That's an oxymoron. If you are employed you are not retired.
The Internet Retirement Police strike again:
Mr. Money Mustache vs. the Internet Retirement Police | Mr. Money Mustache
» The biggest blogging mistake I ever made … Early Retirement Extreme: — a combination of simple living, anticonsumerism, DIY ethics, self-reliance, and applied capitalism
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/13/mr-money-mustache-vs-the-internet-retirement-police/
This depends entirely upon one's definition of retired or in this case the term used was FIRE. Some people see FIRE as simply meaning Financially Independent able to Retire Early. Some see it as needing to actually retire.
And then, of course, you get to the definition of retired itself. Some people want to draw a hard line but I don't see it that way.
Sure - let's say you are working full time and you are not financially independent. I would say - not retired.
But, it isn't that simple. I can see a range of situations where different people would judge it differently:
1. Retired from a long time career, drawing a pension, FI - but starting a post-retirement business just for fun
2. Retired from a career, FI, volunteering for a nearby organization
3. Same as 2 but one day they offer to pay you for your volunteer work. you don't "need" the money but you decide to accept the money knowing you can quit at any time.
4. Retired from a career, FI, asked to do a consulting project for your old employer. You do one project for a total of 20 hours during the course of the year.
5. Same as 4 but you do 20 hours a month, and can quit at any time.
6. Same as 5, but they put you on the payroll at 20 hours a month.
7. Retired from a career, FI, but you always wanted to do X which you could never afford to do because it didn't pay enough, so you find a part-time job doing X but you have a very tiny BS bucket and could quit at any time.
8. Retired from a career, FI, but you inherited a house and are renting it out and - horrors - it is profitable. If you say this person isn't retired, would it make a difference if he or she was losing money on the rental?
9. Same as 8, but bought a couple of more houses and are renting them out.
10. Retired from a career, FI for basics, but occasionally do some work to get extra spending money that is purely discretionary.
To me, I could find it easy to see all the above as retired since I think retired is more of a mind set than anything else.