A STANFORD RESEARCHERS SAYS WE SHOULDN'T WORK FULL TIME UNTIL AGE 40

It's easy to feel like there's not nearly enough time to get everything done that we need to, and psychologist Laura Carstensen says it is possible to find the time, it's just that life is arranged wrong. Carstensen says rather than working for four decades, we should be planning for marathon careers that last past age 65, but have longer breaks along the way for learning, family needs, and obligations outside the workplace. Carstensen adds, "We need a new model. [The current one] doesn't work, because it fails to recognize all the other demands on our time. People are working full-time at the same time they're raising children. You never get a break. You never get to step out. You never get to refresh... We go at this unsustainable pace, and then pull the plug."

She adds that education and apprenticeships should stretch longer, through the years when many people are raising children, and that full-time work would ideally begin around age 40, and gradually transition to part-time work in the later years, before full retirement around age 80.

(Quartz


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