Over-50

Greg Smith: Made it big, can bring it all down

Once you've made it or lost it, you are positioned to cross that line from ordinary professional to hero.  Having made it big on Wall Street, Greg Smith had the option of outing his former employer Goldman Sachs as not giving a damn about investors.  He did that in the influential THE NEW YORK TIMES. 

Wall Street will feel the blow.  Just how much an effect Smith will have depends on how well and how quickly the spin masters can address and neutralize his contentions. 

The point is that we aging professionals are in the catbird seat to become game-changers.   It's our call if we want to become heroes or not.

When Revolutions Happened in Person

During the Counterculture, we had to show up in person to be heard.  Now, we can become part of the bottom-up movement from our laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

The word is out that Citibank played cute with customers.  I took a look at that for financial information company Motley Fool.  Here you can read all about it.

Occupy Wall Street: Maybe not staying power of counterculture

We grew up and joined the establishment.  But not before we were re-educated in values by the counterculture leaders.  We brought those ideas about how it should be into our work.  No surprise, many of us became independent contractors because we wanted to shape our professional life.

The counterculture messages took because the movement endured, at least until the grim early 1970s recession.  With beads and free concerts and plenty of post-pill sex, leadership knew how to address all the pleasure points to have us hang around.

Not so with Occupy Wall Street.  The chill has come to air.  How may will hang out in tents, even if they wanted to.  Also the economy is picking up, with 2.5% GDP growth projected for 2012.  So, it's no surprise that OWS's performance art on New Year's eve at Zuccotti Park fell flat.  In NEW YORK Magazine, Azriel James Relph reports there were only 500 participants.  About 68 were arrested.

Instead of OWS, we might embrace Rick Santorum, who combines the reality of Blue Collar values with establishment know-how.

Bosses [Clients Too]: When they're not doing so hot

It happens - and is happening more often in this turbulent economy - that the boss or the client is in trouble.  The issue directly impacts us because our income is dependant, in whole or part, on that authority figure.  In BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK, Liz Ryan covers that sensitive matter.

The focus here, unless we are a type of Mother Teresa, is how we are to navigate the situation, w/o harm to ourselves.  There's usually peril in attempting to "help" the boss or client with strategic or tactical guidance.  Sure there are times they request that, but, as most of us know from experience, anything we do or say can blow up in our face.  The best course of action is to recommend calling in a consultant.

For self-survival, we remain in public and private loyal.  No chatting up the situation with anyone in the loop.  We do what we are assigned to do.  We ask the boss or client if there is anything else we could be doing.  And we present ourselves in a positive light to those who could "save" us if the current regime falls and/or help open other opportunities for us.

Of course, we nose around for what's out there in terms of full-time, part-time, and/or consulting assignments.  If this is a client, you bet we scramble to replace that account.  In most cases, the business is a good-bye.  We the vendor are perceived as tainted goods and when the client is gone so are we.

This is not a time for compassion.  It's save-our-own source of income.

"Hand Problem": We Baby Boomer women never considered it as issue

Planting our distaste in the grapevine about superiors with a "hand-problem" was about as much as we Baby Boomer women did about what's now called "sexual harassment." So, it's almost puzzling that this has become an issue dinging so many men's careers.  The latest to take a hit is Herman Cain.

What baffles us is that men who have so much to lose would risk all that by behaving in ways that are now illegal, a career-killer, and what every reporter would love to get early warning about. 

Back in the late 1970s, when we entered corporate America, men knew they could get away with it.  Usually everyone was aware that so-and-so had a "hand problem" and when there was an opening in his department women wouldn't apply.  If his administrative assistant was attractive, she would probably be hunting for another job in the company. 

Not conventionally pretty, I was rarely singled for a hands-on.  The one time it happened was in a trade association.  I was just a speechwriter and a vice president of something rubbed his leg against mine in a taxi on a business trip.  Of course, I pretended it never happened.  Although the head of the association valued my work, it never dawned on me to tell him about it. 

Raja Gupta: Happens all the time

Did Raja Gupta, former head of McKinsey, want more than his just desserts?  Could be.  And that sense of entitlement, which frequently goes with relentless striving and success, might have what will do him in.

