Over-50

Laughing at The Rules - We Never Grow Up Totally, Do We!

“'These men shoveled thousands and thousands of dollars of foreign money to U.S. politicians, laughing about how they were breaking the law along the way,' [Aline] Flodr [Assistant US Attorney] said in the prosecution’s opening statement in the trial [of Lev Parnas, et al. ]'"  - John Gerstein, Politico, October 15, 2021.

That hubris ethos mirrors the confident values of the members Sopranos tribe, especially as they enjoyed themselves at Bada Bing. 

And that could probably what irks the prosecution: scorn for the standard rules of law. Humor is one of the most cruel and effective weapons. That observation goes back to John's Milton epic "Paradise Lost." Satan heaped humor on righteous values. Ouch.

The trial is about Parnas' alleged filtering of $100,000 from Russian businessperson Andrey Muraviev to political candidates as a kind of bribe nudge. It's contended those funds were intended to grease the wheels for Muraviev to establish a cannabis enterprise in the U.S. Parnas is connected to Rudy Giuliani.

Parnas' lawyer is Joseph Bondy who argues that his client did not know the alleged stealth agenda. Of course, ignorance of the law is no excuse.

With "The Many Saints of Newark" in movie theatres, the fascination with the Sopranos hubris is back. That could hover as presence in the courtroom.

Few of us have outgrown our adolescent love of expressing scorn for the rules. And outwitting the system. Even supposedly fully grown up, we admire the bad guys.

It would be wise for Parnas not to smirk during the trial.

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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.

Baby Boomers, We Aren't Too Old to Learn New Tricks: Facebook Upends How to Manage Crisis

"After four years of almost continuous scandal, Facebook is approaching its latest controversy over political polarization and the toxic effects of social media in a more aggressive and defiant way than it has previously, say current and former employees, including executives who helped shape the company’s earlier responses." - The Washington Post, October 4, 2021.

Yes, baby boomers, who came of age in a whole different era of how public relations and personal career tactics were done, listen up. We may have to toss all that as increasingly ineffective. Both for our businesses and our personal branding. 

Through this positioning of the statements, the confident tone, and the piling on of what it claims constitutes "evidence," Facebook is navigating its current challenges much like a defense attorney would represent a client.

Defense lawyers, as we are experiencing in "US v Elizabeth Holmes," operate in a kind of surreal universe. They will put forth and support any theory and, if they are part of Big Law, will leverage their tremendous resources to decimate what the opposing counsel puts out there. That's exactly why trials are so engrossing. As with football, we are caught up in the defense's strategies. 

An example of Facebook's shift from mea culpa/promises for reform to we-are-innocent is how its vice president of communications and policy Nick Clegg interprets America's polarization and violence, especially during elections. He notes that in mature democracies, unlike that of the U.S., such just doesn't happen. Hmm. The source of the troubles is America's relative immaturity.

That's an interesting perspective. The analogue from the defense bar is how lawyers in trials will conjure up a theory about an alternate suspect. In "Holmes," Williams & Connolly is attempting to finger everyone from the folks in the lab to the defendant's former lover to be the source of what is allegedly fraud. 

Operating from this new playbook, Facebook could be disrupting much of public relations, particularly the orthodoxies about crisis management. Instead of the apology and being as transparent as possible, those in the soup could go on the offense. Just as brilliant defense lawyers do. Recall the Dream Team in the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Is that a form of gaslighting? Some might put it that way.

Meanwhile, Facebook is facing mounting troubles. In the U.S. alone the attacks are coming from Congress, the FTC, media, and parents. The danger for that social network is that fighting all those battles could distract it from how it is creating its future. That includes a focus on virtual reality and hardware production. 

Some might recall how Microsoft lost traction in innovation after it settled the government's antitrust case against it in 2001. It seemed to become risk-averse.

On the other hand, during these crises Facebook could be reimaging itself into a stronger, more imaginative player in the global court of public opinion. All the niches within the communications industry could be shaken to the core. They will have to rethink how to be effective. Part of that could be to undo much of what has been established in corporate values as a result of ESG (environmental social governance). There will be no longer taking on the protective coloring of ESG ideologies.

Also, we baby boomers will present ourselves as on the offense. No more mea culpas for aging. 

Intuitive readings 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.

But, Could You Be Shady Enough?

"NEED 5 SHADY people SHADY RUTHLESS PEOPLE - NO BACKGROUND CHECKS (NYC)" - Help-wanted on Craigslist New York City section.

