Over-50

Nostalgia - From Don Draper's Kodak Presentation to Gen Z

The hunger for what was.

On "Mad Men," Don Draper captured that chase in his presentation for the Kodak carousel.

His specific pitch was the pain and confusion of transitioning from childhood to teenage years. So, there is the reaching back to the known. Here is that iconic pitch.

Now, in real life, report Axios, Gen Z is experiencing that same pull force. TikTok is in sync with that. Yesterday's brandnames and fashions are, for example, back again. 

What youth most crave is the slower pace of a very different time.

Maybe they're onto something big. And they're not alone. In an interview with Bloomberg Law, it was the chairperson of elite law firm Paul Weiss Brad Karp who put it this way:

“'We have to push the brakes in today’s world to deal with the mental health and emotional stability of our community,' he said. 'It is probably the most important single issue I’ve grappled with during the pandemic.'”

The slow movement is, of course, not new. It originated in Italy in 1989. The meme is that faster isn't necessarily better.

One major way it has seeped into Americana had been through the embrace of eastern philosophy, especially Buddhism. Its central practice - meditation - slows down humans' "monkey mind" so that its workings can be observed. Those in that kind of trance get it: So, that's how I'm thinking and why I'm going wrong.

Every Thursday evening, the Tucson, Arizona Shambhala Buddhist Center provides a no-cost reading of text (often from the writings of American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron), a 20-minute meditation session, discussion, and another five minutes of meditation. Then there is a chant for the well-being of all sentient creatures.

Marketers are no slouches when it comes to leveraging trends into platforms for promotions. Expect plenty of yesterday to be featured during this holiday selling season. 

Marketing communications. It’s about results. Not quantity. Not clickbait. Not even influence. Together we will get those results. Clients range from American Express to industrial accounts. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

Yes, We're Saving - Up to $2.7 Trillion

The mindset among so many of us has become: Don't dip into savings. 

And that's how the nation piled up $2.7 trillion in hoarded cash. Many of us have no intention of shaking that loose. After all, we could live until age 100 or more. 

That's exactly why I have made decisions such as going to Mexico (Dental Tourism) for dental procedures. That will save me about 60 percent of what it would have cost me to go to a U.S. dental specialist. And I won't have to go into savings.

There's also the fear of inflation. We baby boomers had lived through times when it was wild. In this turbulent economy it could become wild again. It's not unthinkable that could leave us homeless.

Also, I have put off retirement for about four more years. Emotionally, I need income coming in.

Have we become our parent's The Great Depression oddballs when it comes to money? Could be.

Marketing communications. It’s about results. Not quantity. Not clickbait. Not even influence. Together we will get those results. Clients range from American Express to industrial accounts. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

We've Shaken Off the Fear - Management Is Reeling, Clients Might Not Find a Vendor

"This year’s bold career move is walking out the door." - Kathryn Dill, The Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2021.

Between April and August of this year, according to federal data, 20 million had done just that.

Those of us who are self-employed have gone bold in other ways. At the top of the list is downshifting from how much work we will take on. Even if that means less income, that's okay. 

COVID may be easing up but this disruption in the attitudes and behavior of the workforce could just be getting started.

Notice something? That traditional emotional set among those who have to earn a living - fear - is fading. Fearlessly, employees at Deere went on strike.

Maybe this is because we are less hooked on maximzing earning power. And, come on, we know we can find work. Even with incredible age bias, those of us over-65 are getting, holding, and moving on to better work. (Here is my free guide on that Download Outwitting ageism)

A chill should be going through the corridors of management in every sector. 

The Great Resignation, along with downshifting, shows no signs of abating. Fearlessly, we know that the odds are good that we can make a living.

And, that's what it is being recognized as, that is, working is about making a living. The extreme hustle ethos traditionally embedded in work is losing its glam. In fact, when talking with Bloomberg Law, Paul Weiss Chairperson Brad Karp hammered the necessity of "pushing the brakes" on work as it's configured today. At risk is emotional stability.

So, what could be the solution for business leadership to accommodate the post-COVID workforce? JayRothman, Chief Executive Officer of law firm Foley & Lardner, had hit on something in his interview about attrition with Law.com. He observed that law firms have to give employees a reason to come into work. That is, there has to be a connection.

I interpret that as creating and nurturing human touchpoints.

Yes, care.

In the worst of times, that is as society had been adjusting to the Industrial Revolution, novelist Charles Dickens fingered the milk of human kindness as the way through that. People should be kind to one another. Management, as Ebenezer Scrooge learned, should be kind to workers.

