The best employers help people leave work without losing themselves

Many organisations invest heavily in onboarding, development and wellbeing, then offer very little emotional or psychological support when long-serving employees approach retirement. George reframes retirement as a major life transition that deserves the same intentional preparation as any other critical career stage. His insight is that when people leave work without a plan for who they are becoming, they often drift into fog, busyness or empty activity rather than a genuinely meaningful next chapter. For HR and employee experience leaders, this opens up a more human conversation about how employers can help people exit well while strengthening trust with the workforce that remains.

About George Jerjian

George Jerjian, podcast guest

Retirement Mindset Mentor, Creator of The DARE Method® Author and Speaker

12 Award-winning books authored30 days Silent retreat that sparked his reinvention52 Age when a diagnosis led him to semi-retireDARE Method® Reinvention framework created

George Jerjian is a retirement mindset mentor who helps people rebuild meaning and direction after full-time work ends. Early in his work with retirees, he noticed a pattern. Most people prepare hard for the financial side of retirement, then get blindsided by what money cannot organise. There is instability when a job title disappears, and there is opportunity in the space it leaves behind. George calls that turning point the Identity Renaissance, and it sits at the heart of everything he teaches.

George did not arrive at this work from theory. At 52, he received a life-threatening diagnosis that led him to semi-retire. When the diagnosis proved wrong, he expected life to snap back into place. Instead, he spent years drifting, restless and uncertain, and surprised by how disorienting freedom can feel when identity has been tied to a role. A 30-day silent retreat became the reset. It gave him the pause to listen, follow his intuition, and eventually unretire, choosing a more intentional second act.

That lived experience became a framework. George created the DARE Method® to guide people through reinvention in later life, moving from confusion to clarity with practical steps and grounded self-inquiry.

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Retirement, Reinvention, and the Search for Purpose with George Jerjian
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Message in the Middle: Midlife Women, Reinvention & Personal Growth· Listen to George Jerjian on air