The Blog Has a Birthday!

Last week the blog celebrated its first birthday. Since then, thanks to you, the response has been phenomenal and I share that with humility and gratitude. There is a part of me that wishes our community did not have to exist and those workers in their 40s, 50s, and 60s and yes, 70s enjoyed the respect, pay, opportunities and flexibility to thrive in their careers as they aged in the workforce. Over 5,000 page views in less than a year from all around the world and your comments to me on the blog, privately on LinkedIn, Facebook and my email reminds me of why I began this endeavor last June. Since then, I have met success stories, true heroes-- people like “retiree” Earle Hart, in my home state—Indiana-- who through his volunteer efforts at his church has put over 300 people back to full-time work!! Their ministry, Passport to Employment, is an incredible story that has engaged people in the community and prepared them for a 21^st century employment search, but more than that—their program gives job-seekers hope. At the grassroots level, Earle and his cadre of volunteers perform their tasks from the heart in a way no government agency or non-profit with a grant could replicate. Earle and the other volunteers that work with him illustrate moving from personal success in their long careers to a much broader significance in life. Eternal thanks to Bob Hutt, who made that connection through LinkedIn.

In year two there is more to share on not just finding a job at 40+, but managing your career as an experienced worker. According to 2010 US Census data, 39% of the population is older than 45 and people older than 45 represent over half of the voting-age population for the first time in America’s history. The implications for our careers, how we redefine retirement (Baby Boomers are really good at redefining things), working in harmony with multiple generations in the workforce and interviews with some fantastically interesting thought leaders are coming your way. I recently attended a workshop on how a few innovative U.S. companies are leading the way in leveraging older workers and will be sharing that with you soon as well as some strategies for not succumbing to the income decline experienced when you take a new job after your “legacy job” (the one you had for many years) ends. Thanks to a gift of a new digital video camera, you will see the blog’s first video posts later this year.

The grim report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reminds us that age 50+ job seekers are taking more than a year to find a new job. In that year, some mature workers sink their 401(k) savings into buying a franchise or starting a business with varying degrees of success. I’m looking for someone to share their learning on franchising. Some 50+ people drop out of the workforce all together while many feel forced to take their Social Security at age sixty-two with a reduced benefit which has lifetime consequences. The increased rates of depression, anxiety and relationship problems of job-seekers have not been linked to unemployment in an official study yet—but there is a lot of anecdotal information out there and a recent AARP article reports on the divorce epidemic at 50+. Expect more ideas on staying “Up” in a “down” job market posts. As usual, your ideas fuel the content.

Please continue to visit (and invite friends) join or start a conversation with a comment.  I am honored when you forward the blog link (see below) to your network. Thanks for a great first year!

http://workinglater.blogspot.com

Embracing Change

Is Your World Like A Spinning Top?

In mid-life, change is constant. How we react to change determines a lot about how much we enjoy our careers, relationships and life itself.

This column focuses on careers, work and the jobs we perform everyday (or hope to perform as soon as you find a new one). Sometimes the lines between our professional lives and personal lives blur. Change and our reaction to it---is often the culprit.

At age 40+ we move out of the kiddie pool and begin to swim in the deep water with sharks and other unimaginable creatures. The stakes are higher and we have more to lose materially because we have worked a while and become consumers of the American Dream. Major changes as the waves push us further into deep water may include:

• The death of a parent, spouse, sibling or close friend
• Health care decisions for an aging parent
• Children maturing and making their own life choices
• Career reassessments by choice or forced upon us
• Health crisis or challenges of our own or someone close
• Unexpected midlife job search
• Financial reality that doesn’t align with your plans & expectations
• Loneliness or disconnectedness (with or without a partner)

Psychologists and other professionals will tell you that change is not an inherently bad thing. In fact, we cannot evolve without it. I agree with you, change is a lot easier when we initiate it. (And even then, leaving a good company, a relationship, a wonderful neighborhood or a dear friend is still hard). I’ve experienced all four scenarios and as tough as those situations have been, what is waiting on the other side of those changes is the next phase of your life that in a few short years---you will not want to change. You will still have the benefit of all the great memories of your experiences that came before. Jim Collins reminds us in his book, Good to Great,  “good is the enemy of great," at least for companies-could it be true for individuals too?

