Retirement Intentions: The Role of Conflict With the Boss and Health

This paper explores the retirement intentions of employees and the factors that influence those intentions. Conflicts between employees and their superiors, as well as the role health plays in this conflict, were analysed using Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) data. The results showed that both conflicts and individual's health status play a role in retirement decisions. Conflict with superiors is significantly associated with the intent to retire after accounting for control variables. Similarly, employees in poor or bad health are more likely to retire. Furthermore, health plays a moderating role: Employees in poor or bad health are likely to express retirement intentions, whereas conflict only slightly raises intention. Retirement intentions of healthy employees, however, rise steeply if there are conflicts with superiors. This suggests that healthy people may well be able to continue to work, but not necessarily do so because conflict with superiors has a greater impact on their retirement decisions than for unhealthy people.