and time.

2. At the supposed age of retirement, you might have little to no family /friends around you to keep you company and help you enjoy the supposed retirement. Spouse might be dead/divorced/incapacitated; kids will have grown and left home to start their own lives; friends might have moved on with their lives, changed locations or even be busy with their jobs.
If you force such an individual to retire, you are only preparing them for depression and early death. But letting them do a job at their capacity will ensure they still have a tomorrow to look forward to and something to wake up for.

3. The individual will still be useful to the society as he/she will earn income and pay tax. As such, there will be less dependence on the pension and more funds for government/private sector spending.

4. Keeping the individual busy will also help with their health as their brain will keep functioning and their muscles will be put to use constantly. Their health will decline at a gradual rate as they age unlike the rapid health decline most Nigerian retirees suffer once the retire. Thats why there are more aged people in the the spheres that practice this type of retirement than in Africa.

So reading through the comments in that thread, I feel there is a need for social reorientation in the aspect of labour and retirement.

The man should be encouraged to look for another job and be active, as long as he is still physically fit and healthy to continue working.

I understand that unemployment is off the roof in Nigeria but experienced manpower should no longer be allowed to go to waste. Rather than the discouraging comments, the individual should be advised on areas and ways to apply his experience outside the civil service.

If not for the present unemployment levels, such an individual should not retire yet.

I rest my pen

Well, this is obtainable in a saner clime. We shall get there