Over-50

Baby Booomers from Jersey City, NJ - Maybe We Never Have Been Able to Shake the Ethos of the Frank Hague Political Machine

Earnest

Visionary

And, in terms of implementation through more than a dozen federal agencies, a test of the political and management skills of the Biden Administration.

That's the Executive Order on Competition, which you can read here. Its 72 initiatives cover everything from non-compete clauses imposed on low-wage workers to mergers. 

The platitude applied to sum up its ethos is to circle back to the priorities of "trustbuster" Teddy Roosevelt.

However, the more insightful way to capture what it is about is to resurrect the spirit and the messaging of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

Essentially that 1939 film, directed by Frank Capra, celebrates the power of doing the right thing on behalf of Everyman (or what Joe Biden refers to as the "little guy). The movie's protagonist Jefferson Smith represents the ultimate whistleblower about what has gone so wrong in America. 

In the Capra world, those noble causes win out. Like now, back then it was a time of crisis. The background for "Mr. Smith" was The Great Depression. Now, the times are about the uncertainties of the Post-COVID economy (along with the return of COVID), surging inflation and hardened polarization.

Watching "Mr. Smith" this weekend can be uplifting. Downright inspiring. 

However, this weekend the little guy whom Biden is determined to help could be wondering what really will play out from the 72 initiatives. And how much will it improve the life of the little guy? 

Go to various "listening posts" around America, such as the check-out lines in Walmart (I take in what those I coach say), and it's likely that what will be picked up is the sense of powerlessness.

The tone and content mirror the resignation of those who endured the Frank Hague political machine in the mid 20th century. What resonates in my consciouness is the mantra: You can't fight City Hall. The residents of Hudson County, New Jersey, such as my immigrant family, accepted their powerlessness. Everything from jobs to getting your mother in a nursing home had been determined by the Machine.

Does the Biden Administration have the little people behind this EO? Do the people believe things can change?  Or will the loudest voice in the corridors of power be those of entrenched interests? The lobbyists reportedly are already busy conjuring up counterstrategies.

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Baby Boomer Women - Ethel Rosenberg Was So Much Like Us

"Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy" by Anne Seeba focuses on the female half of that supposed notorious spy couple. The message of the biography essentially is that there had been a miscarriage of justice.

But, along the way, we Baby Boomer females encounter a restless young woman, much like we had been in the late 1960s. 

At the top of the list of similarities is this: She disliked her mother. In fact, just like us, she strove to be not at all like her.

Here are those great lines from "Becoming Ethel" - Chapter 1:

" ... Ethel would confide to her friend that her greatest ambition was 'never having to live like her mother, forever going about the streets with a big shopping bag searching for bargains trading with the pushcart men.' Her disdain for her mother's way of life was becoming corrosive."

One day in 1969, my former roommate from college confided to me,"I overthrew my mother. Now I can find the right husband." She associated her mother and the life she had lived with having the wrong husband. The man she married became a successful lawyer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

"Ethel Rosenberg" also brings back those old-line neighborhood values in lower-income Manhattan metro areas. For that alone it's a must read for the Baby Boomers who came of age in a world of ethnic self-hate and youthful wild dreams of liberation from all that.

Obviously, her story resonates. The book is 12,867 on Amazon.

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Retired and Worried about Money and the Still-Working

America has been further fragmented. 

There have emerged two cultures. 

One is the over-62 who has retired (usually taking Social Security early). 

The other is the rest of us aging who have chosen to keep working - or are financially forced to continue hustling for income.

Between the two there has been growing hostility.

For example, the retired seek out "playmates" to offset boredom. The reality is that it is usually challening to fill in all the time in the day that had been spent working. When we non-retired turn down invitatioins to take that church trip to X or Y location or not join in the early-bird special for dinner the retired can turn frosty. 

In addition, there seems to be a resentment that we still have money coming in from working. And they don't. Even those who aren't struggling financially have angst about outliving their ability to have a comfortable lifestyle. You bet, money is a trigger issue.

My solution? Distance myself from the retirees. We really do exist in two very different dimensions. Also, I have learned to keep what I do in terms of work under wraps. No longer do I go into detail. 

