@Dextrous Glad to see you are still around Dex ??
Donkeyman! 
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I think the mistake was that you didn’t pay any skilled workers well. In the 1970s when I was saving up to return to Australia I applied for many jobs in electronics. It was almost universal that firms offered about 35 pounds a week. In the end I took a job as a postman in SW1 starting at 50 pounds a week. The wages system in the UK was then totally stuffed with skilled tradesmen earning less than labourers or drivers for example.
You left the Workhouse?
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We need a broader demographic into social care.
Six or twelve hours a week to be someone’s pal, take them down the shops & cook the tea.
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I would enjoy doing that for a job…now though its voluntary befriending, and meals on wheels come in with something pre-cooked. Quite sad really.
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It is funny you should mention Meals on Wheels, my grandfather used to deliver for them in the 1950s in his Austin 7. They are a shadow of their former self. Their meals are too expensive and poor quality. I buy meals from a cafe in a northern suburb of Wollongong, I buy 10 at a time for $5 (£2.50) each and they deliver them free. They are freshly made but I just freeze them.
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That looks really good, Bruce - and a great bargain too! 
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This “Back to Work” idea is not for me, although I’m sure it would suit some OAPs.
My biggest regret was giving up my job and retiring. At the time there was no need for me to work but then my circumstances changed.
I would love to return to work. For me personally, l feel it’s better for your brain than being retired. I think your brain slows down and adapts to your present circumstances.
I still feel able to work but l suppose nowadays, they see your age, or get a hint of how old you are on an application form and think you’re on the scrapheap, or a bit doddery
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My idea of Meals on Wheels
I spent my entire working life preparing for a time when I could do what I enjoyed and not what I had to. In other words I worked so I could live, I didn’t live to work. I know there are people who love what they do for a living, and good on em. Hope they go as long as they can. It’s about being happy after all.
I think voluntary work would be easily available still, Art.
Befriending, shopping, dog walking, and phoning lonely people etc.
No wages I know, but would still help keep the old brain cells from going rusty.
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My brain cells are not still long enough to go rusty - I am far busier now than ever before - and it is fun!
Mups, l did do volunteering with my local U3A before the lockdown.
I go to quizzes every week again now.
I think you miss the rapport and camaraderie of working in the workplace… well l did!
I also have a lovely boyfriend, so l’m not lonely!
That was my experience but at the age of only 43 after being made redundant. I thought I had found just the right job locally, apparently I was the only applicant to answer the A4 questionnaire correctly and in full but the company wanted youngsters. They had a lot of youngsters apply and they were whizz kids on the computers, unfortunately though they knew nothing about printing so were not taken on. I even offered to work a week without pay so they could see I could do the work, no luck with that either. Months later they were still advertising for their ‘ideal whizz kid’.
I don’ t know the area in which you could work or your skills Artangel, but had you ever thought of self-employment? That is what I finished up doing for the last 24 or 25 years of my working life, still in my trade but such a difference working for myself.
Blimey Arty, Although I loved being a postman I couldn’t wait to retire. Just like Tabby, there are so many things to do to occupy my time now, and I have always done them as hobbies while I went out and earned a crust, but now I can do them full time. I can’t find enough hours in the day to fit them all in, I don’t know how I would fit a proper job in now. I’ve stuff to keep my brain active, stuff to keep me fit, stuff for rainy days, and stuff for sunny ones…
You could say…‘A man for all seasons’…
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So, I think it depends on the type of work that retirees are expected to fulfil.
Some past occupations may have involved substantial manual labour which may not be possible as we get older…
My thoughts exactly, I really enjoyed the social aspects of my job and found it very interesting but as soon as I turned 60 I waved them all “goodbye” without any regret and became a self funded retiree until I got a part pension at 65.
Some found retirement boring but I never did, at times I wondered how I ever found time to keep down a job. The pandemic has definitely slowed life down with restrictions on travel etc but I still keep pretty busy.
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Spot on Bruce…
I’m in a house with two females both a lot younger than me.I wouldn’t mind going back to work for a rest.
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