Over-50

No, Gig Work Not Dominating the Economy

Again, we get the message: Beware of what the experts assert.

Twice, Alan Kruger and Lawrence Katz had conducted surveys of supposed gig-economy workers.

They concluded that those alternate work arrangements represented about 5% of the paid work being done. Now they revised that to about 2%.

In a study last summer, the Department of Labor studied the gig economy and didn't find it had significantly altered traditional ways of earning a living.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, Kruger and Katz explain the reasons the research was flawed.

One factor was that the first study was done during an economic downturn. Those who grabbed temporary jobs to make ends meet usually returned to the traditional job when the recovery began.

Also, there were those in full-time positions who were doing side hustles. That is, they really weren't gig workers per se, at least not as contingent jobs were being measured. Here is the article I published in Odwyerpr on how to manage one's brand when having multiple kinds of paid work.

In addition, the gig work being done was largely in one category: driving for Uber. The phenomenon shouldn't be interpreted as an overall surge in gig-economy players.

Those of us who have had gone through a clinical depression recall the flawed research on antidepressants. The experts concluded that even one bout of depression mandated that we remain on the medication for the rest of our lives.

The side effects could be horrific. Some of those antidepressants trigged significant weight gain. Following the medical doctor's orders, I put on 50 pounds. Also, those which were still on patent were expensive. 

The obvious takeaway is that research findings should never be fully trusted. 

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For Us, The End Is Near - But Clueless What's Next

A Christian, George H.W. Bush had a firm belief in an afterlife.

What seemed to ease his transition from living to the dying process was his conviction that he would join his wife Barbara in heaven. It worked. According to close friends, he had a peaceful death. 

But that was Bush. That's not the majority of us who have veered off from formal religions and are left to sort through old-line myths about the Next. So, there's the book "Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, Immortality, and Utopia." The author is Michael Schermer, columnist for Scientific American. Here the book can be ordered from Amazon.

From the get-go, Shermer shows he doesn't buy Christian mythology. For example, he observes that no one has returned from the dead to tip us off about the Next. Obviously, he rules out Jesus Christ's. According to religious ideology, Jesus came back to life post his death on the cross. 

However, Shermer does point out that 74 percent of Americans believe in heaven (Source: Pew Forum). The rub, of course, is that no one will have this confirmed until death. So, both during this best time of the year and more routine days and nights, we have to live on with no proven-out answer - only our little individual mindset.

Oh, there have been scientific studies. But, science has lost our allegiance. Remember what "they" said about taking antidepressants forever if we had had one clinical depression. Smirk smirk. And what about the firm faith in psychoanalysis? Analysts such as David W. Harder were positioned and packaged for the so-called sophisticated as the Secular Shamans. 

Consequently, what's Next remains a mystery. The upside of that is that we can unleash our imaginations to play out the kind of existence we can enjoy after how difficult life has become on earth.

I envision being in a field surrounded by all my pet children who have died.

We have no time commitments. We just are, together.

There is no more clinical depression. No more earnest therapists like David W. Harder. 

No former college classmates who caused us so much pain.

No more disappointments about client assignments we anticipated which didn't come through.

And, no more regrets.

Those, in my realm of make-believe, are days of heaven. I have much to look forward to. That hope will keep me going. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

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Climate Change - Yes, We Have to Change Our Retirement/Semi-Retirement Plans

It's documented: What's labeled "climate change" will generate extreme weather events - on a continuing and worsening basis. Those recent severe hurricanes in parts of Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana will become the new usual. 

That's the official word in the White House National Climate Assessment.

Here is a copy of that report, released this week.

And, here is the media coverage. 

Of course, those planning retirement or semi-retirement have to factor in this development.

At one time relocation for retirement was a no-brainer.

After living in the Northeast for 30 years and working at well-paying jobs, both white and blue collars relocated to places like FL. Because that was such a common destination for retirees it wasn't difficult to establish new social networks. 

That was then, of course.

Now, soon after moving, retirees could find that they could spend several months a year fearing or enduring a catastrophic weather event. Or, eventually that choice might not be open to them because insurance companies will not provide property policies for the area.

I had had it all worked out: For semi-retirement I was going to relocate to Mobile, Alabama.

The state has what is probably the lowest cost of living in the U.S.

The ocean is there.

It's a short drive from fun New Orleans.

If I didn't like it, next door was FL. Good-bye AL, hello FL.

I had spoken with real estate agents.

I had even consulted with the local Chamber of Commerce about the probability of my fitting in. 

Of course, I ditched that Plan A and have migrated to Plan B. 

Now, no relocation is a no-brainer.

For example, I have a older car which likely won't pass inspection in some supposedly ideal spots for retirement. Therefore, I had to rule out Virginia. Here is background information on states with no safety/emissions requirements. 