My three personal tips for coping with change:

1. Realize change events seem to speed up as we get older. There’s always something happening, so be compassionate (especially with yourself).

2. Take care of your health-it makes dealing with other changes coming at you easier. I try to eat right, exercise, get enough sleep and stay positive.

3. Realize that if I keep doing what I’ve always done—the result will not change. So, I decide what I want my life to look like and take the first (scary) step in that direction.

I just finished a great book, Necessary Endings by Dr. Henry Cloud (also available as an audio book). It is the first book I’ve read that addresses career and personal transitions together. You may want to check it out.

Oh yeah, don’t forget your life preserver while swimming in the deep water and be prepared for wild waves.

The Best Companies to Work for & Other Corporate Myths

What do Santa, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and the annual list of Best Companies to work for have in common?

It is all fantasy and marketing hype.

That’s right, all of these are commercially-driven advertising dependent cultural myths. My apologies to anyone disheartened by the news (this blog is intended for those 40+). Here are three important facts to keep in mind so you can make any work environment, the best company for you.

#1—There is no such thing as a “Best” company to work for. However, within any organization some areas are more toxic than others. This far in the game, you know that companies are complex structures and the culture varies from department to department, location to location and leader to leader. While the overall company may offer great employee benefits (did someone say, defined benefit pension plan?) and other cool perks, the idea of an entire company being BEST is amusing. Working @40+ Tip: Try to move yourself into a location, department or unit of your company that is known to have the most supportive, nurturing culture in your organization. You’ve worked too long to be stressed at work.

#2—Your primary relationship at any company is with your direct manager/supervisor or fellow owners if you are a partner. Your work experience is defined by that very important relationship no matter how many fitness centers or other exotic benefits the organization offers. How many people do you know working for an organization ranked “Best” on some publisher’s list and they are experiencing “job hell”? After a while in the workforce, you can attest that a great boss can provide a ray of sunshine in an otherwise desolate work environment. The corollary is also true, your company can have a basketball court, free gourmet lunch, free parking, a generous annual bonus, tickets to sporting events and more. If your boss is jerk, you will still have your paper on the street (or Internet) looking for a better situation. Working@40+Tip: If you have a great boss, stay put and figure out how to grow in the job even if it seems kind of dead-end. Even if your boss isn’t great, and is merely not awful, it may be worth staying with them, if they support your career development.

#3—“Best” lists are an advertising juggernaut and nothing more. At the risk of sounding cynical (too late), look at the advertising in any issue of a magazine with a list of the “Best”. We’re talking companies to work for and jobs, but the same holds true for the “Best Doctors” or the “Best Private Schools” etc. There will be a ton of ads purchased by the companies, hospitals where the “Best” doctors practice or the “Best” private schools. Advertising sales reps for the magazines are out selling to the featured target as soon as the editorial calendar is set and they know which month is going to have a list of “Best”. Working@40+ Tip: Don’t buy the hype. Don’t buy that issue of the magazine off the rack. If you subscribe, skip the reading that article and write a guest article for this blog about your experience working@40+.

Spring into Something New!

April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.

—William Shakespeare

When was the last time you did something you have never done before? When was the last time you did something completely different? Maybe you went someplace you’ve never gone before or participated in an event you've only read about. I was recently challenged to think about the last time I experienced something for the first time.

It is easy to get into a rut, okay, I will call it a groove, if that makes you feel better. Generally, and particularly in mid-life, there is a tendency to “go with what we know.” We have our favorite restaurants and sometimes we have our signature meal we order every time we eat there. We go to the same dry cleaners, the same grocery stores, the same church and sometimes sit in the same pew.  It’s understandable,  I am a creature of habit too. My rationale was that if I could decrease the amount variables—by sticking with service providers and places I know I can depend on—more things would work right than wrong in my life. I had unwittingly adopted a “go with what you know” mentality.

So this year, I decided to mix things up. I started small. First I deliberately decided to experience something for the first time each month personally or professionally. Maybe it was making a new business contact, attending a workshop, experiencing an arts event out of my usual genre or going to a town I had never visited and learning more about the place. In January, I invited Leah Smiley, President of the Society of Diversity to lunch when I found she also lived in Indianapolis. What followed was an enlightening conversation, a great business contact and the foundation of a future blog post you'll be able to read soon.

