Spirituality for Sustainable Careers and Successful Aging at Work Over the Lifespan

Abstract

As the aging of the population puts at risk retirement pension systems worldwide, the aim of this conceptual paper is to shift scholarly attention from workers “growing old” to “growing whole over the lifespan,” answering a provocative research question: What if spirituality allowed workers to remain in the labor market with more sustainable careers so that full retirement would become necessary only due to cognitive and/or physical declines in older age? The model posits that spirituality can foster sustainable careers over the lifespan at three levels: consciousness (individual, transcending identity), connectedness with all beings on Earth (interpersonal, transcending mattering), and wholeness with the Universe or a higher power (transpersonal, transcending meaning). These levels ultimately contribute to successful aging at work from a younger age by allowing individuals to enjoy retirement’s traditionally associated psychological benefits over the lifespan. Boundary conditions at the broader societal, organizational, and individual levels are discussed. By uniting the careers and spirituality at work literatures, this paper contributes to expand the definition of successful aging currently limited to older workers into a lifelong continuous effort, in an invitation to reframe individuals’ psychological need for retirement beyond that of a compensation or escape from an unsustainable career.