Of course, the description of the work that follows what's in the subject head is equally lacking in the usual corporatese or we-are-changing-the-world startup rhetoric. 

Also, another of-course is that the compensation promised is big-time.

Less is more. PAN Communications found consumers are only paying attention to about 1/16^th of your content. So, together let's create the marketing communications that engage them. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

Baby Boomers: We English Majors Were Able to Make a Very Good Living

"Human memory is fallible. That’s why defense lawyers like to age their cases — and why prosecutors were so frustrated with the multiple delays in trying Elizabeth Holmes for her role at the failed blood-testing company Theranos. Given enough time, people forget things. That can open the door for reasonable doubt." - Elizabeth Lopatto, The Verge, October 1, 2021.

Of course, that's true. But, as Lopatto goes on to discuss, it's not that true. Not any more when the prosecution can have as exhibits email threads and texts. And that's exactly what the prosecution in "US v Elizabeth Holmes" has been presenting in court.

The skilled lead lawyer from Williams & Connolly Lance Wade is chipping away at the strength of that kind of digital evidence. However, the testimony of the former Theranos lab head Dr. Adam Rosendorff still is damning. It positions and packages Theranos founder Holmes as aware of the flaws in the finger-prick technology. 

The defense strategy had been to place the burden of blame for any funny stuff at the startup on the folks in the lab. Dr. Rosendorff had anticipated that. That's why, despite the NDA he signed banning copying office email to a personal account, he did that.

Right now, Holmes looks culpable. However, the defense hasn't put on its own case yet.

Meanwhile, youth interested in science careers might have second thoughts. Dr. Rosendorff was only pulling down $240,000 at Theranos.

In 2003, my younger sister Anne Murga-Ring, with only a Master degree in public health from a non-elite university, had earned almost $200,000 annually. That was as a vice president in administration for a small hospital in Bayonne, New Jersey. That was not a STEM job. 

STEM may seem sexy. But many career paths in it aren't lucrative. Law and Wall Street often pay more. For example, associates, right out of law school, are being paid $205,000 in entry-level positions in large law firms. They usually aren't bringing hands-on experience into the job. With  one or two bonuses, the annual compensation could approach Dr. Rosendorff's $240,000.

Seven months after I hung out a shingle in communications in 1987 I was grossing the equivalent in 2021 dollars of what Dr. Rosendorff had been earning. And without his responsbility. He also wound up with more than seven years of legal bills.

Those intruding in aka guiding the career choices of youth and career-changers should give them the straight story about earnings, responsibiity, and even legal liability. The worst that will happen to me in communications is that the client is unhappy with the tone of the content marketing and doesn't use me again as a vendor. Yeah, and I was a English major in college. Plus, in my 70s right now, I am still marketable. 

"US v Holmes" is exposing not only the ugly underbelly of the Silicon Valley ethos. It is also blowing up assumptions about STEM.

Dr. Rosendorff didn't have a glam job. Along my career path in communications I have flown on the private jets of so many business leaders. I had taken the ferry from Connecticut to clients in the Hamptons. What I had researched and ghostwritten had been published in establishment media such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. 

Reflection: Prevailing memes frequently are platforms for great suffering. The current dominant ones deal with careers.

Intuitive readings 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.

 

Aging Law Partners: Are You Still Dancing as Fast as You Can, Yet Not Feeling Good about Your Job Performance?

Overall, it's a given that suicide is common among high-achievers. The example which haunts the legal sector has been that of Sidley Austin partner Gabe MacConaill in 2018.

Also, it's well-known that mental illness and substance abuse occur at a higher rate among lawyers than professionals in a number of other career paths.

Could this be traced back to how those who wound up practicing law got it in high school that they better achieve high grades? Otherwise their professional possibilities could be limited? 

Researchers at the University of Ottawa found a correlation between youth who strived for top grades in high school and anxiety and depression later in life.

Essentially that could be informally labeled "The Perfectionism Syndrome." Some recall that MacConaill's widow Joanna Litt published a commentary in Law.com. She attributed the suicide to her husband's maladaptive perfectionism. He couldn't do any aspect of his job not perfectly, be it mentoring summers or managing a major bankruptcy.

The Ottawa study conducted by Shari Endleman et al. has been published in the International Journal of Behavioral Development. Here is a copy of that research. And, here is a copy of the University's press release about the study.

