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Retirement on the Line: Age, Work, and Value in an American Factory

Caitrin Lynch

4.29 · Rating details · 7 ratings · 2 reviews

In an era when people live longer and want (or need) to work past the traditional retirement age, the Vita Needle Company of Needham, Massachusetts, provides inspiration and important lessons about the value of older workers. Vita Needle is a family-owned factory that was founded in 1932 and makes needles, stainless steel tubing and pipes, and custom fabricated parts. As p

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Paperback, 272 pages

Published April 17th 2012 by Ilr Press

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Mar 23, 2012 Caren rated it really liked it

Shelves: adult-nonfiction

I can't get this book out of my mind. I had never heard of the Vita Needle Company, but I now see it as an alternate path to a meaningful old age in our culture. My bachelor uncle spent his last ten years in a nursing home, hungry for engagement and meaning in his life. My mother lived her last years in a "retirement community", a not unhappy place, but one in which her age cohort seemed to me to be segregated from our society at large. Isn't there a better alternative? The author, a cultural an I can't get this book out of my mind. I had never heard of the Vita Needle Company, but I now see it as an alternate path to a meaningful old age in our culture. My bachelor uncle spent his last ten years in a nursing home, hungry for engagement and meaning in his life. My mother lived her last years in a "retirement community", a not unhappy place, but one in which her age cohort seemed to me to be segregated from our society at large. Isn't there a better alternative? The author, a cultural anthropologist and college professor, spent five years researching this book, part of that time actually working on the line with the seniors. She shares intimate portraits of the employees, of why they are working and what they have gained from this opportunity. She explores whether the company is exploiting the fact that , because these employees are old enough to receive Medicare, it need not pay for health insurance or other benefits. The majority of the employees are part time at relatively low pay, BUT they do receive a generous Christmas bonus that is based on how well the company has done that year (a sort of profit sharing), and their hours are entirely flexible. (Ms. lynch gives the example of a gentleman who often wakes up in the wee hours of the morning, unable to go back to sleep. He simply gets dressed and heads off to work, having his own key and clocking in, no supervision required. The workers, in fact, seem to care deeply about their work, even though they joke that they are "making money for Fred", the factory owner.) Some do work because they need the extra money, but many work in order to feel useful again and for the camaraderie they develop with fellow workers. They admit to feeling like a family. The factory, a family owned business begun during the Depression, is successful, despite the fact that they employ more workers than needed to allow for some to be off at any one time, and despite the fact that machines could possibly do some of the tasks. A German film company made a documentary , "Pensioners Inc." , about the company because , in Europe, after retirement age, it would be nearly unheard of for someone to work. Because the film was seen in other European countries, Vita Needle has attracted a steady stream of journalists. Even in this country, this is an unusual business model. With the wave of baby boomers poised to wash across our society, it is perhaps a model that needs to be studied and discussed at length. (I read an advance copy of this text, which I received through Netgalley.) ...more

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Jun 14, 2012 University of Chicago Magazine added it

Shelves: ssd

Caitrin Lynch, AM'92, PhD'00
Author

From our pages (Sept–Oct/12): "The median age of the employees at the family-owned Vita Needle Company of Needham, Massachusetts, is 74. As people live longer and want—or need—to work past the traditional retirement age, Vita Needle follows an unusual business model, seeking out older workers. In a five-year study of the company, Olin College anthropologist Caitrin Lynch examines societal assumptions about aging and employment alongside the implications of Vita ...more

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