La “nuova pensione”: narrazioni di lavoro ponte tra autonomia, identità e tecnologia

Population ageing and pension reforms are reshaping retirement as a gradual, reversible transition rather than a definitive exit from the labour market. In this context, bridge employment - paid work undertaken after formal retirement and before full withdrawal - has expanded, yet research often privileges variablecentered models over retirees’ lived meanings. This qualitative study examines how Italian bridge employees interpret retirement, what motivates continued work, and which conditions facilitate or hinder their trajectories. Twenty-three semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2025 across four Italian regions (Veneto, Lazio, Campania, Sicily) and analysed through reflexive thematic analysis. Findings identify six interconnected themes: retirement as a space of agency; bridge employment as selective engagement grounded in flexibility and intrinsic rewards; a hybrid “worker-retiree” identity sustaining continuity while enabling redefinition; tensions between stigma and recognition driven by ageism; intergenerational exchanges through mentoring and reverse mentoring; and digital transformation as both enabling resource and exclusionary barrier. Participants’ accounts portray bridge employment less as a financial necessity and more as an adaptive strategy to reconcile autonomy, meaning and social contribution. The study offers a biographically situated view of post-retirement work and highlights implications for age-inclusive HRM, including flexible job design, institutionalised knowledge-transfer roles, and tailored upskilling and reskilling to prevent a digitally mediated late-career divide among older workers.