Education News ? For boomers, it's a new era of 'work til you drop'

When Paula Symons joined the U.S. workforce in 1972, typewriters in her office clacked nonstop, people answered the telephones and the hot new technology revolutionizing communication was the fax machine.

Symons, fresh out of college, entered this brave new world thinking she?d do pretty much what her parents? generation did: Work for just one or two companies over about 45 years before bidding farewell to co-workers at a retirement party and heading off into her sunset years with a pension.

Forty years into that run, the 60-year-old communications specialist for a Wisconsin-based insurance company has worked more than a half-dozen jobs. She?s been laid off, downsized and seen the pension disappear with only a few thousand dollars accrued when it was frozen.

So, five years from the age when people once retired, she laughs when she describes her future plans.

?I?ll probably just work until I drop,? she says, a sentiment expressed, with varying degrees of humor, by numerous members of her age group.

Like 78 million other U.S. Baby Boomers, Symons and her husband had the misfortune of approaching retirement age at a time when stock market crashes diminished their 401 (k) nest eggs, companies began eliminating defined benefit pensions in record numbers and previously unimagined technical advances all but eliminated entire job descriptions from travel agent to telephone operator.

At the same time, companies began moving other jobs overseas, to be filled by people willing to work for far less and still able to connect to the U.S. market in real time.

?The paradigm has truly shifted. Now when you?re looking for a job you?re competing in a world where the competition isn?t just the guy down the street, but the guy sitting in a cafe in Hong Kong or Mumbai,? says Bill Vick, a Dallas-based executive recruiter who started BoomersNextStep.com in an effort to help Baby Boomers who want to stay in the workforce.

Not only has the paradigm shifted, but as it has the generation whose mantra used to be, ?Don?t trust anyone over 30,? finds itself now being looked on with distrust by younger Generation X managers who question whether boomers have the high-tech skills or even the stamina to do what needs to be done.

?I always have the feeling that I have to prove my value all the time. That I?m not some old relic who doesn?t understand social media or can?t learn some new technique,? says Symons, who is active on Twitter, Facebook, loves every new time-saving software app that comes down the pike and laughs at the idea of ever sending another fax.

?Ahh, that?s just so archaic,? she says.

Meanwhile, as companies have downsized, boomers have been hurt to some degree by their own sheer numbers, says Ed Lawler of the University of Southern California?s Marshall School of Business.

The oldest ones, Lawler says, aren?t retiring, and more and more the youngest members of the generation ahead of them aren?t either. It?s no longer uncommon, he says, for people to work until 70.

via News from The Associated Press.

Email this post

About EducationViews.org

?The quality and variety of the selections you will find on EducationViews.org is second-to-none on the internet today. Since 1997 we have been providing this service at no cost to education professionals, the public in general and policy makers. Hope you enjoy the articles and commentary. Please forward us to your friends and associates. EducationViews.org is maybe the most effective way to transforming educators. The daily email offers a direct and easy way for busy teachers to grow philosophically. I was skeptical, but once you open the email and decide to read a story, you are hooked and it becomes a daily ritual to check out what?s happening. Educating teachers as to what is really going on in the schools opens up a new worldview and vision of thinking most have not been exposed to. The end result, better informed teachers who have a more effective understanding of the principles that make academic achievement a reality. Great job. The more email addresses of educators you get on your list, the bigger the impact and the more kids you will positively influence.

Source: http://educationviews.org/2012/02/20/for-boomers-its-a-new-era-of-work-til-you-drop/

draya michele draya michele ozzie guillen ozzie guillen washington monument demarcus ware terra nova