Will this fissure heal? I doubt it. Money is too major a matter, especially among those who "fear" still being on planet earth at age 100. 

Small changes can trigger big success in your career and your business communications. Also guidance for pre-retirement. Swing by for a complimentary consultation (janegenova374@gmail.com)

 

No Age Restrictions on Epiphany Quitting

What is being labeled "epiphany quitting" is not a new phenonmenon.

What is new, as BusinessInsider describes it, is that it seems to be a collective trend in the labor force as a result of the national trauma of COVID.

Forever, though, on an individual basis, those who needed to earn a living often had that "moment of clarity" in which they decided that they no longer wanted to do and/or could do the work they had been. That can occur at any age, including near what used to be the traditional retirement age. 

A former lawyer, age 58, I recently had coached had been hospitalized with clincal depression. Her epiphany was that she had to find another less-stressful way to earn a living.

Note that in that, as in collective epiphany moments during COVID, there has to be a long game. The people still have to bring in income. You just don't have an epiphany and ride into the sunset from the reality of the need to support yourself and perhaps your family.

It can be an enormous relief to opt out of line of work that might not have been a fit for a long time. Yes, life is short. And even with high compensation, money isn't everything.

However, then comes the challenge of searching for what would be a better fit. That could take several tries. Call it the Career version of Goldilocks. 

This lawyer had experimented with photography. But the field was too competitive for her.

Then she piloted operating a car-detailing service. It's catching on. There is plenty of contract help in this southwestern part of the U.S.

Simultaneously she is exploring how her love for horses could lead to earning a good living.

The solution might be aggregating several income streams. That has become a growing way of financial security: Balance unemployment and underemployment risk with multiple earning platforms.

Takeaway: Epiphany quitting in only a step on the continuum of having to earn a living. The euphoria can be short-lived in the long game. The struggle to find a better fit can be traumatic. 

Small changes can trigger big success in your career and your business communications. Also guidance for pre-retirement. Swing by for a complimentary consultation (janegenova374@gmail.com)

Sure, Try Talking with The Chaplain

" ... demand for spiritual care in 2021 may seem surprising; religious belief is in decline across the U.S., and clinical therapy is becoming more widely available and increasingly destigmatized. But in secular institutions around the country—from the New York metropolitan transit system to universities, labor unions, and government bodies—chaplains have maintained a constant presence ... focusing on the intersection of spiritual and mental health." - Diana Kruzman, Vice, May 3, 2021. 

Remember when having the executive coach was a must-do? You might recall those days. They came after therapy didn't work, at least not all that well. 

So many on my networks looped into hiring an executive coach when Henry Cloud became a brandname. Probably his 2011 book "Necessary Endings" accomplished the branding part. The book remains high on Amazon - 11,464. So, his influence still resonates. Yes, there are those who still swear by their pricey exectuive coaches.

However, the "reign" of the executive coach might have peaked. There seems to be a shift to another kind of guidance: that of the chaplain. 

We went to the coach rather than the therapist because he or she operated within the career box. Therapists often were too much in the emotions box. Even the supposed cognitive therapist tended to be too emotion-bound. Not that was wrong. It just wasn't an effective and efficient way to decide whether to hang out a shingle or to opt for job security.

Overall, in what Vice refers to as these times of existential crisis, both the coach's and the therapist's frames of reference too often fall short. Like, the distress was still there. 

What the chaplain provides is more holistic. Its "it" manages to reach into the entire abyss of this thing we call "life."

At the end of Janaury 2021, I could not longer navigate the abyss. I was undone by a combination of relocating across the United States, not getting a major book ghostwriting assignment and the death of my dog. Instinctively (I had been a devout Roman Catholic until age 23) I decided to talk to a chaplain. I looked one up on the internet for the city of Sierra Vista, Arizona. She was a minister of the Unitarian Church. No, I hadn't tried to sort out the situation with the coach I had consulted with for about eight years. 

After talking with the minister - Tina Squire - on the phone for about 45 minutes I felt better. The distress was less, actually a lot less. In the Catholic religion we called that kind of transformation a miracle.

Also, Rev. Squire plugged me into a regular Zoom meditation group of church members. They turned out to be very good human beings.

I moved on to other situations I had to navigate. Maybe that's the new take on supposed "healing." We can at least pivot. We aren't stuck.