The study strikes a nerve with just about anyone who had gotten caught up in chasing grades in high school and then in higher education. It's a game. Those determined to succeed in it know they have to discern the rules. The rules include, for example, being able to ferret out what the instructor "wants." Is it original thought or boilerplate? The consequences of not winning through those rules are severe. The academic transcript is there forever. Those "B" grades during the college sophomore slump have to be explained in the application to law school. The admission committee could buy that or not. 

So, what should lawyers do if they find that The Perfectionism Syndrome holds them emotionally and spiritually hostage? The pragmatic approach, unlike how MacConaill approached his career, is to assess when perfect performance is necessary and where it's not. Of course, in preparing legal documents things must be perfect. In other tasks such as supervising summers, maybe not. And does every interaction with a superior, a client, or a prospect have to be perfect? Usually it's possible to smooth over less-than-perfect connections.

It's not rocket science to recognize that a lawyer is a victim of The Perfectionism Syndrome. One junior associate I coached described the pickle she was in as "dancing as fast as I can and still not feeling that was enough." She came to learn to size up the rules of work games she was in. Then she could make decisions about which demanded perfect performance and which she simply could play less intensely. 

Here's an analogy. Those astute in game-playing in my doctoral studies figured out quickly that winning was about course grades, research, and relationships with professors. It was not about the quality of teaching, at least not years ago. So, they didn't strive to be perfect in teaching. Those who assumed they had to excel across the board had a very difficult time in the program and usually wound up not being able to land the kind of job they wanted.

Intuitive readings about your career. Open yourself to extreme possibility. Sliding Scale Fees. Please make an appointment at janegenova374@gmail.com.

Happy-Clappy Visions Dancing in Our Baby Boomer Heads - From the Counterculture to ESG

"US corporate governance norms are based on the shareholder value model, which enshrines maximizing shareholder profits as a company’s raison d’être." - Anna Held in "The Problem with Corporate 'Values'" published by VOX, September 29, 2021.

And, it is governance - which isn't sexy like the environmental and social part of ESG - that is shaping the actual behavior of corporations.

Much of the media coverage about ESG really is only happy-clappy rhetoric.

The Friedman Doctrine, which had become standard in business thinking in the 1970s, remains intact. It champions maximizing returns to shareholders. It also throws shade on the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

As The Harvard Business Review points out, CSR preceeded the current embrace of social justice. It hammers that what is positioned and packaged as a values revolution now - that is, ESG - is qualitatively different than the old-line CSR. ESG is not CSR. There is no continiuum from the CSR ideology to what's already hardened into ESG values orthodoxy. CSR was about social issue marketing and philanthropy. ESG is about a revolution. 

About 80% of corporations have posted on their website their values. But, usually they embed platitudes about the supposed right thing to do or are meaningless because they don't provide examples of that supposed right thing to do. 

Face it, society may be a long way from experiencing a shift to a more humane model of business. 

This could be analogous to the expectations of a political paradigm shift during the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Those inside that movement believed it was happening. Those outside knew better. The severe recession in the early 1970s put the kibosh on that vision of power to the people. 

Those of us baby boomers who were on the front lines of the counterculture wound up feeling the pain of disappointment. We came to realize how slowly political and other kinds of change become the new norm. That's why we are wary of the current hopes about business values becoming people-oriented.

That's us.

There are also the businesses which have to do a highwire act in this era of ESG values. They have to both satisfy their shareholders and demonstrate good faith about the fundamentals of ESG. 

That's exactly where law firms are finding new ways to serve their corporate clients.

More and more of them have developed practices which go by monikers related to ESG. The purpose of those ESG practices is to guide corporations through this terrain filled with stock-price, branding, board oversight, media, labor relations, community, political, and legal ESG landmines.

An early adopter in providing this unique ESG service has been Paul Weiss, chaired by Bard Karp. That was way back in April 2020. It was way ahead of its peers in picking up on the extreme trouble corporations could get into as they are pulled in so many directions.  

Here is how Paul Weiss has structured its ESG mission:

"Business leaders face greater pressure to increase their organizations’ resilience while simultaneously addressing social issues of importance to stakeholders. Our advisory practice helps companies navigate the legal, business and political ramifications of developing and implementing ESG initiatives. We advise on matters such as stakeholder engagement, corporate governance, crisis management, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, diversity and inclusion, ethics and compliance."

No one knows how any rethinking of business values will play out.

But society would be wise not to have too high expectations.

And business should recognize it's a sitting duck for attack from a growing number of constituencies. 

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Pre-Retirement/Semiretirement Jitters - I Lost Plenty Today in Stock Market

Aging has the usual challenges, of course. Those range from losing family and friends to having to get serious about nutrition and exercise. 

