Retirement Case Studies
Scenario 1:
George is a Customer Service Officer within Service Tasmania’s Burnie Service Centre. George is 60 and has been working for the organisation for 23 years (and in other state government departments prior to that). George is on the triennium leave scheme (this enables 132 full paid personal leave days every 3 years + half pay personal leave days) and is now entering his second month of personal leave.
While doctor’s certificates have been provided, no cause of illness has been provided, nor has an indication of when he will return to work. The Team Leader is concerned that George will continue to use all his personal leave entitlements and then submit his resignation. How does the Team Leader raise the subject of retirement with George?
Scenario 2:
Ruby is a frontline Customer Service Officer within Service Tasmania. She has been working for the organisation since it formed in 1998, so close to 23 years. Ruby is based in the Hobart Service Centre and works 4 days per week. She has made several comments over the past 12 months that she’s thinking of retiring but these have been in passing and she hasn’t discussed her intentions formally with her Team Leader.
Ruby’s Team Leader is unsure whether she should approach Ruby to discuss transitioning to retirement to determine what support can be provided, or whether this would be construed in the wrong way. Ruby’s Team Leader is unsure how to have that conversation.
Scenario 3:
Frank is a frontline staff member working in the Government Contact Centre in Launceston. Frank is 58 and has been working with Service Tasmania for 6 years in a full-time capacity. He has indicated that he would like to transition to retirement but is unsure what that might look like and what options are available to him. Frank’s team leader would like to develop a transition plan that supports both Frank and Service Tasmania but is unsure how to go about this.
Scenario 4:
Amber works in a team of six staff, two of which have recently retired. Amber’s retired colleagues didn’t have a good experience transitioning to retirement (eg: unhappy with the direction the organisation was taking; being refused a block of rec leave prior to their retirement date) and has indicated to her Team Leader that she is worried about notifying the organisation of her intention to retire, as she doesn’t expect to be well supported/have a good experience. How can we best support Amber while also meeting the needs of Service Tasmania?
Discussion Questions
- What questions would you ask?
- What alternatives might be worth exploring?
- How would you monitor and review?