No, lawyers and law students don't "have to join a church." As yet, I haven't become a member of the Unitarian Church. Probably I don't have to. Probably we just have to know that there is a spiritual presence we can connect with. It's that simple. 

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Language - Not Sounding "Old"

Language is the most basic human institution. We are what we say and how we say it. 

That's why so much of my coaching with the over-50 focuses on the presentation of self. Professionally and personally it's what you put out there when you open your mouth or transmit a text, email or LinkedIn message.

Out-of-date use of words or still talking with language that is overused (that is, stale and boring) can brand you as "old."

You never want that to happen. You can talk yourself out of getting a job offer or a plum assignment.

So, you bet, you continue to monitor what's in, out and heading out when it comes to words.

UPDATE: "Broken" should have been snatched from public consumption as COVID took over. Too many real catastrophes were happening. 

Yet, The New York Times, which should know better, foisted "broken" on us. Here is the headline.

Must-do: Separate yourself from the term "broken?

Small changes can trigger big success in your career and your business communications. Swing by for a complimentary consultation (janegenova374@gmail.com)

Wrong Mindset: Envisioning Replicating Earlier Success After Stumbling

The media outlets did a fast pivot.

At the time of Prince Philip's death and funeral they were focusing on how Harry essentially had been driven out the royal family and business. He would be toast. But, no, we should not cry for Harry. The designated person we must cry for was the Queen. 

Now, news organizations like Daily Mail are highlighting Harry's new identity: American rock star. Yes, he could make it all the way  like those other British imports - the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. There he was on center stage at Vax Live, with J-Lo and Selena Gomez. 

Meanwhile, the media centers have embraced speculation that the royal institution is finished. It is bound, goes the narrative, to collapse after Queen Elizabeth dies. If not sooner. 

The career lesson in all this is obvious: Take risks. Including bold ones. 

When Harry began gravitating away from the royal ethos no one, probably including he himself, could predict how the risk-of-the-century would pan out. 

The takeaway is that he stuck with it. There was the unambigous message that he was not turning back to what had been. 

New entrepreneurs who leave their big corporate jobs, lawyers who exit brandname law firms and recent freelancers like Paul Chaney who don't seek another "good job" embrace the ethos that there is no going back. If their plan derails they will put together another one which continues to move them away from the past.

The major mindset mistake I observe in professionals who stumble is the longing to replicate a part of their career which had been successful. That is, their focus is on the past, not opportunities in the present. Where they wind up is stuck. 

Small changes can trigger big success in your career and your business communications. Swing by for a complimentary consultation (janegenova374@gmail.com)

 

 

William and Harry, Kevin and Randall, Jane Genova and Anne Murga-Ring

The Queen has ordered that Princes William and Harry be separated behind Prince Philip's coffin. Therefore, it doesn't seem like the two brothers have made much progress in resolving the conflicts which have divided them. 

And there is hardly enough research on sibling rivalry to help those who want to help the brothers patch things up. "Dateline" should make it a mission to scout up stories about sibling-based crimes. All that deconstruction of the-husband-did-it has gotten old. And James Patterson owes us a mystery on sibling-on-sibling wrongdoing.

This week on "This Is Us," brothers Kevin and Randall did verbal combat. An added dimension to the shadow over their relationship is race. Kevin is white. Randall, who was adopted, is black. By the end of the episode, some of the tension had been defused. But it's doubtful the two will become close again.

I'm equally pessimisstic about the 18-year fissure with the last of my family members: my sister Anne Murga-Ring. Our last conversation had been November 2003. And the last update I had about her was several months ago through her former husband Victor Murga.

I never met her current husband Scott Ring. That's sad. He had been the publisher of the Jersey Journal, the platform for news in Anne's and my hometown Jersey City, New Jersey. My childhood fantasy had been to write for that newspaper. Instead I went the way of Don Draper on "Mad Men" and looped into marketing communications. 

It's unfortunate that many therapists don't focus on our siblings. The backgrounding is usually done based on parents. However, most of our growing-up is through interactions with those siblings. After parents die, siblings represent the only vestige of what we traditionally consider "family."