Essentially that's how Dickens defined what it means to be human. And, that's what so many of us former hustlers are striving for: to circle back to our humanity. Mine got crushed during my doctoral studies at an elite university.

Of course, business can be downright ham-handed in the attempt to be kind. For example, in announcing the reopening of offices next month gigantic law firm Kirkland & Ellis noted that there would be free eats. Those will include breakfast, lunch and snacks. But to associates deeply resenting being back in the office that could be experienced as a "Let Them Eat Cake" gesture. 

Kindness policies require putting a human in charge of creating and implementing them. That's the rub right now: Trying to find a human being to lead a business function. 

Intuitive guidance about your career. Drop your story line and open to extreme possibility. Sliding Scale Fees. Please make an appointment for a complimentary consultation at janegenova374@gmail.com.

Retirement and Relocation - One More Reason to Follow the Sun (plus worry about the price of gas and dental procedures)

"According to the Energy Information Administration, nearly half of U.S. households that warm their homes with mainly natural gas can expect to spend an average of 30% more on their bills compared with last year. The agency added that bills would be 50% higher if the winter is 10% colder than average and 22% higher if the winter is 10% warmer than average." - J.J. McCorvey, The Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2021.

The "expense penalty" of heating with natural gas is not new. Until I relocated from the frigid midwest last December, I was paying a king's ranson in winter to keep even moderately warm (lots of sweaters). That was from late fall until the end of March. The natural gas bills were wild.

Since the relocation to sun-drenched Sierra Vista, Arizona, the bill for heating has been manageable. Not peanuts. But never eye-popping.

The cost of energy - ranging from house utilities to transportation - will continue to be a major challenge to those of us over-65. It's a wild card in the global economy. And one in our budgets.

About 18 months ago I also took an emergency review of the price of gasoline. Yes, it was about 15% less in Ohio than in nearby Pennsylvania.

But, still, since I cope emotionally by taking long day trips the expense was something I had to review. The solution was to buy a Smart Car. It gets 40 miles to a gallon. 

Although small, the Smart Car has amazing pick-up. In my cross-country relocation, it took all the highways wonderfully. The only challenge, given its limited gas capacity, was to ensure I didn't hit empty in the remote areas such as stretches of New Mexico. 

Next week, it will take me to Mexico for Dental Tourism. There I will save about 65% on dental procedures. Going outside the U.S. in order to preserve our teeth is one more way we can manage our finances. Being within driving distance of Nogales, Mexico, where are extensive dental facilities, was a major reason I had chosen to rehome myself in the southwest.

Marketing communications. It’s about results. Not quantity. Not clickbait. Not even influence. Together we will get those results. Clients range from American Express to industrial accounts. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

Hey, Kathleen Huebner, I'm Back in Arizona, But Haven't Shaken Off the Hurt

It was a time of transition.

And those times are always full of both wild hope and intense fear. In my late 60s, I had decided to relocate myself, the rescue dog, and my communications and coaching boutiques from the New York Metro area to someplace less expensive and less age-biased. That was Tucson, Arizona.

The only person I knew there (and it's unfortunate I did) had been former college acquaintance Kathleen Huebner. From the get-go the experience of interacting with her had been traumatic - and what to this this day I recall as so hurtful. Here is a recounting of that nightmare.

After about 27 months, I left Tucson. My business had been doing well. I had paid off debt. But The Ghost of Huebner hovered over me. Call it crazy. Or label that as not being able to absorb and process that kind of shock. 

Well, I'm back. For 10 months I have been operating my business and living my life about 70 miles from Tucson. It's going well.

There's enough business coming in.

I'm taking Spanish lessons.

Despite my age - it's supposed to be near-impossible for the aging to make new friends - I have done that. They helped me get through the death last January of the rescue dog LOV who had been my soulmate on that initial relocation in the southwest.

LOV passed over from heart failure. But again, for the second journey here, he had been with me. This time it was in a Smart Car. For the 2,123 miles from the midwest to Sierra Vista, Arizona, he had been curled up in my lap. Plenty of kisses.

And the clinical depression I had struggled with since age 11 seems to have gone into remission.

But, I can't exit the force field of betrayal that I perceived played out in 2014. There are kinds of pain which occur in certain parts of our lives that can't be shaken. Maybe they're not meant to be. Maybe they're intended to be a lesson. For me that has been not to reach back to the past but to be totally open to the present. Nostalgia is an emotion hazardous to our lives as we age. 

