“The alternative to saving for retirement is to delay retirement, possibly indefinitely.” This was the grim message from a report on pension provision published last week.

“取代退休储蓄的一种方法是延迟退休，有可能是无限期延迟。”这是最近发表的一份有关养老金保障的报告所传达的悲观信息。

The report, commissioned by the UK Labour party, said that many people were saving too little for their retirement and faced working until they dropped.

由英国工党(Labour party)委托研究的这份报告称，很多人的退休储蓄太少，他们将一直工作到做不动为止。

The British government has also set up a review into the state pension age. No one expects it to be lowered.

英国政府还启动了对国家养老金领取年龄的评估。没有人预计这个年龄会下调。

The defined benefit pension that provided a bearable retirement for earlier generations faces extinction. The current crop of workers will have to work years longer to avoid retiring into poverty.

为之前几代人提供了可承受的养老计划的固定收益养老计划(defined benefit pension)正面临绝种。如今的劳动者不得不工作更长时间，才能避免退休时一贫如洗。

This means the traditional career trajectory — starting in one’s late teens or early twenties (depending on education), rising up the hierarchy to a peak in one’s late forties or early fifties, departing 10 years later — will no longer apply. But how will it change? Here are five possible scenarios.

这意味着，传统的职业轨迹（快20岁或20岁出头（这取决于教育程度）开始工作，在快50岁或50岁出头升至职业顶峰，10年后退休）将不再适用。但情况会发生何种变化？这里列出了5种可能的情形。

3 Employers decide it is the workers’ problem, not theirs. They understand that pensions are not as good as they were but older workers are expensive and having them around blocks younger colleagues’ promotions. Far better to push the older employees to retire and consign them to penury.

1.雇主认为，这是员工的问题，不是它们的问题。它们知道，养老金不如以前那么丰厚了，但年纪较大的员工成本高昂，他们的存在会阻碍较年轻员工的升职。最好是鼓励年纪较大的员工退休，让他们依靠养老金度日。

Many employers will find this option attractive but age discrimination laws will make it hard to implement. And as the population ages, there will be fewer young employees to take retiring workers’ places.

很多雇主认为这种办法不错，但年龄歧视法将令这种做法很难施行。同时，随着人口老龄化，取代退休员工位置的年轻员工将减少。

3 Both employers and employees accept that people will work longerand everything in their careers will happen later. They will rise through the hierarchy more slowly than they do today, winning that peak promotion in their late fifties.

2.雇主和雇员都认为，人们将工作更长时间，职场中的一切都将延迟。他们升职的速度将比现在更慢，要等到快60岁时才能达到事业的巅峰。

A version of this is likely to happen. Unable to afford retirement, employees will resist attempts to force them out. The workforce will, on average, become older. Carrying on for longer is easier for workers in sedentary occupations than for those in jobs requiring physical labour. But even those in sedentary jobs eventually start to slow down. Younger workers will become fed up being managed by those they regard as over the hill.

这种情况很可能会出现。负担不起退休生活的员工将抵制迫使他们退休的努力。劳动者的平均年龄将上升。与那些体力劳动者相比，坐办公室的劳动者更容易工作更久。但即便是那些坐办公室的人也最终会开始放慢速度。较年轻的员工会受不了被那些他们认为上了年纪的人管。

3 Later retirement introduces a golden age for women workers. In the UK, the pay gap between men and women under 30 has almost disappeared. It widens as women have children and men go on to dominate executive jobs and boardrooms.

3.延迟退休将给女性劳动者带来一个黄金时代。在英国，30岁以下男女薪资差距已几乎消失。但随着女性生孩子、男性继续统治高管职位和董事会职务，这种薪资差距在更高的年龄段会扩大。

If people carry on working until they are older, mothers should have more opportunity to return to full-time work as their children grow up and need them less. They should have a couple of decades to win those top jobs that they are being denied today.

如果人们延迟退休，随着孩子长大，对她们的需要减少，母亲们应会有更多机会恢复全职工作。她们应该会有20年时间争取到她们现在被拒之门外的那些高级职位。

The problem is that when I have written about this optimistic scenario before, a few women have told me that they have tried it and it did not work. Coming back to full-time work from part-time or a career break is tough. It is hard to get back on the escalator.

问题是，当我以前写到这种乐观的假设时，一些女性告诉我，她们试过了，没有成功。从兼职或离职的状态重新回到全职工作是艰难的。她们很难重新踏上职场阶梯。

This may be true but determined employers can find ways around this — for example by providing mentors to help women get back on to the promotion track.

这或许是正确的，但有决心的雇主可以找到解决这个问题的方法，例如提供导师，帮助女性重返升职轨道。

3 Companies go for the Carlos Slim option. In 2014, the Mexican telecoms magnate, said that, instead of retiring, older workers should cut back to three days a week.

4.企业采用卡洛斯•斯利姆(Carlos Slim)的选择。2014年，这位墨西哥电信大亨表示，年纪较大的员工不应退休，而是应该将每周工作日减少到3天。

Everyone gains. The company holds on to older workers’ skills while cutting the cost of employing them. The workers have more leisure.

所有人都会受益。企业保住了较老员工的技能，同时削减了聘用他们的成本。员工的空闲时间也增多了。

This scenario appears to have more to recommend it than any other, although it does depend on older workers being able to afford the reduction in working hours.

这种设想似乎比其他任何选择都更值得推荐，不过这取决于较老员工能否负担得起工作时间缩短。

Older people working shorter weeks could step back from senior positions. They could also do different jobs for the company.

工作时间缩短的较老员工可能会退出高级职位。他们还可能会为公司做其他工作。

The Financial Times reported this week on a former manager at Nissan in Sunderland, in the north-east of England who, at 67, conducts tours of the plant. He does not work for Nissan. He has retired and works for an outside agency that runs the tours. This leads to the final scenario.

英国《金融时报》最近报道了一位前日产(Nissan)驻英格兰东北部城市桑德兰的经理的故事，67岁的他负责安排这家日产工厂的参观。他不是日产员工。他已退休，为一家提供参观服务的外部机构工作。这把我们引向了最后一种设想。

3 Older workers make their own way in the world. This follows the first option, in which companies refuse to adjust to the new world and insist on older workers retiring anyway. Instead of fighting it, people become self-employed, offering their services to whoever will pay for them. Many Financial Times readers have told me they do this now and love it.

5.较老员工在这个世界上走出自己的路。这是第一种设想的结果，在第一种设想里，企业拒绝对新的世界做出调整，不管怎样都坚持让较老员工退休。与其为此抗争，人们不如自己创业，把自己的服务提供给任何愿意为此付钱的人。英国《金融时报》的很多读者告诉我，他们现在正这么做，而且乐在其中。