In Daimler they are called the ‘Space Cowboys’. Like with the Clint Eastwood film where 4 elderly retired astronauts are called back into service for a crucial mission (to save the earth), Daimler, the German automotive company is calling back some of its former employees, now pensioned, to work on specific temporary projects. The objective of the company is to take advantage of their skills and experience and to extend beyond their retirement age the period of knowledge and skills transfer to younger employees. The project was launched in May 2013 and has already enticed 450 former Daimler employees who are now currently members of the company’s ‘pool of senior experts’. Those coming back to work on this temporary basis view this as an opportunity to achieve recognition, establish social contacts, and obtain supplementary income.
China mission. Peter Linden aged 62 and retired for almost two years loves cycling, walking and swimming. These activities however are not attractive enough over the long term. He was thrilled when his former employer Daimler called him back for a special project: to convince Mercedes’s Chinese partners not to manufacture the tools for sheet metal forming by themselves, nor to purchase them from the Japanese, but instead to buy more expensive high quality tools specially made by Mercedes at its Sindelfingen plant.
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