Comment by jimt1234

My mother spent much of her career as a COBOL programmer, dating back to the early 80s. She retired in 2015 and quickly got bored. I talked her into accepting part-time contract work, something to keep her busy. She got flooded by recruiters. They all told her the same story: "Big Corp" is nervous because a critical system runs COBOL and the staff that used to support it have all either retired or died. She decided against taking any contract work, telling me that once she retired, a switch flipped in her head - she could never go back to work, not for all the money in the world. Good for you, mom.