ABSTRACT
Many forces are in motion to change attitudes of policymakers, employers, labor unions, and older people toward the retirement strategy. In the conditions of ferment and unevenness that characterize the work situation for older people in the 1980s, tempos for personal and national change can be expedited substantially by a practice of leaning and, indeed, sometimes pushing against the prevailing system wherever possible. Leadership can be exerted by drawing attention to successful efforts to open up more job opportunities for older people and by participating in the development of means for facilitating and expanding such efforts. Older people working have much soul-searching to do about whether to stay at work, stay in the same job, leave for a different job, or start searching for a different line of work. People have to ask whether and where jobs exist for them, and they must determine whether they could qualify for jobs that might be available.
