‘We’re competing with retirement age people now’: Worker alarmed after new hire turned out to be woman in her 60s

SINGAPORE: One Singaporean worker got quite the surprise after discovering that the newest addition to their company was a woman in her 60s.

On Monday (Jun 29), the worker took to Reddit with a post titled, “We’re competing with retirement-age people now,” saying they could hardly believe that so many older Singaporeans were still clocking in for work.

“It’s UNBELIEVABLE! We always talk like the job market is young adult vs young adult. But now it feels like we are also competing with the OLDER GENERATION who are coming back into the workforce because retirement is apparently not retirement anymore.” 

“Even uncle and auntie also cannot rest. It made me feel damn sian. Now I’m thinking… Compete for 40 years, then come back and compete again?

That said, the worker admitted they could hardly blame the new hire.

With the cost of living climbing, they reckoned the old lady was probably “just trying to survive” like everyone else.

“Maybe she still has bills, family, rent, medical stuff… who knows.”

“My colleague said the boss is smart because hiring older workers can possibly get g@v support/grants. I don’t know how much, but the thought itself is quite depressing.”

As per the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), employers who hire Singaporean workers aged 60 and above can receive wage offsets of up to 7% under the Senior Employment Credit (SEC) for wages paid between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2027, provided eligible employees earn up to S$4,000 a month.

Additionally, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) says employers can also receive up to S$125,000 under the Part-time Re-employment Grant (PTRG) if they offer “part-time re-employment, other flexible work arrangements (FWAs) and structured career planning (SCP)” for senior workers.

Four people had resigned

The worker went on to explain that four employees had resigned from the company about a month earlier, and the new hire joined a week ago to replace one of them.

“When she walked in, I was shocked. She looked much older than what I expected for this role. Full white/grey hair, petite, wearing specs, very quiet kind of vibe. In my head, I was like… wait, is she in her 40s? 50s? 60s?”

They added that they only found out roughly how old she was after a colleague accidentally saw the first part of her NRIC number and used ChatGPT to estimate her age, concluding that the new employee was likely in her 60s.

According to the worker, the role is a client-facing corporate secretarial position involving “clients chasing, deadlines, documents, calls, meetings, all the usual blah blah blah nonsense.”

As it is not “exactly the most relaxing job,” they wondered how the new hire would cope with the demands of the role.

Curious whether this was an isolated case or part of a wider trend, they asked fellow Singaporeans: “Anyone else seeing more older workers returning to office jobs lately?”

“Most old people retire and get incredibly bored”

In the comments, many Redditors said the rising cost of living has made it much harder for older Singaporeans to stay retired

“Many older generation thought it was an enough sum to retire back then, they did not account for GST to go up twice and the economy to raise prices anytime they like,” one user wrote.

“Because of rising cost of living, more elderly have to reenter the workforce, that’s why retirement age keeps increasing,” another said.

“Can’t tell what’s worse, the competition or the fact the competitors are at retirement age and still have to work,” a third remarked.

Others, however, said it is not always about money. They pointed out that many seniors choose to keep working because they enjoy having something to do, meeting people, and staying active.

“Most old people retire and get incredibly bored. Some never retired. My mother is 70 and is not retired because according to her, if she can still work, why should she retire. My dad retired but then keeps doing work. They don’t need the money,” one commented.

“To be fair, retirement can get quite restless. Atleast at work you get to interact with people more,” another added./TISG

Read also: ‘Every farewell lunch turns into a complaint session’: Employee describes workplace