With so much social change disrupting American life, our whole notion of family could become undone. Siblings could be acknowledged as a potentially dark force.

Small changes can trigger big success in your career and your business communications. Swing by for a complimentary consultation (janegenova374@gmail.com)

 

Semiretired - Your Ego Is Getting Bashed

Both for income and to remain busy, you are opting for semiretirement.

That is, you will continue to work. That might not necessarily be on your old career path.

As ProPublica documented, the odds are that you were forced out of your career job sooner than you expected. If you were fortunate enough to land another job, only one in 10 of you is being paid comparable compensation. 

If you remain doing assignments in what you know best, they might not be the high-profile plum kinds of you have tackled at the peak of your career.

If you opt out of pursuing work where your core competence had been, then you will not be a brandname in that niche or niches. But it's money and that can help you not to dip into savings and investments to make ends meet and simultaneously enjoy a bit of the good life.

The result usually is a blow to your ego. Many of the semiretired I coach confide the difficulty they are experiencing transitioning from being a player to simply a worker among workers. 

No fools, they are quite aware that they do have work, some of it may be well-paying. However, often there is deep pain at the loss of name recognition, influence and being in high demand.

Those feelings are real. But it is possible to exit what had been the comfort zone for 30 or 40 years to a new mindset and set of behaviors. Joy in work and perhaps greater joy in life are possible. Here you can download a guide on that - free. 

That begins with gratitude for what you have. And shaking off the preoccupation with what you have lost. Yes, semiretirement involves giving up the goals that have dominated a professional's journey perhaps since high school. There is no way around it: The game is different.

In his seminal book "Necessary Endings," executive coach Henry Cloud hammers how destructive it is not to be able to let go of what is no longer a fit. Essentially, the result is being stuck. And the stuck get more and more stuck. There is a real possibility that eventually they can't extricate themselves from that break with reality.

The next step in managing semiretirement joyfully is to leverage creativity. On professional network LinkedIn there are a number of those over-65 who have put together a fresh persona and sandbox of expertise to play in. That not only has attracted a following. That has brought in work.

For example a former government middle manager has developed a humor column. A former full-time college professor of exposition has created a detailed how-to on everything from points of grammar to being more concise. 

A third is to apply for assignments which represent a stretch. You probably will find you can do it. That opens the door to more work. Also, you will have the wild joy of learning something new. Along the way you might becoming certified in that field. 

Semiretirement entails understanding a new approach to earning income. Once you get that down cold you can begin each of work day with a kind of enthusiasm and freedom you may never have experienced along your traditional career path.

Also a free download is my book on breaking into the labor market that tends to be biased against age Download Outwitting ageism.

If you still are struggling with this transition, I am here for you.

Small changes can trigger big success in your career and your business communications. Swing by for a complimentary consultation (janegenova374@gmail.com)

 

Opportunity - SmirkSmirk

In influential Law.com, Jason Grant posts this headline:

"With Retroactive 2-Year Suspension, Did Court 'Underplay' Gordon Caplan's Wrongdoing?"

Prior to the announcement of a suspension versus losing his law licence, many assumed this former chair of Willie Faar was finished. Those from a liberal arts background might have attributed his wrongdoing to hubris. That white-shoe lawyer had designated himself as "special." He could play around with the way the college admission process usually is conducted - at least for the rest of us.

Then, there was the new that he got off the hook. He really did. Meanwhile so many other lawyers who took ethical shortcuts or had been convicted of a felony are permanently disbarred. Like Caplan, they had served time in prison. I had coached several of them. They were struggling after release from incarceration. They had to put together another way to earn a living. Their extreme angst was palpable. 

Obviously, in this era when we are questioning inequities created by wealth, elite education and job titles the focus on Caplan will increase.

The court of public opinion could decide just what kind of career he will be able to return to. Users of legal services might say "no" to having him in the loop. In the legal sector he could be treated as a pariah. His crime - considering he was not like the rest of us - could be declared as unforgivable. 

Nerves are raw about special treatment. Opportunity seems circumscribed. Making ends meet increasingly requires more than one job. 

Some of us might decide it's our moral responsiblity to push back on this version of "justice."

Small changes can trigger big success in your career and your business communications. Swing by for a complimentary consultation (janegenova374@gmail.com)