Retiring in a white coat: Doctors working after retirement

Abstract

Work constitutes a central component of a person's identity. Retirement, which is a significant change in life, also affects the way one's identity is established upon entering this new stage in life. Continuing to work after retirement enables individuals to maintain their professional identity alongside their retirement identity, thus facilitating the transition and entry into a new stage of life. The current study uses in-depth interviews to examine post-retirement working among Israeli doctors who have retired over the past few years but continue to work. The findings show that doctors have difficulty shedding their professional identity since the medical profession was, and still is, central to their overall identity. They thus experience retirement as a forced event rather than a desirable transition. However, by continuing to work, they preserve their status as doctors, which imparts a feeling of still being needed and thus enhances their self-image. Working beyond retirement allows doctors to put off the advent of old age and to avoid self-definition as retired persons, thus allowing them to preserve their professional status and hybrid identity.