Over-50

Shock: The work world/Gawker saw me as "old," then I got over that, now I work 90 hours a week

Inner peace, plus plenty of energy now available to put in 90 hours a week in my professional activities.  Those are the rewards I earned from 18 months of emotional and career hell.

Somehow I got a bee in my bonnet to take on a full time job, after years of being a free agent.  I got interviews.  But likely those inviting me to showcase my edge didn't Google me.  Otherwise they would have known I was in my 60s.  As soon as I entered their office, well, you know: It was over.

In addition, Gawker, the iconoclastic site, flamed me.  One of my crimes was being an old lady.  I admitted I was indeed that on my three syndicated blogs.

As the cliche goes, whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger.  By bits and pieces I regrouped.  Yes, I was old. Now what?  One of my strategies was to seek out work that could be done in the background, instead of on the front lines which is represented by the youth culture.  Another was being more negotiable about billing.  A third was simply regaining my confidence.

What a happy ending this tale has.  I did land a full time job. Since it's essentially telecommuting I can also take on freelance assignments. After all, the work contract only requires my being available and producing content from 9 to 5. 

I have returned to trusting myself, just as I did when I was a young girl running wild on the mean streets of Jersey City, New Jersey.  I had lost that hold on an inner self when the Sisters of Charity at Seton Hill College, Greensburg, Pennsylvania seemed to make it their mission to remold me in the image and likeness of whatever. 

I have money, again.  In about 15 months I won't have to wait for  snail mail with credit-card balance-transfer offers. And, somehow by some gift from the universe I am finally over the profound grief of losing my trusty animal companion Molly Mittens 6.5 years ago.  She's gone.  She's not coming back. 

On May 3rd, I will be 68. Thanks to the brutal rite of passage which accompanies the acceptance of aging I will head into my 70s as a totally confident professional woman.  Maybe that's the Baby Boomer's version of Leaning In.

Online Video Misleads Us To Believe Business Is The World According To Youth

From all corners of the world for all lines of work, online video features Millennials providing the news, participating in panels, and interviewing other Millennials. 

Here, for example, is TechCrunch's online video of Millennial women discussing guilt as they Lean In. Clearly, in a visual era youth is on the front lines and many of Baby Boomers aren't invited to be part of that conversation which is in the growing stock of online video. Now and then there is an exception, of course.  A few weeks ago I was interviewed on ABC NEWS (Diane Sawyer) about competing against Millennials and Generation Xers for a job.  Here is that clip.

Once we accept the reality and implications of a youth video culture we Baby Boomers can then regroup for assignments and jobs off-stage.  What slowed down the recovery of my communications boutique after the worst of the two recessions in the 21st century had been my reluctance to become a support player.  After all, we Baby Boomers were the generation which disrupted the "Father Knows Best" white bread culture in America.  As affluence grew, there were plenty of professional opportunities which we took and accumulated influence, status, and even some wealth.

Now, that I don't expect to be invited onstage, even for a bit part, my services are back in demand.  I have both a job and a list of clients who value my ideas and the content I produce.  All it took was, well, living with the consequences of aging.  Getting older doesn't mean less work or less money.  What it could me is a much lower profile.

Judi Dench: Failing Eyesight, Memory Just Problems To Be Solved

Iconic actress Judi Dench, who's probably at her best when playing Mean Lady parts, still works full time.  She is appearing in the play "Peter and Alice."

At age 78 she manages that by positioning losses such as of her eyesight from macular degeneration as simply problems to be solved, not a reason for hanging up a career.  As THE TELEGRAPH reports, she has people reading her scripts to her while she memorizes the lines.

Telecommuting: But still tethered to 9 to 5

On the one hand, telecommuting for my current assignment saves me a bundle of money.  The cost of transportation from my home office in New Haven, Connecticut to lower Manhattan is not an expense I can sustain.  In addition, there is the chunk of change demanded by lunch out, even in Mickey D.

On the other hand, this is not an ideal situation.  The ideal? Working from a laptop on an island somewhere where you don't need a car and it never snows.  The current arrangement mandates that I serve the client from 9 to 5 and be available online during that time.

Since I have been a free agent from the end of the 1980s, when Kraft restructured and cut corporate employees loose, I have been working on My Time.  That's a difficult habit to unlearn.

Time will tell if I can adjust.  If not, fortunately, with the recovery, there is a whole lot more work out there for ghostwriters.

Baby Boomers At Work: Let's not dare be old white women, old white men

Whether we Baby Boomers are employees or operating as free agents or entrepreneurs, we appear downright goofy if we present ourselves according to the 20th century ethos of white bread.  That's because ethnic, immigrant, and/or people-of-color values dominate.  Those include hustle, searching for opportunity versus planning, expressiveness, informality, risk-taking, and ability to function amidst ambiguity. 

