Stanford Psychologist Says Work Should Wait Until Age 40!

The fictional White Rabbit character from Lewis Carroll's book  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is heard muttering "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!   Ever feel like that yourself?  Too much to do, not enough time to do it?

Maybe it's not you?  Stanford Psychologist Laura Carstensen says maybe it's our life model that is arranged wrong.

Carstensen says rather than working for four decades, we should be planning for longer careers that last past age 65, but we should have longer breaks along the way for learning, family needs, and obligations outside the workplace.

Carstensen suggest something radical -- that full-time work would ideally begin around age 40, and gradually transition to part-time work in the later years, before full retirement around age 80.

Carstensen says we need a new model because the current one doesn't work,"it fails to recognize all the other demands on our time. People are working full-time at the same time they're raising children. You never get a break. You never get to step out. You never get to refresh... We go at this unsustainable pace, and then pull the plug."

What do you think about a work model the includes education and apprenticeships lasting longer-  including through the years when many people are raising children, before committing to the full time job at 40?  If you could do it over again the new way, would you give it a try?