Government employees anticipate retirement years -- even decades -- before they can actually walk out the door with the reasonable expectation of a retirement annuity coming the next month. However, some people can’t stay away from public service. They relate to Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) in The Godfather: Part III when he says, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” Many government employees are return-to-work retirees who draw a retirement annuity at the same time they draw a salary.
There are many reasons a person might give up the retirement lifestyle to return to public service at the same or a similar government organization. Here are a few of the more common ones.
All Part of the Plan
The first reason government retirees might come out of retirement back to public service is they might have planned it all along. Most government employees can retire at a relatively young age. Their age and years of service add up quickly to make them eligible for retirement.
Government employees do not have to retire when they are eligible, but some do so to access their annuities. Since they have built a career in public service, government employees naturally gravitate toward public service jobs if their retirement is only on paper. They know government work and are qualified to do it.
A New Challenge
As mentioned above, some people come back to government service knowing exactly what they want to do. Some people leave public service wanting to do something else entirely. They want a new and different job, but they don’t know precisely what they want.
Because they know the government hiring process, they can get into a government organization more easily than into a private sector or nonprofit employer.
A school teacher might become a social worker; a firefighter could become a public information officer; or a contract manager may land a job as a recreation coordinator. People who want a new challenge and have a steady retirement income have no problem starting at the bottom. They want to find new areas of interest, learn new skills and be productive in ways they never have been before.
Need that Paycheck
Another reason a government employee might retire and come back is that the employee needs the salary to supplement the retirement annuity. Some government employees neglect their personal savings and therefore wind up with a teetering three-legged stool of government retirement. This stool metaphor illustrates how government employees need retirement plans, personal savings and Social Security to have a stable retirement. A miscalculation of ongoing post-retirement expenses, poor investment returns and failure to invest enough money can all lead to insufficient personal retirement savings.
I’m So Bored!
Some government employees return to public service because they get bored in retirement. The lifestyle just doesn’t suit them. After years of being apart 40 to 50 hours a week, spouses might not know what to do with each other being together all the time week after week. Perhaps hobbies do not provide the intellectual stimulation work provides. Maybe these new retirees miss work more than they thought they would. A government employee might not realize this until after hanging up the employee identification card/security badge.
Some people are happy working until they can physically or mentally no longer work. And even then, they still want to keep going. Sadly, some have to be pushed out because they can no longer perform a job’s essential tasks. When this happens, everyone involved with the employee hopes that employee has the emotional and financial stability to retire for good.
<Source: govcareers.about.com>
