August 1, 2024
Good morning.
Boeing’s board of directors and the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts both took action yesterday to dispense with policy for two special people. Boeing waived its mandatory retirement age of 65 for its newly appointed CEO Kelly Ortberg, as it did when hiring current CEO Dave Calhoun. And Massachusetts state legislators passed an act authorizing the city of Springfield to let its new Police Superintendent Lawrence Akers, who’d otherwise hit retirement age months into the job, work until he’s 70.
With all this recent debate over whether to impose a mandatory retirement age for, say, the president of the United States, it’s a reminder that nobody has this stuff figured out. Ortberg, an industry star as CEO of Rockwell Collins, was a few years into his own retirement when tapped for the gig at Boeing. Now, he joins peers like Disney’s Bob Iger, Target CEO Brian Cornell, 3M CEO Bill Brown, and Chevron’s Mike Wirth in having their companies’ retirement rules waived to get them into the top job.
What should temper any outrage over such casual trashing of the corporate canon is the fact that these rules don’t apply to many of us. Like a personal security detail and your own Gulfstream V, mandatory retirement clauses are typically reserved for senior executives and board members. Most rank-and-file corporate workers are theoretically allowed to work until they drop or a colleague gently convinces them to move on to other adventures (without breaching the 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act, of course).
There are exceptions. Many professional services firms populated with lawyers, consultants, physicians and the like, impose mandatory retirement because the partners are considered co-owners of the firm. The predictability of having a defined end point to employment makes it easier to transition clients, avoid difficult conversations, and plan fantastic goodbye parties.
Mandatory retirement is also commonplace for pilots, air traffic controllers, firefighters, and police officers. Some say mandatory retirement is necessary to maintain safety and efficiency, while bringing in fresh thinking and talent. (The Coast Guard, meanwhile, is discovering the limits of telling people to retire.) But mandatory laws can also cut people off in their prime, when everyone wants them to stay on the job. That’s why Superintendent Akers needed a new law to keep him in his role.
The broader question, of course, is how to creatively manage people towards the end of their professional careers. Unless you’re an academic, a writer or, say, a Supreme Court justice, most career paths don’t end at the grave. Retirement’s a more fungible concept when careers are eclectic and we’re all aiming to live to 100. One liners about retirement waivers in press releases can feel a little like high school, where the cool kids on the board announce who gets to rise above their rules. (Wait, I forgot to mention age limits on boards!)
Common sense is a good place to start. As Akers, who’s the first Black police officer to lead the Springfield department, recently said during his swearing-in ceremony: “Please don’t allow the state to end my career and ruin the police department at a time we’re moving in a positive direction.” May Akers and Kelly Ortberg live long and prosper in their new jobs.
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Diane Brady
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