Intuitive guidance about your career. Drop your story line and open to extreme possibility. Sliding Scale Fees. Please make an appointment for a complimentary consultation at janegenova374@gmail.com.

Parent Plus Loans - Dooming Aging to Lifetime Debt, Ranging from Robert Pemberton to Trina Saverin

Parent Plus loans. There has been the play out of this American debt tragedy, mostly inflicted on aging parents, throughout America.

Until recently, this story hadn't been featured in influential media. Now, that is changing. 

Parent Plus educational loans are available to parents and graduate students. Unlike undergraduate loans there is no limit on the amount that can be borrowed. There is also no determination of the ability to pay back the amount borrowed, in addition to the interest which will inevitably pile up. And the interest rate is higher than on a number of other educational loans.

Insider had recently featured the pickle Robert Pemberton, 64, is in. He will probably work into his 80s and still not be able to pay off the $265,000 in educational loan debt. He took out the Parent Plus loans to help fund college for his two children. Meanwhile, the meter keeps running on the interest. Down on his luck, the last we heard of him he was employed in a very low-paying situation.

Now The Wall Street Journal goes there again into Parent Plus territory. It features Trina Saverin, age 53, with $231,000 in Parent Plus debt. She took out those loans for her two children's college education and her own Master degree. The WSJ notes:

"Some of the wealthiest U.S. colleges [such as Baylor] are steering parents into no-limit federal loans to cover rising tuition, leaving many poor and middle-class families with debt they can’t repay."

That's allegedly how Baylor could become a brandname institution of higher education. 

Given the hype about the importance of a college degree and the love parents have for their children, it's a piece of cake to have parents loop into this educational loan program.

The dangers associated with taking on such debt keep increasing in this era of such volatility in the work world - and in life. When Pemberton signed up for the loans he had a six-figure job. Then there was a merger and that high earning power went kaput. In addition, medical bills for his wife increased his financial woes. 

The recent media coverage of this growing debt problem may provide warning to parents who are well-intentioned about "helping out" their offspring with college costs. Or they might consider it a good idea to finance an advanced degree later in life for their own professional upward mobility or a career change with Parent Plus loan funds.

Obviously, these articles are also a nudge to Congress to investigate the practices associated with Parent Plus lending.

Intuitive guidance about your career. Drop your story line and open to extreme possibility. Sliding Scale Fees. Please make an appointment for a complimentary consultation at janegenova374@gmail.com.

Confirmed that Social Security COLA for 2022 Is 5.9%: But That Won't Go Far

"Next year’s cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, will be 5.9%, the Social Security Administration said Wednesday. The increase will translate to an addition of $92 to retirees’ average monthly benefit next year, bringing the amount to $1,657." - The Wall Street Journal, October 13, 2021.

This is the largest increase in 40 years. But, given inflation in necessities such as rent and groceries, it won't go far. The estimates are that rent is expected to surge 10% in 2022 and food 8%.

Already, Sierra Vista, Arizona, which attracts the retired and semiretired, is being rocked by both. In Sierra Carmichael apartment complex overall rents went up across the board by $50 a month and pet rent by 50%. Many renters are on fixed incomes.

At the local Walmart, walk around the food sections and the price increases look like funny money. On a number of items such as frozen grilled diced chicken the price tag is a buck more. 

One way of coping is to keep working. Few can actually afford to retire. That's because of such long life spans. The fear is running out of money.

Another is to return to work. According the Federal Reserve, one-third of retirees have bounced back into the workforce. It's mostly because of angst about having ends meet. 

Should you feel rusty about your job-search skills or jittery about age bias, here is my guide on how to get, hold, and move on to better work, no matter your age. It's free to download Download Outwitting ageism.

Intuitive guidance about your career. Drop your story line and open to extreme possibility. Sliding Scale Fees. Please make an appointment for a complimentary consultation at janegenova374@gmail.com.

Glamorizing Hustle Culture - We Baby Boomers Started That

Our parents simply went to work. Some even were in white-collar jobs like accounting or middle management. Then they came home each evening and that was that. No bringing work home. Instead they turned on the evening news.

On the popular televsion series of the 1950s "Father Knows Best" employee in the insurance industry Jim Anderson was home for dinner every night. And he was "there." He listened to everyone's problems and shared their joys. 

Then we baby boomers came along.

Low-cost college education and the opportunities of the post-war economy unleashed in us intense ambition. There was a shot at making it big and we went for it.

Along the way The Career Advice industry emerged to guide our every move.

Yes, go for the M.B.A.

Here's how to comport yourself if you sense the boss will be fired.

