“I’ve been working since I was 18. I did two years of apprenticeship to obtain my CAP as an electrician. I very recently ended my career as a site foreman, I was able to negotiate an early departure at 59, even if I will not retire until 61.
It’s a craft, essential, that I chose and that I loved despite the ups and downs. But when I started it, we had a lot more recognition. Today, young people who arrive with the same diploma as me no longer have the same opportunities for development. At the time, the leaders knew what we were worth.
It’s a tough job, between the heavy loads, the noise, the work at height, the humidity… Generally at 50, you’re often already damaged. Today, I regularly have back pain, I pay for what I did when I was young, especially before the evolution of the material.
Djilali, worker: “Retirement, we think about it a lot, but we still have to reach it”
At the end of my career, I had five or six people under my command. As a team leader, you sometimes don’t count your time, you arrive before the supposed start of the day and you sometimes stay late to prepare for the next day. And on weekends, we still have work in mind.
It’s the job, we know what it is, but the remuneration does not follow: at the end of the career, I was at 2,300 euros gross: the salaries are not up to what we do.
When will I retire?
They are workers, teachers, nurses… Whether they are passionate about their job or not, whether they are impatiently or apprehensively awaiting retirement, all are concerned by the reform announced by the government of Elisabeth Borne and which notably provides for the decline of legal retirement age from 62 to 64 years old. A reform that questions them about their projects and their relationship to their work. “The Obs” gives them the floor.
So when I see the pension reform, I find it very violent. Between excessive unemployment, suffering at work… we are told to continue working. OK, but under what conditions? In the building industry, it’s going to be a disaster: the guys are going to have to come to the worksites on a walker? For a retirement where those who have set aside can live well and those who have not been able to do so will eat preserves until their death?
“I want to be able to live fully”
When the opportunity for an early departure presented itself, I wanted to enjoy my life a little more. After a while, the work weighed on me so much, I often said to myself “can’t wait for retirement! »
I have a few projects in my drawers. I’ve been taking photos for about twenty years, it’s something that’s passed down in my family: my grandfather was an amateur photographer, my father too, and I ended up falling into it. I love photographing buildings under construction. To many people it’s ugly, but to me it’s art! When I finally have all my time, I will dedicate myself to it, I will work on the photos that I made before.
“Retirement will take a terrible mental load off me”, Bénédicte, freelance sculpture restorer
I also love photographing hockey games at my club: I started playing when I was about ten years old, and got involved in my local club a few years ago. It seems logical to me to continue in retirement, in particular by going to photograph the matches!
I want to be able to live fully, without constraints and without pressure, to go to the cinema, to the theater, where I want and when I want. To me, that’s what retirement should look like.
With 1,500 euros pension, I will not party every day but I will not be one of the worst off. We are not asking for a million euros but to be able to live properly without depriving ourselves, without wondering if we will be able to buy our baguette the next day, and that, whether we are a sweeper or a manager, we should all be able to live worthy of his retirement. »