Another reality to consider is that in the locations which have become more desirable, given climate change and other factors, the cost of living is going up. Arizona is a prime example. Those fleeing California are partly responsible for that.

However, staying in place  during retirement is increasingly not an option. Yet, with the real estate market on a downward trajectory, more and more are stuck, unable to pull up roots. 

Those I coach in Connecticut who are having difficulty selling the family house have to put their retirement on hold. They are housebound. Until the real estate market recovers they have to scramble to get and retain jobs or gig assignments. Here, free to download, is my survival guide  Download Outwitting ageism

Where to relocate for retirement could be the most pressing challenge of our generation.

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The Robots May or May Not Be Coming (dirty little secret is that no one knows)

Feminist Gloria Steinem noticed something.

That was that thinking in America tended to be binary. There were a right answer and a wrong answer.

In her book "My Life on the Road" she patiently explained that what the model missed was the existence of uncertainty. Most of the time, we plum don't know.

And that's exactly what Recode hammers about the number of jobs which will be lost by Artificial Intelligence (AI). No one knows.

Of course, there are many with estimates about that number. Citibank and the University of Oxford state that 57% of jobs in the OECD, are at risk. The OECD puts it at 14%.

The reasons we don't know, Recode points out, include:

Not all AI invented will be applied. Just because it's there doesn't mean the business community will incorporate it into operations.

Jobs in the future, just as now, will be configured as a mix of human and tech. Just consider the surge of online purchasing. However, each of those automated sites is backed up by humans at call centers managing everything from questions to botched orders. In southwestern Arizona I was a consultant to one such center serving a home-improvement brand.

There are limits on what we know. Put it this way: No human being and no machine can predict the future. Also, psychics have also been wrong because human beings can change the future they foresee. 

The demand for absolute certainty is what has made supposed expert opinion increasingly laughable. However, tragically, the joke is on those who make professional decisions based on those projections positioned and packaged with such seeming authority. 

Way back in the 20th century, when tech meant the wonderment of the Selectric typewriter, the numbers forecasted growth in demand for college humanities professors. Funding, such as the NDEA IV grants, was created.

I was among those awarded one to study for a Ph.D. in literature and linguistics. By time we - The Lost Generation of Intended College Professors - were completing our dissertations, the market, instead of growing, had collapsed. 

It took many of us about five years to retool for other career paths. Employers to whom we applied for non-academic jobs smirked. Some explicitly told us we were losers to have invested our youth in studying all that. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

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Remembering When We Felt We Had Power

It's a very dark day for Sherwin-Williams.

And its stock price reflects that. The shorts could move in.

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Sherwin-Williams' conviction in the Santa Clara, California public nuisance class action lead paint trial.

That leaves the conviction intact. And that means that the paint company which once manufactured and marketed lead paint is wide open territory for copycat lawsuits - both throughout CA and the rest of the nation.

Those lead paint lawsuits, at the state level, could be, if won, a windfall for government. Both the plaintiff bar and defense lawyers could enjoy a rush of new business. Plaintiff law firms such as Motley Rice can be hired by the prosecution on contingency to assist with the litigation against those sophisticated lawyers from white shoe large law firms such as Jones Day. 

In Bloomberg, Greg Stohr reports:

"The U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from Sherwin-Williams [Sherwin-Williams v. California)  and Conagra Brands Inc., leaving intact a ruling that requires them to pay more than $400 million for lead-paint remediation in California."

The carnage extends beyond lead paint. Now so many other industries could be perceived as sitting ducks for public nuisance lawsuits. They include BigPharma for how it marketed opioids. A grim book about that is "Dopesick" by Beth Macy. It is 1,311 on Amazon. Here it can be ordered.

In Ohio, where the opioid epidemic can't be contained, the attorney general had already filed a public nuisance lawsuit about pharmaceutical companies. It's being settled. More states may also take that legal step.

Other industries targeted for public nuisance litigation range from energy (blamed for climate change) to firearms (the theory that guns are primary cause of violence). 

It's interesting to note that business trade associations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had been busy bees in composing and submitting amicus briefs. They huffed and they puffed and they couldn't blow public nuisance away.

That says a lot about the power of public nuisance. Even the top court of the land rules not to intervene in a conviction against two major corporations. In addition, it bears witness to the reality that they have to change how they lobby. 

Earlier, the CA appeals court upheld the conviction. And the CA Supreme Court refused to even review it. 

America, despite the intense conservative movement, could be returning to the era of consumer and worker protection. That was when litigation against tobacco and asbestos thrived. At the level of the individual, Ralph Nader mobilized not only the courts but the grassroots through his Nader Raiders. New versions of Naderism can sweep the land, mobilizing Everyman and Everywoman. 

To resurrect the counterculture meme: Power to the People. 

