Purpose: To study the workers' perception of the quality of work community and its association with intention to retire early, separately among women and men working in Finnish postal service.
Methods: A questionnaire survey was sent to all Finnish postal services employees aged >= 50 years in 2016 and 44% (n = 2096) replied to the survey (mean age 56.3, 40% women). Employee's intention to retire before statutory retirement was measured on a scale of 1-5 and dichotomized. The quality of work community was defined by four composite variables: equality at work, flexibility at work, supportive work environment and health or other reason and trichotomized by their tercile values. Odds ratio (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations of quality of work community with intention to retire were calculated separately for men and women using log binomial regression models adjusted for potential confounders.
​​​​​​​Results: About one-third of respondents intended to retire early with no significant gender difference in retirement intention. Low equality at work (women OR 2.77, 95% CI 1.60-4.81; men 2.84, 1.80-4.48) and low flexibility at work (women 3.30, 1.94-5.60; men 2.91, 1.88-4.50) was associated with higher likelihood of intention to retire. Among women intention to retire was found less likely due to low supportive work environment (0.52, 0.31-0.89) and among men due to intermediate health or other reason (0.65, 043-0.98). Conclusion: The results highlight the importance of the quality of work community as well as the promotion of work-related health in order to encourage employees to remain at workforce for longer.