Ever more people are in paid work following the age of state pension availability, and yet the experience of working in this phase of the late career has been little studied. We interviewed a purposive sample of 25 Swedish people in their mid- to late sixties and early seventies, many of whom were or had recently been working while claiming an old-age pension. The data were analysed with constant comparative analysis in which we described and refined categories through the writing of analytic memos and diagramming. We observed that paid work took place within a particular material, normative and emotional landscape: a stable and secure pension income decommodifying these workers from the labour market, a social norm of a retired lifestyle and a looming sense of contraction of the future. This landscape made paid work in these years distinctive: characterised by immediate intrinsic rewards and processes of containing and reaffirming commitments to jobs. The oldest workers were able to craft assertively the temporal flexibility of their jobs in order to protect the autonomy and freedom that retirement represented and retain favoured job characteristics. Employed on short-term (hourly) contracts or self-employed, participants continually reassessed their decision to work. Participation in paid work in the retirement years is a distinctive second stage in the late career which blends the second and third ages.

在领取国家养老金的年龄之后，越来越多的人从事有偿工作，但很少有人研究在职业生涯后期的这一阶段工作的经历。我们采访了 25 名六十年代中后期和七十年代初的瑞典人，其中许多人正在或最近一直在工作，同时领取养老金。通过不断的比较分析对数据进行分析，我们通过编写分析备忘录和图表来描述和完善类别。我们观察到有偿工作发生在特定的物质、规范和情感环境中：稳定和有保障的养老金收入使这些工人脱离劳动力市场，退休生活方式的社会规范和未来收缩的隐约感。这种景观使这些年的有偿工作与众不同：其特点是直接的内在奖励以及包含和重申对工作的承诺的过程。最年长的工人能够果断地调整工作的时间灵活性，以保护退休所代表的自主权和自由，并保留有利的工作特征。受雇于短期（小时）合同或个体经营者，参与者不断重新评估他们的工作决定。在退休年龄参与有偿工作是晚年职业生涯中一个独特的第二阶段，它融合了第二和第三年龄。最年长的工人能够果断地调整工作的时间灵活性，以保护退休所代表的自主权和自由，并保留有利的工作特征。受雇于短期（小时）合同或个体经营者，参与者不断重新评估他们的工作决定。在退休年龄参与有偿工作是晚年职业生涯中一个独特的第二阶段，它融合了第二和第三年龄。最年长的工人能够果断地调整工作的时间灵活性，以保护退休所代表的自主权和自由，并保留有利的工作特征。受雇于短期（小时）合同或个体经营者，参与者不断重新评估他们的工作决定。在退休年龄参与有偿工作是晚年职业生涯中一个独特的第二阶段，它融合了第二和第三年龄。