Today, Gupta is expected to turn himself into the FBI for allegedly passing along material information illegally to the Galleon Hedge Fund.  Already, the former kingpin at Galleon Raj Rajaratnam has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

We know from our own experience this happens to us Baby Boomers all the time.  We put in so much in our long careers.  Then we "snap."  Enough isn't enough.  The three cherries on the top of the cake should be four.  We demand.  We get clever.  And then we find ourselves losing our success or even our freedom.

Lesson: No professional is entitled to anything.  That's not the game. 

 

The Two Mrs. Madoffs

Ruth Madoff is the long-time spouse of convicted con Bernie.  Stephanie Madoff Mack [who recently changed her name] is the wife of the late son of Ruth and Bernie.  His name was Mark and he hung himself.   Stephanie has recently published a book "The End of Normal" and was a guest on "20/20" to talk about it.  She did so tearfully.  

Both women are slim and fashionable.  Both are blonde.  Both seem co-dependent on their spouses.  And both seem quite focused on wealth.  Many women have gone through a hard time when their men got into a pickle.  However, it is impossible to feel sympathy for these particular two. 

There's certainly a documentary to be made about the two Mrs. Madoffs.  It could be titled "Only for Richer."

St. Jack: How a PR group sinned big against PR

The storm has blown out to sea.   But the damage done to the reputation of the Public Relations Society of America [PRSA] remains.  

Both mainstream media and the blogosphere roared like a wounded beast when Jack O'Dwyer, its long-term nemesis, arrived with his reporter's hat to its conference in Florida, and they didn't let him in.  Now, O'Dwyer has become St. Jack.  Actually, for decades he was just that to so many of us in communications who got the exposure we needed from his newsletters and now his digital website http://odwyerpr.com.

Of course, that hit to the brandname of the PRSA was a direct result of its own seeming dumb-as-dirt public relations.  The timing for such a PR blunder by a PR trade association couldn't have been worse. 

Thanks to social media, PR professionals have free access to everything from free information and insight to the tools for lobbying.  Why would a reasonable PR pro pop for the membership to the PRSA? There are 100s of no-cost webinars for me to keep up.  I can tweet my beef directly to the president of the United States.  Leave my business to schlep south for a conference?  What a joke dating back to the age of affluence.

There's a lesson here for all us seasoned players: take the high road in a feud.  There's a growing number of media outfits eager to exploit a seeming lowlife tactic.  St. Jack is thriving.  If the PRSA is shrewd it will provide a very public mea culpa. "St. Jack, forgive us, we have sinned."

Occupy Wall Street: Oh, not to have work responsibilties

Occupy Wall Street looks like so much fun, in addition, of course, to fighting for the right values. 

How many of us former CounterCulture game-changers, or so we saw ourselves, long to be out there again.  But, alas, we have work responsibilities.  I couldn't even break free for key parts of the Petit trials, right here at New Haven, Connecticut Superior Court.

"The Help"

"The Help," both as a novel and as a film, makes sense to us Baby Boomers.  Set in the revolutionary early 1960s, the story chronicles a white daughter of the south who collaborates with black nannies and maids to out how the latter are treated by their employers. Back then, activist courage of all kinds was the meme.  Those of us who perceived ourselves with a grievance took a public stance - with all the risk involved.

Today, times are so different.   Moreover, with how tough it is to get a job and keep it, the plot line would tax our suspension of disbelief.  What vulnerable group of workers who trust the judgment of a privileged woman in her early 20s.  Sure, employment lawsuits, both individual and class-action, are soaring, but those are another kettle of fish.  During the suit, the plaintiffs tend to be protected by law and public opinion.  Also they could win big, especially through being awarded damages.  Their career path also no longer runs out of runway. 

For example, when gay associate Aaron Charney sued his employer law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, most assumed he was finished.  In addition, few predicted he would get any where with the suit.  It turned out well for Charney.  Sullivan & Cromwell settled.  He purchased a pricey condo in Manhattan.  He also landed on his feet with another BigLaw job.

Today, the role of Skeeter would likely be configured as a public-interest attorney who organized the help into a class-action lawsuit.