But added to that is the reality that we could outlive our money - at least enough to maintain a comfortable lifestyle.

Today that reality turned brutal. If you are like me you watched the numbers in your investments going down. That could mean that I will have to continue to take on more communications/coaching assignments over the next four years than I had planned. 

Actually that scheduled retirement date might have to be shelved. I may never be able to hang it up. 

All this uncertainty seems analogous to when I finished my formal education. I had no idea what was next. That shook me to the core. Obviously, I did find my way to a career path. But the memory remains vivid of how awful it felt not to have solid ground under my feet. 

If you want to share your story of navigating these strange times, please send it to janegenova374@gmail.com. You can submit it with your identity or anonymously. It will be posted on this blog. 

Baby Boomers, It's Still about Face Time

"Hybrid work arrangements—a mix of office and remote—have emerged as a popular model companies plan to adopt once more offices reopen. Flexibility is what most knowledge workers want, according to surveys. But hybrid work has downsides, including tensions over whether people who go into the office more will be perceived as harder workers and have better chances at upward mobility." -  The Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2021.

Ambitious professionals always knew the importance of being there. Presence in the office - before work hours and way after them - has always been a must for a shot at promotions or being assigned the plum projects. Often, as had happened to me at a large insurance corporation, the salaried even are directly informed that the official schedule is, well, meaningless. Be there all the time, including Saturdays. 

The reality of the importance of face time had been documented by the discovery in the 1990s of mirror neurons. The operations of mirror neurons in the brain had been found to be one of the key ways human beings influence each other, cell by cell. Put simply that's: Monkey see, monkey do.

A classic example of that phenomenon is how female reproductive cycles get in sync in a communal setting such as the college dorm or a unit in a hospital.

It's also out there that if you want to know what someone is really about observe those he or she associates with. That captures so much.

And, mom and the nuns in Roman Catholic grade school had warned us about the dangers of "bad companions."

Therefore, both the leadership of law firms and the associates themselves should recognize the challenges hybrid work could create. The good news is that since return to the office won't happen for for most firms until 2022, there is time to plan. Only a few such as David Polk have done a reopening.

But don't kid yourself. The presence issue has already kicked in.

Over and over in announcing return to office plans, law firms have noted that the offices are open for those wanting to come in and work. That, obviously, to practiced players of the presence game presents an opportunity to get in in-person face time and perhaps even interact with superiors.

The idea of a hybrid work arrangement had, before the Delta variant and increasing confusion about possible best practices, seemed the emerging standard for large law firms. Early last August, for instance, The Wall Street Journal interviewed law firm chairpersons such as Kim Koopersmith of Akin Gump and Brad Karp of Paul Weiss about the changing culture. Both indicated their firms would be adopting a hybrid structure. 

However, anything can change before it's actually back in the office.

Will there still be hybrid model?

Will there be an option for full-time remote? 

That's the structure part.

There is also another piece. Will law firms add onto the menu this: How to prevent those who aren't savvy about creating, holding, and growing presence from going into career collapse. 

Yes, there have always been those blessed with a high Emotional IQ. Hybrid won't put a dent in their careers.

Here's data which should become a case study in organizational behavior at Harvard Business School. In that same WSJ interview on culture, Karp noted how much, as a junior associate, he had derived from being there in-person with partners in real-time client calls. They also took the time to explain to him strategy.

Indirectly, Karp was highlighting the advantages of being in a communal office setting, in-person. But, also read between the lines on that one and what's clear is that there was a pull force attracting partner attention. Karp was able to set that in play as well as sustain it.

But, the majority of associates aren't so blessed. That is already a given.

The odds are only one out of 10 will make partner. When demand peters down, the odds are that those with low EI could be knocked out of the box through lackluster performance reviews or an actual reduction in force. In the interim the odds also are they will likely be doomed to do grunt work. 

So, does the law firm - and by extension all employers - have any responsibility in assisting those who are probably doomed to lose even more career traction in hybrid times?

Should mentors be assigned?

Social-intelligence coaches parachuted in?

Procedures put in-place to make the opportunities for exposure more equitable? 

That kind of intervention could be classified under the umbrella of "professional development." Employee activists could demand it. Here is my article published in O'Dwyer Public Relations on the implications of employee activism in this era of ESG, that is, concerns about the Environment, social justice, and corporate governance. 

Less is more. PAN Communications found consumers are only paying attention to about 1/16^th of your content. So, together let's create the marketing communications that engage them. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.