Over-50

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.

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.

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.

 

The Sustainability Imperative for Those of You in Retail

I'm thrilled to share with you my article on the implications of ESG, especially sustainability, in the retail section. Here it is, hot off the press at ST Magazine. 

Place your sponsored content here on this syndicated site. Affordable rates. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who Will Work the Longest of Us All?

Working beyond age 65 used to be what the media and aging experts focused on.

That was then.

Now, the speculation, especially by us aging professionals ourselves, is if it will become standard to remain earning income from working in our late 80s and even 90s. 

Both film producer/actor Clint Eastwood and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch are in their 90s. And both are fully in charge of their empires.

My colleague Howard Daniel is in his late 70s and heading a blog about communications that establishment media such as The New Yorker salute.

In my mid-70s, my communications and coaching businesses have been able to tap into new target markets.

I used to put my retirement date at age 80. That's when writer the late Philip Roth indicated he would hang it up.

Now, as long as my health holds up, there seems to be no reason to recede from the spotlight. In addtion, my legal blog Law and More is receiving record traffic, growing royalty payments, and more funds from posting sponsored content. 

Also, let's face it. We see what happens to those who had retired. I had visited former college acquaintance Kathleen Huebner in Oro Valley, Arizona. Although she had had a succesful career and could afford to live anywhere, she chose a retirement community. The scene, to me, was dismal.

Those I interacted with had sucked up the oxygen sharing memories of their former careers.

At that point I got it: Even if the investments in my portfolio hit the magic number of total financial security (no matter how long I lived) I was not going to retire. And, moreover, I was not going to buy a house in one of those retirement "ghettos." Sure, they looked great. But the soul seemed to have extracted from the people.

So, let's all look in the mirror and declare that we will be among those working the longest.

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.

 

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.

 

The Over-65 in America: Worse Off than in16 Other Nations, Burden on You to Create Affordable Lifestyle

The aging in America are not doing well, at least not financially. And maybe that shouldn't surprise. The US is 17th in aging well-being.

MarketWatch tells that grim tale. 

During COVID, 19% used up all their savings or lost their main source of income. 

Median income dropped 3.3%.

And, 9% live in poverty. 

Those receiving Social Security can expect a COLA increase for 2022 estimated to be about 6%. But given inflation, especially in rentals and food, that isn't going to make things much better.

The solution? Sure the aging and those representing them such as AARP can lobby for policy changes. However, as the aging are learning, they are mostly on their own. They have to figure out how to be able to create a lifestyle that is comfortable and affordable. 

One approach could be researching relocating aboard. That starts with the free guide International Living.  MarketWatch chronicles the new life of Kris and Joel Cunningham. In Florida, they were struggling to make ends meet. The basics ran them more than $3,000 a month. In Panama, that's down to $1,200 a month. Their three-bedroom apartment costs $385 a month. 

Another path to DIY happiness is to start a mini business. It could be as simple as promoting that you will do errands for those too busy or unable to attend to them. Or it could be a bit more complex such as being a middleman for selling used whatever online. 

There are plenty of part-time and gig earning opportunities. There are also full-time ones, especially for call centers. Thanks to technology, more of them can be done at home. Check Craigslist - Sites, and click on your state and city for "customer service."

To prepare yourself for creative problem-solving, here is my free guide for exiting your former way of seeing your world. Here you can download it. 

Intuitive readings about how to put together an affordable lifestyle. Open yourself to extreme possibility. Sliding Scale Fees. Please make an appointment at janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Baby Boomers - Mom and Our High School Guidance Counselors Steered Us So Wrong

Again, it's the meme: Work is overrated. This time it's in an opinion piece in The New York Times. This time the specific message is that we won't find our purpose in life through work.

Of course the tragedy of the pandemic blew up the Protestant Ethic belief in hard work as a form of salvation. Some of us baby boomers vividly recall our moms and those official types in high school pounding us with that message. 

But even before March 2020 there had been a questioning of investing so much of ourselves, including our time on planet earth, in working. After all, we were the generation who had the rug pulled from under us. 

We started out feeling blessed to have well-paying jobs in Corporate America. There was professional development. There was great health insurance. There was going to be pension. 

Then, in the late 1980s, the Jack Welch types reconfigured what was. In middle age we middle managers were tossed out into a labor market tilted toward youth. Some never bounced back financially. Others like myself became reluctant entrepreneurs. And although we proved out to thrive as business owners our reverence for work went poof. 

Currently, younger generations are having similar experiences. No longer are they willing to put so many eggs in the work basket. Other things matter. Those include their mental and physical health. The quality of relationships. Making the world a better place. Self-expression.

Even the ultra ambitious such as junior lawyers and junior bankers are pushing back against punishing hours. Yes, there is a willingness to trade off money for more time and flexibility.

Where is this leading? No one knows. But what we baby boomers do know is that we got a bum steer when we were teenagers. Those in the know should have said: Grab hold of life and go with that.

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 - Remember Our Blind Faith in Higher Education ...

The statistic is well-known: About 55% of law schools are overenrolled for first-year (1L) classes.

Despite opportunities, with just an undergraduate degree, on Wall Street and the excitement of startups, there are those who are opting for the three-year, expensive education for the JD degree. That is even though there are growing warnings of a glutted entry-level job market for the JD Class of 2024. In addition, there could be the beginning of the end of the boom in large law firms. 

What is happening for M.B.A. programs is very different, reports The Wall Street Journal. For the program at Northwestern, applications have been down 20%. At Columbia 6%.

The ethos of HiHo HiHo Off to Work We Go is replacing the old-line blind faith in the more academic education the better.

Currently in fields ranging from finance to tech the demand for talent is exploding. In fact, many banks have boosted their entry-level compensation. That is to distract from the routine of long long hours. So, those beginning their careers or in the early stages are going for that. 

This ethos reflects old-fashioned American pragmatism: A bird in the hand is better than one in the bush.

A law degree is three years. Many M.B.A. programs are two years. By graduation time the demand for their skills could turn ugly. That's what some experts are warning the JD Class of 2024.

This is nothing new. When I started my doctoral studies at an Ivy League university, funded entirely by a federal government fellowship, projected was a growing need for university professors in the humanities.

By the time I was working on my dissertation the market had almost totally collapsed. Not only was the degree not marketable. It was treated by employers not involved in academia as ridiculous. We were the Lost Generation of Scholars of the mid 1970s. It took me four years to put together a new career path. That was not a soft landing. Current law students could become the Lost Generation of 2024. 

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.