Retire or continue working? Difficult decision for public employees

Abstract

People Management or Human Resource Management is part of organizational management with significant importance in public and private organizations. This paper was based on a postgraduate study that analyzed the use of the Permanency Allowance by technical-administrative public employees and professors at a Brazilian federal university. The Permanency Allowance can be requested by employees who already have the legal conditions to retire, but who voluntarily decided to remain working and receive a refund of the social contribution discounted monthly. Retirement is not always welcome for many professionals for reasons such as fear of loneliness, loss of professional status, financial loss, and a new direction in personal life. It was verified in the case study carried out in one of the largest Brazilian federal universities that 15% of the total active employees are receiving this permanence allowance. Many of these employees feel satisfied with the activities they perform, with the organizational environment, receive recognition at work and wish to continue training themselves, even though they are already able to retire and intend to remain in active employment for more years, perhaps even compulsory retirement, which only occurs at 75 years.