Senior for Hire

Age is a popular talking point for the boss and a couple of employees at an Edmonton hardware store.

"I enjoy the challenge and I like to mentor people," said Bill McGregor, 67, who has been managing the RONA store on 51 Avenue for the past 10 years. He left his decades-long management position at Sears Canada a few years before that company closed down. "I thought about it (retiring), but never have."

And McGregor is quick to point out that two of the 70-person team at the RONA store achieved senior citizen status before he did.

"I do it because I like meeting people," said RONA employee and super senior Roy Virtue, 78, adding his wife recently passed away and the gap in his life meant "I needed to work."

Veteran staffer Howard Lutz, 73, says his wife is also a factor in his incentive to remain employed, suggesting it would be “better for me to be out of the house, so I come to work."

Both Virtue and Lutz, like their younger boss, say they have no plans to retire.

It's the same for 80-year-old Abe Silverman, who continues to work five days a week as the manager of media relations in Alberta for B'nai Brith Canada.

READ MORE HERE