Full Disclosure: I had blogged the Rhode Island lead paint public nuisance class action litigation (2005-2006). Then and now I question the effectiveness of the public relations agencies officially in the loop. Are they operating in the 20th century?

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

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Middle Age Becomes The Hanging Times

Extreme success. A New Yorker. Middle-Aged. And, struggling with clinical depression.

Lawyers, if that profile fits you, your colleagues, and/or your loved ones, then recognize that these are The Hanging Times.

In New York City, there has been the third hanging.

High-profile clinical psychologist, best-selling author of "Brave Girls," and animal-rights activist Stacey Radin took her life yesterday. It was by hanging, just like the recent suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. Both Spade and Bourdain were middle-aged.

Radin was 52. She reportedly battled clinical depression. Here are more details from The New York Post. 

There seems to be a copycat phenomenon in play. Hanging is a relatively  slow, painful way to die. Also, it's not usual for women to take that route of self-deliverance.

According to the website Lost All Hope, suicide by hanging:

Is effective (leads to death) only 89.5% of the time. That means that a botched job could result in permanent brain or physical injury. In contrast, a gun shot to the head is effective 99%.

The process requires 7 minutes. Those can be a period of both physical (difficulty breathing) and mental (reflection on one's life) agony. In contrast, death by a gun requires only 1.7 minutes.

On a scale of 100, the amount of distress is in the 25.5% slot. When using a gun, that's at 5.5.

Clearly, the method of suicide can provide one of the dots on what might have been the mood at the time this decision was made.

Was the person so lacking in hope at that moment that the act was one of impulse? The mindset could have been: I can't take this one more minute. There's a way I can hang myself right here. In a support group, I have heard that line of thinking often.

Was the person full of self-loathing? In clinical depression there is a tendency to turn on oneself. 

And, was the act, in its theatricality, a kind of rebuke to others? There is the thinking that all suicide is homicide. Those committing it are sending a message to those whom they perceive let them down.

A member of my nuclear family left an unfilled bottle of blood pressure medication on the kitchen table. My sister found her in the nearby bedroom dead of a massive heart attack. Some interpreted that as a passive suicide - and act of rage.

Lawyers in all locations, not only New York City, have to recognize the pull power of the hanging ethos in these chaotic times. It is difficult to hold on to anything - a nest egg in a portfolio. a high-powered job, looks when hitting middle age, trust in relationships, and a doable plan for semi-retirement or retirement.

Recently, I asked a 53-year-old colleague who sensed he was going to be forced out of a job, if he planned to kill himself. Maybe because he was stunned, he answered "yes." I made the appointment for him with a cognitive therapist who specializes in displaced professionals. And, as a coach I am helping him navigate the search for how to make a living. He was on the money: He had been forced out. He blamed both his age and that his boss had been fired. 

Full Disclosure: I have been clinically depressed since age 11. What I have observed is that the mood can become so dark that it shifts into psychosis. It took relocating from the New York Metro area for me to finally get the upper hand in battling this monster. OF COURSE, I had sought out many traditional modes of treatment. I could teach a course at Harvard Medical School on all that and more. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

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Voodoo - Human Beings Are Sitting Ducks to Be Played (as by the Elizabeth Holmes of the world)

Overseeing the end of Theranos is its general counsel David Taylor.

The founder - Elizabeth Holmes - has stepped out of the spotlight. She has been indicted by the feds for alleged fraud. 

The latest development, reports MarketWatch, is that Theranos' major creditor Fortress Investment Group has taken over ownership of the startup's patents. However, it has not dipped into the $5 million that is still available as cash. That will be distributed to unsecured creditors. 

Given how many sophisticated and brandname players were hoodwinked by Theranos, the rise and fall of the startup and its founder have become symbols of tech delusional hysteria.

In his book "Bad Blood," The Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou put forth many theories of why there was such buy-in of a technology which didn't yet exist. And may never.

It was Carreyrou who broke the story that Theranos might be a sham. After that, the world began to turn on WonderGirl. 

And it was Superlawyer David Boies who tried to prevent publication of that story in The Wall Street Journal.

For hours with the editors at that media outlet, Boies huffed and puffed, catching it all on his trusty taping device. But he couldn't blow the story away. 

In another kind of book "Disrupted," former Newsweek reporter Dan Lyons discusses a similar kind of wild magical thinking at a startup. Those who questioned were labeled heretics.

Who might have smelled something fishy about the Holmes' show?

Answer: Fallen-away Roman Catholics.

At home, in mandatory church services, and in the special schools the church established we were hammered with a package of hardened must-believes. Those who didn't were declared heretics. They were excommunicated. My immigrant family didn't want that happening to them.

At age 23, after eight years of Catholic grade school and four of Catholic college (Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania), I finally began to connect the dots in my own way. From then on I have made it my mission to turn over any entity and take a hard look at its underbelly.

