Over-50

See some sun? November Jobs Report

Moods are contagious.  This upbeat one might help boost the GDP.  According to ADP Inc., the estimated addition of jobs by private-sector employers was 206,000.  That's up from 130,000 in October, reports Tucker Echols in the WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL.  More good news came from outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas. In November, planned layoffs fell by 13% from this time last year.

Holidays 2011: 'Tis the season to miss our animals companions

Since 2006, it starts just-before Thanksgiving.  How I miss my Pomeranian Molly Mittens who passed the previous July.  She was having trouble breathing.  I rushed her to the Vet.  As I turned away from her to talk with the Vet, including lifting  my hand from holding her, she died on the table.  Not that I hadn't been warned she had a bad heart and only so-long to live. 

Around this time of year I also find myself staring at the spots in the apartment where cats Sarah, Point Pleasant, and Callie used to hang out.  Is it that we Baby Boomers had such a difficult relationship with our Eisenhower parents that we attached so deeply to our animal companions?  I hardly think about Mom, Dad, and even my late sister who had died when she was 60.  They're not wedged into places of my heart.

Lana Peters Stalin: Harder to overthrow Daddy Dearest than Mommy Dearest

On GAWKER, Max Read makes headway in bringing out of the closet the Daddy Dearest syndrome.  He chronicles how abusive Josef Stalin was to daughter Lana Peters, who recently died in the U.S. 

Yet, most articles focus on the destruction inflicted by Jewish mothers, Tiger mothers, refrigerator mothers, cold mothers, and downright psychotic mothers.  We ignore the wrenching tales told by wounded creatures such as Jane Fonda about how her father's coldness and criticism left her considerably scarred.  Whether she has healed is a matter of debate. 

We Baby Boomers have to salute Read for making us consider that some of the mess we may be might be traced back to PapaBear.

Those Over-50 Learn to Love Failure

How we get "there," whatever that "there" is, now entails plenty of failure.  That's because the economy, technology, and we aging professionals keep changing. 

The challenge for the over-50 is to learn to love failure.  Here I address that in this opinion-editorial published on "All The Single Girlfriends," a site which is rebranding aging.

Mentoring by Gen Y: Yeah, bring 'em on

Because of disruptive technology, mentoring has been turned upside-down.  It's now Generation Y which is showing the web/mobile ropes to us Baby Boomers, reports THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Even those over-50 who assume we have kept up frequently get the shock: we missed a whole generation of developments.  I was in sales training and it was a new graduate from the University of Connecticut - and an English major no less - who had to mentor me about the differences between the iPhone and the android models.  No, I wasn't humiliated.  I was downright grateful. 

At that point I dumped any plans about trying to write for technology publications on subjects such as gadgets.  There is a generational gap when it comes to the web/mobile.  It ain't in our favor.

 

No More Heroes for Baby Boomers

Relentlessly, the media exposes those from our Baby Boomer past and present who we embraced or were instructed to embrace as heroes.  The latest example is the alleged character meltdown at Penn State.   Not a hero in the bunch.  Not, as JFK, our first big hero, called it, no "profiles in courage."

Last Wednesday night I was at a coffee talk sponsored by the Smoking Gun Research Association [SGRA], Orange, Connecticut.  Led by SGRA founder Jon Nowinski, we took a fresh look at the JFK mythology.  Since Kennedy was the designated hero for a new generation at the border of a new frontier, we members of that generation simply didn't have the mindset or the heart to deconstruct what the image machine had handed up.

It had to come to this of course - becoming hero-resistant.  Sure, we can study parts of successful people such as Hillary Clinton and Clint Eastwood.  Then we can try out those tactics in how we deal with our little worlds.  But for us the era of heroism is done.

Those who want to take a peek into other kinds of unsettling phenomenon can participate in the many activities at SGRA.  Here is the calender for events.

Formality: In or out or in-between

"My goodness, am I dressed too formal?"

That's what we over-50 tend to worry about after we show up at an interview, pitch to a prospect, or parachute into a client lunch. Appropriate attire, as well as okay degrees of informality in conversation, has become ambiguous. 

Tom de Castella sees informality in dress continuing.  The suit, both for men and women, might give off the wrong signals in many professional contexts.  The exceptions would include conducting legal business in court.  And some organizations might remain buttoned-down.

Clearly some due diligence is needed.  Before we put together our outfits and oral script, we have to check with what's the norm in the organization.  Great we know some of the players.  If it's accessible to the public such as a bank or car dealer we can nose around.  There's also the human-resources department.  We simply ask how formal is attire as well as the corporate culture.

Mobile & Baby Boomers: Must-change in messaging/marketing

THE NEW YORK TIMES - long-form, comprehensive, embedded with complex sentence structure, the lead buried - was what we Baby Boomers grew up with.  It was the model of how to communicate.  At Snyder High School, in the heart of urban Jersey City, New Jersey, homeroom teachers would order copies of THE TIMES for us college-prep students.  The message was clear: this is how successful people begin their day.

Therefore, we have lots to un-learn as we message and market/sell on mobile.  The medium is real-time, comes with a very small screen, is competing with Facebook etc., and is consumed when doing something else.

What do we have to know when parachuting in to this world on-the-go?

Here are the fundamentals:

Compress+distill+simplify.  Here we are back to the best of copywriting.  Dig down to the essence of what we want to communicate.  Then carve out the core.  Next present that in simple language, in as few words as possible.

Display in headlines. How we display the whatever is everything.  Software developers are struggling in that territory so that information is displayed in ways to attract attention, transmit insights, and allow collaboration.  Don't say, "Black Friday sale starts 2 A.M."  That's a lackluster headline.  The grabber is, "Smartphones free 4 200 shoppers @ 2 AM Friday."

Test out.  This is an art, not a science.  There are best practices but even those can change.  Grab humans to provide feedback.  Also, as Ryan Matzner reports on MASHABLE, there are Google Website Optimizer and A/B testing tools.

Change.  We have to invest less of our resources in planning and more of them implementing course correction.  That might include a radical overhaul.  Useful perspective on that is provided by David Murray in his book "Plan B."

Diane Sawyer, 65, could stay on until 70+

Diane Sawyer, 65, entered the evening news business later in life.  But she's thriving and has every incentive to keep the anchor seat until she's 70+.

In global and national tragedy Sawyer has taken on the role of Mother Earth, the way Walter Cronkite had been the Strong Father.  Also, Sawyer has become champion of Buy America.  Any improvement in the economy can be partly attributed to her.

Her small-screen persona combines calm and compassionate. That's about right for these turbulent times.

"J Edgar" - Unsympathetic guy

The first time I saw "J Edgar," Clint Eastwood's latest film, I was turned off by the petty creature who had acquired big power and misused it.  Today I tried it out again.  What became obvious was that this unsympathetic guy did have people who cared about him.  That's the issue which grabs us by the throat.

The sweet spot is his mother's love.  Sure it's dominating and is unwilling to accept him as he is.  But it's there and it shaped him.  That's what love, even the evil kind, does.

His administrative assistant sticks with him, even though he is losing his balance.  At the end, she obeys his order to destroy all his personal files.  Had Nixon found that out, she could have gone to prison.

Then there is the man Clyde who is sexually attracted to him and emotionally loyal.  That's the biggest puzzle.  Why did he remain with this madman? 

Should Eastwood have devoted his talent to this little man?  Maybe not.  But he did.  The talent does turn the story into one worth seeing.