Dress like those do in the position you're heading toward.

We were our work.

Parents, both males and females, weren't home for dinner. There was a struggle to hire and retain the best nannies.

Single women without children like myself were what employers wanted. We could hop on a plane without notice to solve a problem in the plant in Canada or Mexico. 

And born was what LinkedIn News calls "The Hustle Culture."

Even though many of us currentlyy are beyond normal retirement age we are still our work. We can't shake that our professional identify is the primary one.

Those of our colleagues forced to retire and who can't put a Work Next together usually wither. I have observed that when I visited former college acquaintance Kathleen Huebner in Oro Valley, Arizona. Although she had had a succesful career she opted to retire in one of those retirement communities. Mostly what I had heard was those gushing about their previous careers. There was no there in the present. 

Now, The Hustle Culture, which we made glam, is being vilified. It's been fingered for everything from burnout to an inability to connect on a deep level.

In my coaching those over-50 the focus is on simply easing up, even a little, on the compulsion to keep achieving. There is no expectation of being totally liberated from an ethos which anointed work as sacred. The irony is that those letting go even just a bit become more successful. Essentially they drop the story line of past whatever and immerse themselves in the now.

As for younger generations, they are a fragmented bunch.

Some Gen Zers have decided work will be just a part of their lives and on their terms. Those include operating remotely.

Then there are the strivers captured in "Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life." It's by former Yale Professor William Dersiewicz. That subculture within youth is trapped in a constant hustle. They fear making a mistake or getting a bad grade. Therefore, they freeze into cartoon characters chasing what they have been told are the rules for success.

The good news is that hustle can be tamed. The silver lining in the pandemic was that, with one's life on the line, there was reflection about how that life was being lived. What has resulted is a deep rethinking about work. Insider reports that recently in one month five million workers quit. They refused to do The Hustle.

Since we started The Hustle, we can be in the front lines for reducing its influence. The first step is to humanize how we work. Be kind to our employees and vendors. Find  in satisfaction in serving employers and clients/customers. And, forgive ourselves, if we didn't quite make the big time. 

Intuitive guidance about your career. Drop your story line and open to extreme possibility. Sliding Scale Fees. Please make an appointment for a complimentary consultation at janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Another Shift in Medical Advice - No Daily Aspirin for Over-60

"People in their 60s or older shouldn’t take aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke because risks likely cancel out the potential benefits, according to a government-backed panel of medical experts." - The Wall Street Journal, October 12, 2021.

The risk is assessed to outweigh any benefit. That risk is internal bleeding in the stomach or intestines.

So, that's another major change in what the healthcare professionals have been hammering us with. 

The pickel we are in is: What to believe? 

The good news is that there is plenty of medical information available online. If we go to a number of sources and connect the dots we may be able to provide ourselves with guidance about our decisions about our health. That's work. But it pays off.

Such research helped me request the medication which has turned out to be effective treatment for clinical depression. Before I did that a supposed expert on clinical depression had tried to foist on me something that would have been not only inappropriate. It also had big-time side effects.

Part of taking care of ourselves has to be DIY.

Marketing communications. It’s about results. Not quantity. Not clickbait. Not even influence. Together we will get those results. Clients range from American Express to industrial accounts. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

A Model Which Could Play Out Wonderfully for Your Business: Amazon's Fragmented/Decentralized Policy about Where Work Will Be Done

Like many businesses, Amazon has found it necessary to change its plans about where work will be done.

Until now, that plan had been a return to the office on January 3, 2022, three days a week.

That has been replaced by a fragmented, essentially decentralized approach, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Amazon's Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy has accounced:

“We expect that there will be teams that continue working mostly remotely, others that will work some combination of remotely and in the office, and still others that will decide customers are best served having the team work mostly in the office."

Those in a hybrid situation will be able to operate four weeks remotely anywhere each year. Those in a total remote mode will have to be located so that they can be in the office with a day's notice. 

In addition, he added that many of the decisions about the actual number of days employees work from the office or on what specific days will be decided on a decentralized basis. That is, the policies will be determined by directors, in consultation with their teams and senior leaders.

The extreme flexibility of this fragmented/decentralized model could be one that would accommodate most or all of businesses' constituencies - clients/customers, executives, workers, investors, and communities. Some departments, for example, could function totally remotely and the decision to make that the policy would be in the hands of the manager overseeing the group.

Intuitive guidance about your career. Drop your story line and open to extreme possibility. Sliding Scale Fees. Please make an appointment for a complimentary consultation at janegenova374@gmail.com.