Last night, I attended Speed Networking- hosted by Anthony and Tamara Sullivan. It was a Linking Indiana event and promised a night of professional networking in a fast paced environment. Every month the invitation arrives via LinkedIN. The event was my something for the first time for April. There were lots of people and I appreciated the structure of moving from table to table with time limits on making your pitch so everyone could share. There were job seekers, recruiters, many entrepreneurs, lots of I/T types, an internship coordinator for Butler University and people in the not-for-profit world. It only took three hours out of the month—many new contacts were gained—who knows where they will lead.

So here’s the challenge. When was the last time YOU experienced something for the first time and really moved out of your comfort zone? If it is has been too long, maybe this could be a goal for you too.  Spring is time of new beginnings and renewal—experience it!

Creating A Career Legacy

When you leave your job, what legacy will you leave behind? What will people remember about you? What will you recall as your lasting contributions? I think all of us, no matter what our title is, should strive to leave our position better than we found it in whatever way we can. It goes along with one Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits—“Begin with the End in Mind.” What began my thought process about career legacies and planning for your life after work beyond the financial sense was the death of the legendary Penn State football coach on Sunday morning.

Joe Paterno earned five American Football Coaches Association awards, held the most records spent as a head coach at one school (46 seasons) and had the most victories for a major college coach by winning 409 games! Certainly during his tenure he certainly was a positive influence on the many lives he impacted. His legacy however has the cloud of the recent child sexual abuse scandal. Not because of anything he did physically to children—but more so for what he failed to do when he reported the abuse to “someone he thought would do something about it” instead of reporting it to law enforcement. Most of us do not have careers under media scrutiny—most of us will not have careers spanning 46 years with one employer; but we will all leave a legacy when we leave our jobs. And, every day at work we write a sentence of what we will be remembered for by our colleagues and in our own mind.

I worked with a retiring administrative assistant who was remembered by her co-workers as the “Czar of Office Supplies” she counted and monitored the paper clips, pencils and file folders that everyone requested and she kept them in a locked file cabinet behind her desk. I’m sure, in her many years of service; she had many other contributions to the company. At her cake and punch reception on her final day at the office person after person commented on the woman’s diligence in monitoring office supply expenses. Maybe in her role she felt it was the only thing in her span of control. I urge you to think more broadly. Even if you don’t get the public accolades for it when you leave, you will know inside that you left your workplace just a little better because you worked there.

 I remember my grandfather who worked his way up from a sharecropper as a young child, through a meat-packing plant as a young adult to a crane operator in a steel mill in Gary, Indiana. He told me about the dangerous conditions with glowing hot steel bars radiating heat when men walked into the plant. Above everyone, was the crane operator deftly moving tons of hot steel sitting coolly above the work floor in a position considered too skilled for the Black workers who toiled more closely to the extreme heat. From the moment he saw the crane, he said he was mesmerized and knew he wanted to show management a Black man could do that job. His legacy after 32 years of service was working his way off the floor of Youngstown Sheet & Tube, a company now long gone, to become the lead crane operator and to mentor others that would follow him after his retirement.

Have you thought about the impact you will leave on your workplace as a boss or mentor, as a co-worker, as a subject matter expert in your field or as a corporate volunteer? Share it with here and join the conversation.

Fortune Magazine's Workforce of 2022

The other day my January 16 issue of Fortune Magazine arrived in the mail. I was intrigued because instead of the usual business leader on the cover; it boasted a kind silvery version of Ryan Seacrest and called itself, “The Future Issue”. I devour Fortune like other people read People or US Weekly—which already gives you too much insight into my geeky obsession with business and the workforce. Who doesn’t want to know about the future?  So I dive right into their article on work.

Guess who is in the office of tomorrow in 2022? Their writer says there are going to be old, bald people with “salt-and-pepper eyebrows” and women in “orthopedic shoes” making their way into office buildings.  She goes on to predict, “...new drugs...will enable many people in their sixties and seventies to make the daily trek to an office or factory." When I read this in Fortune (one my favorite business magazines) I wasn’t sure if I should laugh, scream or cry. (Or maybe write a snarky letter to the editor like the one they published from me October 16, 1995—I’ve been reading for a long time). But, it is 2012—so I can put it in a blog post and send it 2,000 of my close friends.

