Ever more people are in paid work following the age of state pension availability, andyet the experience of working in this phase of the late career has been little studied.We interviewed a purposive sample of 25 Swedish people in their mid- to late sixtiesand early seventies, many of whom were or had recently been working while claimingan old-age pension. The data were analysed with constant comparative analysis inwhich we described and refined categories through the writing of analytic memos and diagramming.We observed that paid work took place within a particular material, normativeand emotional landscape: a stable and secure pension income decommodifying theseworkers from the labour market, a social norm of a retired lifestyle and a loomingsense of contraction of the future. This landscape made paid work in these yearsdistinctive: characterised by immediate intrinsic rewards and processes of containingand reaffirming commitments to jobs. The oldest workers were able to craft assertivelythe temporal flexibility of their jobs in order to protect the autonomy and freedom thatretirement represented and retain favoured job characteristics. Employed on short-term(hourly) contracts or self-employed, participants continually reassessed their decision towork. Participation in paid work in the retirement years is a distinctive second stage inthe late career which blends the second and third ages.