Joseph White, who lives in Nashville, lost his job at Guitar Center six months into the pandemic. But he says he’d had enough: The store was constantly short-staffed and customers were intractable. In one instance, a shopper pulled a gun on him for trying to enforce the company’s mask mandate.
“I’m tired, I’m broken down, worn out and old,” the 62-year-old said. “I was worked to death for so long that finally, I said, there’s no way I’m going back.”
He’s begun drawing on Social Security payments to make ends meet, and helps his wife run her small shop, Black Dog Beads. But White says he has no intention of joining the labor force again.
“Our quality of life is far better even though we have less income,” he said. “I got tired of being a commodity.”
Reinvent jobs to be attractive to the 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 every day & the worker shortage is partially solved. Retirees will pursue encore work on their own terms, e.g, working remotely, 3-4 days a wk, unpaid leave opps, etc. #writingcommunity https://t.co/dDU79XuQRR
— J.B. Watson, Jr., Ph.D. (@GWashingtonInde) September 17, 2022