That's hard.  Many of us came of professional age within the buttoned-down, bottom-down WASP mindset of Corporate America.  We made good money and got ahead by acting like the white women and white men we were. Now that's over, even in Corporate America itself.  The leadership at GE is not white bread.

A useful how-to for detoxing from that conditioning is the book "The Startup of You" by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.

Mitt Romney: Can he learn from mistakes?

Mitt Romney, who lost his run for the White House, told those at the Conservative Political Action Conference, to learn from his mistakes, reports POLITICO.  However, one wonders if he himself has learned from them.

For example, he didn't invite political rock star Chris Christie to the event.  Christie's approval rating in New Jersey is high and he has made an ally of Jeb Bush.  In terms of the GOP, conservative Christie goes his own way.  In his keynote speech at the Republican National Convention, Christie's speech was self-oriented, not focused on Romney.  However, this is a leader Romney is not smart shutting out.

Romney can become a role model of an aging political figure who can't manage to change with emerging realities.

All the Fat Guys: Gone, replaced by new professional irritants

One of the unexpected gifts of living longer is that we do get relief from our obsessions with those who professionally did us wrong.  Or, at least who we perceive bullied, betrayed, systematically tormented or cheated us.  We simply acquire new enemies and there are only so many villains we can accommodate in our minds and hearts.

It was a surprise that one winter day I woke up and All The Fat Guys weren't there with me, the first thought of the day.  So deeply attached was I to the memory of my grievances with those supposed bad guys that I published a novel some years ago titled "The Fat Guy From Greenwich." Here are the first few chapters Download FGFGchapters1,2.  And here is the video trailer for the book http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIWY1o2Efxk.

Who are the new bad guys and girls in my professional life?  Actually they are fewer in number than when I was young and could truly work up a hate.  One is a client from two years ago who opined that he was my only account, that I had no other business.  Fortunately his own work doesn't seem to be going well.  Another is the creep who probably had no intention of contracting me for his business but conned me (shame on me) to driving to his office twice.  Unfortunately his business is doing quite well.

At most I have about 20 more years of working.  After that it's eventually off to that great word processor in the sky.  Is there total peace of mind there, with no one's faults to focus on?  I can't image myself in that kind of spiritual state.

U.S. - Not ranked as great place to spend our aging years

In our travels, we might keep our eyes open to a nation where it might be less expensive to retire than in the U.S.  Increasingly we are hearing the recommendations on earning money in the U.S. and then living off it in another nation.

A new report from the NGAM Durable Portfolio tells us that the U.S. ranks 19th in places to retire.  BUSINESS INSIDER carries the story that other countries which have universal health care are better bets.  For example, it is not unusual in the U.S. for an elderly couple to shell out about $250,000 on various illnesses in their so-called Golden Years.  In addition, the quality of life might be better in a country like Norway which is ranked first. 

There are books in the public library on how to plan to retire abroad.  Among the low-cost places are Mexico, Costa Rica, Bulgaria, and parts of Spain.  

Those 236,000 Jobs Created in February: Baby Boomers can leverage experience

According to the U.S. Labor Department, 236,000 jobs had been created in February and unemployment is down to 7.7%. 

There is not only reason for us Baby Boomers to hope that we will get what we want in terms of employment or running our own businesses.  There is also reason to realize that, with a growing economy rather than one operating on cost-efficiency, experience will again be valued.  And that employers and clients will pay for it.

Here is my story.  On Monday I will be starting a full-time position in lower Manhattan with an ecommerce company.  Most of the tasks can be done via telecommuting.  To get this opportunity I had to compete with professionals in their late 20s and early 30s.  My hunch is that I was hired based on my extensive experience in the field of legal communications.  The law-related blog I have been operating since 2006 might have helped too.

Our key strength may be that we have already encountered many of the problems employers and clients need to solve and that we have been around long enough to develop insight about trends and fads.

Baby Boomers & Working: Setting our minds to it

Sometimes age has nothing to do with it.  Sometimes what gets us that plum assignment or job is the mindset.  We are determined to speedread the situation on an interview and pull out the best and most compelling evidence that we are the perfect fit for what that organization needs.

Relentlessly I competed with professionals in their late 20s and early 30s for a full-time mostly telecommuting legal communications opportunity.  I got the job.  I am 67 years old.  On this platform I can build my new career path, which I have a hunch can be lucrative. 

There is a saying: Change or die (at least in the sense of being highly employable).  I changed.  There were times, though, that I thought that I was dying.