Abstract:
Retirement is an inevitable phase of life that all those engaged in paid labour have to face at a certain time, as such planning for it should
be unavoidable also. Many times, workers experience fears when approaching retirement period for the simple reason that they did not plan
for it; workers in Usmanu Danfodiyo University are not any different. Thus, the study investigated how retirement planning influenced
retirement anxiety among the staff. Using descriptive survey, the study utilizes purposely sampled staff who retired and those who are about
to (N = 31). An adapted version of Preretirement Planning Questionnaire was used to collect data, which was analyzed by using chisquare
and independent t-test analysis. Results indicated that planning for retirement positively influence retirement anxiety among the
staff, and also that there was no difference in how the academic staff plan for retirement or how they experienced anxiety over retirement
from that of the non-academic staff. Among the recommendations made was that employees in the university should plan ahead for the
inevitable date of their retirements; in this way they would greatly reduce or altogether avoid feelings of concerns that may be a source of
anxiety. One of the implications for career counselling is to employ adequate counselling approaches so that employees in the university
should be empowered to plan ahead for the inevitable date of their retirements; in this way they would greatly reduce or altogether avoid
feelings of concerns that may be a source of anxiety.
