I guess everything is harmful to health if we don't understand something, haven't researched it or mis-understood what it really meant. After all, 'retirement' means a whole host of things to different people simply because of our age and our attitude towards it.
Gone are the days when we signed off from a company with our gold carriage clock having emptied our desk and said our farewells to all those we had spent the last thirty years or so with.
Retirement is a phase of life. Speak to someone who has the very best job for them and they may not even believe they are working; they just do each day what they've always wanted to do. I saw Eddie Izzard the other night and he said the same thing and other comedians have commented on the notion of having a 'job' whereby you make people laugh.
There needs to be some context in this BBC report and indeed the research they are commenting on. Retirement is a personal thing. Some of us may well never fully stop working because that is the way we want it to be. We may have the perfect mix of leisure and work that ensures we have our minds occupied in varying ways. Some will be happy to have each and every day to themselves with no work at all, but they won't be bored.
It is too an emotive subject to be backed up by research in my opinion; far to too subjective. It carries so many generalisations that inevitably we get tagged in every sentence. I believe in research, but this leaves me cold I'm afraid and I'd love to know what you think.
My view is a simple one. Don't be seduced by the headline; read an article as if it was addressed to you and you alone and then decide if in fact it's worth the paper it's printed on.
And on that note, I shall retire for a cuppa!
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