When thinking of work, the majority of us conjure stress, office politics, endless meetings, obnoxious co-workers. Surprise — it could all be good for you.
As baby boomers reach retirement age, more are opting to continue to work, whether for economic reasons, or because they simply like to work. That employment can provide more than a paycheck — working, it seems, has pretty good mental and physical health benefits as well. So writes Jeannine Stein in the Los Angeles Times.
A new study in this month's issue of the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology examined data on 12,189 retirees from the Health and Retirement Study, sponsored by the National Institute on Aging. The first four waves of the study (1992, 1994, 1996 and 1998) were included, in which people age 51 to 61 were surveyed about their health, finances, employment history and current work or retirement.
The researchers coined the term "bridge employment" to describe the transition period between full-time work and full-time retirement, in which people work part-time, are self-employed or temporarily employed, Stein writes.
