Rehirees

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Steve from San Diego.

Hi, Steve. Welcome.

Thank you.

I am looking for a word and was wondering if you could help me.

Sure, we’ll give it a try.

Okay, both my wife and myself are in our 50s, and my wife is leaving her company of 25 years, and the term they use for that process is retiring, which is a word she absolutely hates. I am also reducing the hours that I work in my job, and we are both looking to see what we might do with the time we now have. My wife will possibly be doing consulting work, possibly looking at other careers, and I will be doing similar sort of things, and retirement just doesn’t seem to be the right word. And all we can think of are other words that seem not a whole lot better, like transition. We’re going through a transition that doesn’t seem to work.

Yeah, that’s not very sexy. Sounds like you’re changing genders.

Yeah. Did you have any other candidates?

Not really. None that have really come to mind. Let me throw a couple things at you and see how these sound. These are words that I’ve come across in my word hunting.

Oh, really?

I keep an eye on slang and new words.

How about rehirement? It’s a play that works on retirement. The idea is that you’re actually, you know, you’re going, your wife is still going to do a job somewhere.

She’s still going to be working.

Maybe.

So then would they be rehirees rather than retirees?

I still think it’s too job dependent.

What about freetirement? Because that indicates that you are now going to have some free time.

Possibly a little too cute for me.

But alright, here’s something that’s a little different. But this is used within the headhunting industry to describe somebody who, say, moves from a job as CEO of a cell phone company and becomes, say, a CFO of a parts wholesaler. So they’re still moving from high level job to high level job, but they’re in very different industries, and the focus of their work is different. And that is called repotting. R-E-P-O-T-T-I-N-G.

The same way that you might repot a plant?

What do you think, Steve?

Well, since my wife is an avid gardener, that has some somewhat appropriate, but no.

No, not for that one.

No, I think I’m a difficult case here. I mean, somehow being compared, you know, visualizing myself as being put in a clay pot and surrounded with dirt, it’s just not quite doing it for me.

Well, Steve, what do you think are the most important aspects of this state?

Well, I think retirement is somewhat static and limited and seems to be all about a job. You either have a job and then at some point you don’t. And I think what we’re looking for is and looking forward to is something that’s more dynamic and open-ended and may involve an actual paying job. It may involve consulting. It may involve short jobs or working on specific projects or things. And that’s what we’re trying to get some difference between that and retirement.

Right.

So it’s more about freedom and liberation and choices and that kind of thing.

Yes, and basically not being you either have a job or you don’t. And you either work or you sit in a chair.

Well, and you’re also in a particular stage of life.

Yes.

I don’t have anything else here.

I don’t.

No, yeah.

Well, it’s not an easy question, and I think it’s kind of a new concept in a way. Friends of ours who are 65 or so have no problem with the term retirement.

Oh, really?

Yeah. And they are retiring, and they have no problem with it. I think it’s somewhat that we’re younger and we see jobs and the role of work differently.

Well, this sounds like one to throw out to the listeners.

That sounds good to me.

Well, here it is, 1-877-929-9673 and words@waywordradio.org. Send us an email or call us and let us know what you think that Steve should call his new career.

Let’s call it.

Yeah, I don’t know.

That sounds great.

All right.

Thanks a lot.

Thank you for your call.

Bye-bye.

Thank you.

Join in the discussion here, 1-877-929-9673, or email us. The address is words@waywordradio.org.