Would it be old and mean of me to think the young lady who authored the article is a student? Because surely if she were in the workforce of TODAY—not the future, she would realize workers in their 50s, 60s and 70s peering at their smartphones through bifocals and bumping up the font on the screen for easier reading (hey, she said it, not me) is here. Maybe they don’t work at Fortune’s editorial offices, so she’s never seen us in action.  Or, and I hear this often—maybe we (older workers) are invisible to her.

Our writer blames the market crash of 2008 for the reason Baby Boomers are going to stay in the workforce and increase from 7.3 million today to 13.2 million workers over 65 in ten years. While there are plenty of people working for financial reasons, some of us choose to work longer. My Mom is 74 and works ten hours a week because she loves her profession. It is an opportunity to stimulate her brain, be around professional people, learn new things (yes, she has a smartphone, can text and use apps) and the money comes in handy too.

I don’t blame the writer for this prediction of “the workforce of future.” Anything that makes it to print in Fortune has been scrutinized by an editor or two and I think that is what worries me more. This type of characterization of older workers is not helpful. At a time when subtle bias against mature workers in some workplaces seeps into the corporate culture before the company has recognized their multigenerational workforce demands attention, Fortune missed an opportunity.

The writer could have easily talked to someone from the Sloan Center on Aging and Work at Boston College (http://www.bc.edu/research/agingandwork/about.html) or AARP (aarp.org) and I can guarantee her article would have taken a different tone.  So I am going to offer some predictions about “what happens to the workplace when seniors don’t leave” which is the question her piece supposedly answers. Visionary companies that integrate age issues into their strategic HR plan are going to have a sustainable competitive advantage. I agree with the Fortune writer that “companies will have to be creative about how they manage a workplace with staffs whose ages could span 60 years.” They do that by addressing the diversity issues a multigenerational workplace presents and it affects all areas of the company: talent management, learning and development, benefits, rewards/recognition and knowledge transfer. Some mature workers are at the “top of their game” considering skill, experience, emotional intelligence and confidence. Companies that minimize or ignore the impact a multigenerational workforce has on today and tomorrow’s corporate culture threatens morale, productivity and business results. Share your comments and let us know what you think.

Mid-Life Careers at the CrossRoads

At some point in your working life you hit a bump. Sometimes the bump is sudden—unexpectedly you lose your job,  you're demoted or somehow you lose your authority or your rank at work diminishes. At other times there’s a warning of a “speed bump” ahead. That’s when the stirring comes from inside of you. It is that feeling when you begin to lose your passion for work. It is when new management comes in and all of a sudden nothing you do is right (even though it was right for a very long time under the former management).

These bumps are what I call the Crossroads.

Sometimes they happen to you; sometimes you initiate it—but at all times ACTION occurs in your career. For one friend, her husband had a lucrative, but unfulfilling career in the financial services industry. For years the stirrings of discontent were in the back of his mind. But, the money was good and they had kids in college. Then, in the same week, he got fired and his best friend died suddenly of a heart attack. Talk about a BUMP. He was thrust into the Crossroads—rethinking everything. It was the catalyst of a career change at 43 years old to become a teacher. Now, seven years later, he’s a Ph.D. candidate in Educational Administration.

Our careers are like "mini-movies" of our lives in general. They take unexpected detours, have ups and downs, interesting people enter/exit and they require adjustments and like life; our careers rarely stay the same. Upon reflection, a career is like the Charles Dicken’s quote, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”  That quote goes on to say, “it was the spring of hope and the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us...”

So many external factors affect our careers now and moving into your 40s, 50s and 60s, careers get redefined—sometimes by us, sometimes for us. In some previous posts, I’ve mentioned the small amount of time we give to personal career planning. We spend more time planning our recent holiday activities and vacations than we do our career contingencies. Your company is not going to develop your career--that's on you now. It is why hitting a bump is so unsettling. It is why standing at the crossroads can be so confusing. Now that we are fresh into a new year, it is a perfect time to update your resume, freshen your LinkedIn profile or start that blog you’ve been thinking about. It may be a good time to reconnect with your former colleagues from a previous company to catch-up and do some networking. Do some thinking about how you want to spend the rest of your working years. What’s your dream? Mark Twain said, “Twenty years from now you’ll be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.” So here’s to the New Year! Explore. Dream. Discover. Take some time to focus on your career. You deserve it!