Blogging the Introduction to Encore Careers seminar
Posted on 07 October 2009
Permanent URL of this article: http://retirementrevised.com/career/blogging-the-introduction-to-encore-careers-seminar
I’m auditing a seminar series this month on encore careers featuring Marc Freedman, CEO of Civic Ventures and Nancy Morrow-Howell, a professor of Social Work at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University. The seminar is called “An Introduction to Encore Careers” and is sponsored by The New York Times Knowledge Network.
I’m taking notes and will be posting highlights here weekly.
Session One: Wednesday, October 7th.
Marc Freedman, CEO, Civic Ventures
Marc Freedman kicked it off by laying out a vision for midlife career reinvention that, for most of us, will stretch well beyond the current economic downturn. For many, encore careers will last 20 years or more. “Despite all the talk about 50 being the new 40 and so on, I subscribe to the idea that 60 is the new 60. It’s a period that will last as long as midlife in duration–decades in duration. The vast flow of boomers flooding into this uncharted territory can create something enormous in scale that is daunting in scale.”
Encore careers are about social impact, the financial need to work and the desire to work. Freedman said. “The critical question,” he said, “is what kind of work will we actually do? Will it be things we could have done at 20 or 30, or something that draws on the experience we’ve accumulated? We have an enormous investment in the human capital of the boomer generation. That can be brought to bear in critical areas such as education, health, the environment and human services.”
Nancy Morrow-Howell, Washington University
Morrow laid out the general case for the importance of a graying workforce in the years ahead, but noted that there are challenges. “Only 14 percent of employers have put in place a phase-out plan for white collar workers [that would allow more flexible work schedules.]. We’re seeing that people can move into less stressful, more enjoyable jobs. But they earn lower wages and often lose insurance coverage.”
Other barriers to encore work cited by Morrow: “declining health, care giving demands, an inability to navigate the job-seeking process and institutional ageism. There is ageism documented in all phases of the job process, including recruitment, selection, training, promotion and performance appraisals.”
Freedman compared the encore career movement to the women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and argued that reshaping the workplace now into a more age-diverse environment will benefit future generations. “Those of us who move into encore careers are blazing a path for future generations that will benefit from changes in the workplace. Gen X and Gen Y, younger women and men are going to be working longer–the trend isn’t just the result of the current economic downturn, but of long-term permanet changes.”
Morrow pointed out that the percentage of adults over 65 in the workforce is higher than anytime in the last two decades. And, from 2006 to 2016, the number of workers in their 60s and higher will soar by 80 percent or more. She said the top growth areas in the coming decades will all be in cognitive and knowledge-oriented fields, such as computers and math, health, education and service industries such as food preparation.
October 10th, 2009 at 10:29 am
The session was great. Particularly important is the wake up call it offers on one’s own perspective about life into the future. Much focus was naturally on the “boomers”. A bit longer in the tooth than that, I think I am in the “veteran” cohort. In any case, I have retired from a non-profit 501C3 a month ago, and now seek to start up a consulting firm to do good deeds in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education and research, as well as other areas of research including international security, energy, and environment. Retirement as it used to be envisioned isn’t really an option for me.
I belive these sessions will help me calibrate for the future and perhaps provide ways for me to focus objectives.