As I’m very close to finishing my PhD, I often think about my grandparents because they are the reason why I got here in the first place. They are both 83, both still working. Which is very unusual not only by European but by Russian standards in particular. The legal retirement age in Russia is quite early: 60 year – men, 55 - women. It makes sense since life expectancy is also lower and with a significant gap: 62.18 for men and 73.59 for women. The retirement age will increase but, as Putin said: ‘the time had not yet come’.
Pension benefits in Russia depend on how many years you worked. The minimum is around 4,500 roubles per month (£40) but the average by regions is around 11.000 roubles (£110), and it’s higher in the North because of hard life conditions. There is also no guarantee that Russian pension fund is secure. So, for example, the Russian government has admitted that 243 bn roubles (£2.4bn) were taken from the pension fund to help pay for the costs of annexing Crimea.
My grandparents don’t depend on a pension. They have been working since the age of 24, so it’s going to be 60 years next year. They are both physicists and work on radio connections between earth and space. Two weeks ago they sent me a message on Facebook that they got a patent for the antenna they invented that can be used on moon rovers. Being employed at the age of 83 puts them in a very small minority. Knowing what I know about them makes me think that not many older people can be as independent as they are at their age. But I’m biased. They live alone, fully support themselves financially and physically. Age does affect them as well of course and I notice changes; they strike the eye especially because I see them twice a year. I notice, for instance, that my grandma is showing signs of some form of mild cognitive decline. However, it hasn’t affected how her mind functions when she is doing her job. I guess that is because she has been doing an intellectually demanding job for so many years and constantly thinking about her work, it has become a deeply ingrained habit rather like a very well trained muscle. What fascinates me about our brain is that it has an ability to adapt. This gives me hope and my grandparents are a great inspiration to me. That is how I got into studying developmental psychology, focusing on older adults who, I believe, have a chance to continue developing till the very end.
Another interesting and rather obvious observation is the role of learning in their lives. I mentioned that they sent me a message via Facebook, which they don’t like very much because of the size of icons and different ads. But they learned how to use it when I left and we tried to find as many ways of communication as possible. They are very good with devices in general. They use smartphones and iPads, and of course Skype is their favourite app. Learning new things can be uncomfortable because of the fear of failure. This is especially so in old age, when slowness, perhaps as a result of impaired sight or hearing, often induces a reaction of irritation in other people. The need to have instructions repeated can be irritating for the instructor. In my PhD research I organised IT sessions for older people and children, where children were teaching older people how to use different devices. Among all the activities we had the IT one was the most successful.
The story of my grandparents is a single case and I don’t assume that we should all try to emulate them. I don’t know whether continuing in work for this long would increase wellbeing in most older adults, but to my grandparents their work is a part of their routine. It also keeps them moving, their brain is constantly trying to solve some issues and invent something new. I honestly can’t imagine their life without work and nor can they. Not that long ago my grandpa wrote me: “You know I gained a lot with age, in particular - one of my best age achievements is that routine becomes happiness”. I might not quite understand him yet but I believe he is right.
About the Author:
Daria Belostotskaia is a James Martin Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing and a PhD candidate in Vienna University, the faculty of psychology.
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Opinions of the blogger is their own and not endorsed by the Institute
Comments Welcome: We welcome your comments on this or any of the Institute's blog posts. Please feel free to email comments to be posted on your behalf to administrator@ageing.ox.ac.uk or use the Disqus facility linked below.