Usually, that isn't pretty. After all, as William Shakespeare noted, mankind is cankered in the grain and all our institutions are man-made. 

BTW, the supposed Machiavellian - Henry Kissinger - had been on the Theranos board of directors. 

Reflection: Do human beings need to believe totally in something? At any cost? A skilled con, allegedly like Holmes, can cast spells.

Tech is just one of many forms of voodoo. The American ethos of extreme success is another. A third is glorification of youth. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

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Question: Why Don't More Derailed Aging Employees Become Mass Shooters?

The difference between serial killers and mass shooters is this: Serial killers conduct the carnage in multiple events. And, in pop culture, the elite FBI team of TV fictional program "Criminal Minds" flies in to find that miscreant. 

Mass shooters like Adam Lanza in Newtown, Connecticut inflict the horror in one setting at one time.

For years, the FBI has been investigating the minds of serial killers. That's how the "Criminal Minds" BAU comes up with those profiles. 

Now, reports Zusha Elinson in The Wall Street Journal, there might be the same kind of digging into the minds of mass shooters.

And one wonders if the availability of guns in society has made the phenomenon of a mass shooting everyday in America.

What part does the heavy media coverage play? That makes it all too easy for the attention-craving to pile up more than their 15 minutes of fame.

Is it the stress of life in the 21st century what makes so human beings snap? 

Should quality mental health be more available at no cost?

And/or would it prevent mass shootings if rage management becomes part of the public school curriculum?

So many writers such as myself daydream about being able to develop relationships with convicted mass shooters, gaining access to what's inside. It's not so much to prevent future crimes as to try to understand this type of human being. After all, even though they have committed a horrific crime, they are human beings. We writers might be able to connect the dots in ways criminal experts and degreed psychologists cannot.

It might be a good idea for the FBI to put us writers on their research team. Here is my recent book, free to download, on the monsters of mind which take over unemployed older professionals. Could disappointment about success trigger, no pun intended, aberrant behavior? I already might be onto something.

I made those discoveries since I have been coaching seasoned professionals whose careers become stuck. The issue is: Why is it that the majority of disappointed professionals, here in American where extreme success is the unofficial religion, don't lash out as mass shooters? My hunch is that they continue to have hope of a comeback. Mass shooters have been unable to hold onto hope. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission. Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

New Formula For Extreme Success, W/O Much Stress, Lots More Goodies

A funny emotional, physical, and spiritual game is going on. 

It might be called Now That I Decided To Retire.

Those who opt to play that game find that they can "start over" again with a mindset that reduces stress significantly. (Yeah, one for university folks to research). Consequently they can remain full-time or part-time in the workforce - perhaps forever. Without the traditional pressures.

Those of us who understand how the world operates would attribute the major changes associated with this shift in perspective to just not taking professional life all that seriously.

Many of us have observed over and over again that detachment - a fundamental of zen - often increases success. In contrast, professionals who try so hard often become targets for abuse in organizations. 

Several years ago, an eight-year associate was knocked out of the box at BigLaw. Because law had been his second career he was not young. After being treated by a psychiatrist for clinical depression, he came to me for career coaching.

His total assets enabled him to retire from the legal sector. He planned to do just that, exploring other career paths in which he could earn part-time income.

That was settled.

Then, he decided he owed it to himself to give law one more try. Detached, he landed a partner position in a midsized law firm. He is still there. Yes, in his head, he remains committed to retirement from the law. Only, not today.

The same phenomenon is taking place with a corporate communications expert I coach. I have a hunch that since he had become committed to retiring he will remain on this career path until his health gives out or he dies putting together strategy for a crisis in higher education.

For those considering finding an exit off a career path, here is my book, free to download, on how to land, hold, and move on to better work in myriad other fields  Download Outwitting ageism.

Toying with retirement or semi-retirement? You owe it to yourself to schedule a complimentary consultation at janegenova374@gmail.com. If that proves helpful and you want to continue coaching, there is a sliding scale fee schedule. 

Planning to Retire Where Hurricanes Don't Happen? - No Longer Possible

It's a deadly combination: 5% to 8% more water vapor in the atmosphere and warmer temperatures.

The result makes not only possible but probable the Category 6 Hurricane. The winds are over 200 miles an hour. The storm surge double-digit. 

The most scary part of all this, reports The Guardian, is that the Category 6 can occur where such powerful storms never used to happen.

So, no one can play it safe. It won't prevent personal catastrophe to not live in the traditional path of hurricanes such as southern Alabama. 

Therefore, all the current talk about not retiring in X or Y because of hurricanes represents mere wishful thinking. A Katrina+ could be a phenomenon just about anywhere on planet earth.

This scenario can be the plot line for the next disaster sci-fi film. Only, it might not remain futuristic for long.

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission. Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com