Boomer Workers…Work or Retire?
For a better retirement, workers should stay on the job a little longer, according to studies reported in a NY Times article, For a Good Retirement, Find Work. Good Luck. Stereotypes about older workers still persist. Like most stereotypes, they are accurate in only a small percentage of cases, but can influence choices managers make.The article suggests a need to change attitudes towards older workers as well as tax and Medicare policies to favor delayed retirement.
Adult learners may have longer work-life in mind when they study for bachelors’ and graduate degrees. This article did not discuss the impact of mid-life career change into entrepreneurial, freelance, or service options such as starting a small business, consulting, writing or teaching, or joining the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps.
As a manager and/or adult learner, what do you think? How do these issues impact your organization or your career?
This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 7:47 am and is filed under Current Topics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 7th, 2008 at 11:35 am
If I can add a psychological perspective to this discussion – there is considerable concern for how the retiring boomers will find “meaning” in their lives as they retire. In my work as both a clinical psychologist and on organizational consultant, I have found that many of the high-powered boomers found meaning in “making the deal” and winning. How will this competitive edge or “need” play out in retirement.
Perhaps they could provide an untapped pool of volunteers.
http://www.urban.org/publications/411579.html
Many of these boomers will be seeking education.
http://www.urban.org/publications/411579.html
There had been considerable discussion about innovative solutions to retirement, but much of this discussion has drifted towards practical financial issues, to include social security.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4471384
A quick synopsis of an existential view of major life challenges address:
Mortality versus mortality
Meaningful versus meaningless relationship
Meaning of life versus lack of any meaning
Fear of accidents (even bad things can happen to good people)
Will these life issues become more acute as boomers have more time to address and contemplate them?
And for our businesses – can we afford the loss of the expertise that these retiring boomers represent? How can we acquire the experience and wisdom they have developed? Could they provide “visiting Professors” for on-line organizations like ours?
My take it that the arrival of the boomers at retirement age provides many more questions and opportunities if we can determine how to engage them.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Interesting points Will. I wonder whether and how Boomers will contend with the life challenges you list—if they keep on working? Based on a lot of factors in the current economy people are in fact working longer. (The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College just published a book by that title: Working Longer: The Solution to the Retirement Income Challenge.) What impact will a more age diverse workplace have on workers of all ages? Positive exchange between people who can learn from each other about meaning and meaningful relationships at different life stages? Or will age be divisive—so “ageism” must be the next “-ism” to talk about in diversity training? Will age discrimination cause more costly and disruptive lawsuits?
The current issue of the Academy of Management Perspectives contains a related article titled, “Age Discrimination: Alive and Well in the Workplace?” (Seaton, 2008) The authors review a study profiled in a special issue on the “Sociology of Ageism” in the September 2007 issue of the journal Social Forces to find the answer: yes, age discrimination is an issue in the workplace (Roscigno, Mong, Byron, & Tester, 2007).
Roscigno, V. J., Mong, S., Byron, R., & Tester, G. (2007). Age discrimination, social closure and employment. Social Forces, 86(1), 313-334.
Seaton, J. C. S. W. J. (2008). Age discrimination: Alive and well in the workplace? Academy of Management Perspectives 22(2), 103-104.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Thanks for your comments– interesting dilemmas indeed. FYI to Capella visitors: the journals and articles listed are available in the library.
August 6th, 2008 at 1:00 am
These are important social and economic issues that people over in the UK and Europe are also dealing with. One big gap in research and data is evidence that the older population is still as able to learn and adapt to change as younger people are. This would go a long way towards persuading employers to be less ageist, and also to give the over 60s more confidence.
At the Institute of Education of London University we have about 10% of our students over 50, and have done a survey to find out how they approach their learning. The replies were overwhelmingly positive – they have faith in their own skills, and they do well. Other UK research shows that they have very high completion rates at graduate level too. And, in fact, about 15% of undergraduates in the UK are over 50 nowadays.
We are so encouraged by this, that we have started what may be the first master’s level course on learning at 50+, for which I have developed a pretty big bibliography. More information if you are interested, either from me by email, or on the website.
Anita Pincas, Senior Lecturer,
Institute of Education,
University of London
London UK