Involuntary Retirement: The Role of Restrictive Circumstances, Timing, and Social Embeddedness

Abstract

This study examined perceptions of involuntary retirement. We investigated the extent to which differences in how retirement is perceived stem from differences in (a) restrictive circumstances, (b) the older worker's preferences for retirement, (c) timing, and (d) social embeddedness. Using multiactor panel data from 778 Dutch older workers who experienced the transition into retirement, we estimated an ordered logistic model to explain perceptions of involuntary retirement. This study showed that the way in which a person experiences retirement from the labor force is not influenced solely by factors that diminish the older worker's amount of choice (health and organizational constraints) but also relates to the older worker's social environment (social timing and social network influences). The way he or she frames the retirement transition in social relationships within the family and at work affects the older worker's subjective experience of retirement.