The “Work 60+” group after their weekly meeting. Photo by Marilia D. Pereira

A PwC study (2013) forecasted that in 2040 57% of the economically productive population in Brazil would be older than 45 years old. The research listened to 100 companies to analyze how they are preparing to absolve this contingent. The executives said that the main barriers to work with old people were their lack of flexibility, their difficult to engage with technology and their incapability to keep themselves up-to-date. As a positive aspect, they highlighted the opportunities that an intergenerational team can achieve and the fact that old people are more mature, ethical and loyalty. 

From my informants’ perspective, I can say that work is a key issue to their self-steam and sociability. The dream of being retired with full time dedicated to themselves last for one or two years. After that, they feel incomplete and sometimes angry or guilty. Some of they engage in social work as volunteers, as Mauro (71) who teaches dance classes to old people in a catholic parish or Cleo (63) who works once a week in a public hospital helping patients with heart diseases. Others feel they still have a lot of energy but want to try something new. Marta (59), for example, said that at her age she just couldn’t consider herself old, or useless. Because of that, after retiring as a teaching, she became a certificated tourist guide and plans to keep working until her “mind is fine”, and her “body is strong”. John (77) also wants to keep himself productive. He said he feels guilty not to be working during the business hours and he needs to complement his incomes after retirement. He works as a consultant, but he recognizes that “job offers are becoming more and more scarce”. Robert (64) explain that this is the way things work, “companies want the Youngs, so you will be replaced when you become old”. That is the reason why he stopped looking for jobs as a sales manager and started working as an independent realtor and as a Uber driver even after he retired. 

While companies are closing doors to old people, they are creating their own opportunities. Some of them are becoming entrepreneurs as Wania Barreto (63), who is launching a Telemedicine start up, or Veronique Forrat (61) and Marta Monteiro (64), founders at Morar.com.vc, a startup that works as a match-making for people who want to live in cohouses. The cohousing idea was born during “The Reinvention of Work 60+” program, created by Lab 60+ to prepare old people to what they call “the second half of their professional lives”. In practice, the reinvention of work means the reinvention of old people themselves. Their methodology focuses not in their past occupation but in their skills and talents and how they can be useful to market demands. The collective “Work 60+” was also created after this program. Every Monday around 20 people older than 60 years old meet at my field site to discuss how they can offer their expertise to companies in a flexible model of work, more empathetic, collaborative and with fair remuneration. As one of the group founders explain “no one here is looking for a job, we just want to keep working, we want to be part of the game, we know we still have so much to offer”.   

But what could they offer? If we consider that the population over 50 years old is responsible for more than 34% of the annual consumption in Brazil and that 57% of them consider they can’t find products and services that fit their needs, we could say their insights are more valuable than ever. After all, who could know better how to achieve what the silver market needs than the old people themselves?