“Aging? That doesn’t mean anything to me”
For years, Aleid Smid (69) ran her own television company in the Gooi region with her partner. In 2018, they changed course. Aleid went back to her roots, first professionally and later geographically. So she picked up her old work as a kindergarten teacher again and moved to her native soil in the far north, the tiny Groningen village of Den Andel. A village that - although aging enormously - is anything but dormant.
To get right to the point: aging is a term Aleid would rather say goodbye to. “It is a meaningless container term in which people lump everyone together. But one person is not the same as the next. Take Den Andel as an example. We have quite a lot of people over 65 here. But when we talk about the elderly, they have to be at least 85+!” she laughs. “We have a vibrant community. People can and do an awful lot and I think you should also look at the Netherlands in that way. So, aging? That doesn’t mean anything to me.”
Discarded by society
APG economist Lafeber argues in his vision of the aging labor market that working longer should be encouraged. Aleid nuances this, because the fact that people would not “want” to continue working longer is not the problem as far as she is concerned. “I was very active until I was 67. Then I was allowed to retire. People then look at you as if you no longer count. Under the guise of: now you don’t have to do anything anymore. But to me that feels like I don’t get to do anything anymore. Society tells you that you are finished. That’s how the system is set up; earning money is hardly possible anymore. Well, too bad. I’ll just do things my own way.”
Looking at what someone is able and willing to do
It seems to Aleid that if you still want to work, your competencies hardly matter anymore. She shares her experience. “A senior employment agency offered me low-level work. For example, sitting behind a counter or taking children to school. They don’t take into account what someone is willing and able to do. That’s a very strange feeling. As if your knowledge no longer matters. I was also offered to stay two days a week at the school I was teaching at. The salary? The maximum volunteer allowance of 1,900 euros per year. That is not being taken seriously. I can get by on my pension, a shared partner’s pension and some supplementary policies. But saving is no longer an option.”
Great labor potential among retirees
As the labor force continues to shrink, the current method of keeping people working seems flawed and demotivating. Aleid agrees: “We are used to older people making way. Off you go, get out and go on a cruise or something. The solution? Let people who want to work work. In a profession that suits them. And don’t take age into account; don’t discriminate. I think the current method is too rigid. You get a state pension starting from a certain day, so you have to stop working. That should be different. If you look at that seriously, you have a great labor potential.”
Raising the eligibility age for the state pension
Aleid sees no point in raising the state pension age. “If all your life you hear: 65 is when you get to retire and then they suddenly raise that age, that’s very difficult, mentally. Let alone if you have a physically demanding profession. As far as I’m concerned, at retirement age you should have the freedom to make choices. Either you stop working, or you continue working and get paid the regular wage for that. I don't understand why that option is not available. I would certainly have stayed.”
Film classes for seniors
Entrepreneurship and being involved with creative content is in Aleid’s blood. And that blood still runs where it cannot go. For example, she is a board member at De Holm, a center for learning, working and caring. “What we do here is a new form of neighborhood-oriented care that has yet to find a place in the healthcare landscape. After eight years of begging for subsidies, this is slowly coming into view,” she says. She is also on the board of the Den Andel festival, a musical platform for musicians from the northern part of the Netherlands. With her experience in subsidy land, among other things, Aleid raises the money to put this festival together. And she takes care of the reporting. Laughing, she says, “I teach the film classes for seniors. After all, I know something about didactics and film. I create the after-movie of the festival and we have eight stages that need to be featured. I teach volunteers to raise their film level a little. Some just want to find the record button, others want to learn how to write a script. But no one dares to film vertically anymore, so the quality of the videos is going up.”
- Name: Aleid Smid
- Age: 69
- Lives in: Den Andel
- Marital status: widow, no children
- Date of Retirement: January 2021
- Employers: Stadschouwburg Groningen, VARA, her own company ASTC Media, elementary school De Ridderhof
