This month's issue of Taking Care of Business focuses on a topic that gives new meaning to the term, “long-range career planning.”
A new article written by Beverly Ryle discusses the importance to career-savvy people of thinking in terms of a 200-year career plan, a road map which will take them to retirement and beyond.
This is followed by a 200-year plan story from Eloise Morley, the graphic artist whose stick illustrations appear in these pages.
The 200-Year Plan
by Beverly Ryle
The Center for Career and Business Development
When I was considering whether to pursue a Master's in Counseling, I went to talk to a highly respected career professional about it. When I lamented that it would take me until I was 45 to complete the program, he said to me, ”You need to think in terms of a 200-year plan.“ At the time I thought he was crazy, but now I hear myself saying the exact same thing to my clients.
Today, more than any other time in history, there are compelling reasons for us to think this way.
Here are some of them:
- The median age of our population is higher than it's ever been. We're living longer and healthier lives, which means we're physically and mentally capable of continuing to contribute well beyond what we now usually think of as retirement age.
- As baby boomers expand the over-65 sector and the birth rate declines, there will be more jobs than there are workers.
- The volatility of investments and the rising cost of living are making a ”complete“ retirement less and less feasible.
- Lifelong work (paid or volunteer) and learning are increasingly being seen as desirable options by many.
Ten years ago, when I talked to professionals about planning for their ”post-corporate“ professional lives, they'd say to me that all they were interested in was ”having enough money to retire.“ But I could sense that beneath that veneer of confidence there was deep concern over the loss of identity that comes with not working. They were worried about how they were going to spend the 50 to 60 hours a week in retirement they were currently spending on the job.
Nowadays, however, thinking in terms of post-retirement work is commonplace. Two thirds of Americans expect either to want or to need to work 20 hours or more per week after retirement. This is reflected in comments we hear every day, like: ”My father may have retired at 65, but I'll be working till I'm 80!“ For many this is a disappointment but there are others who are beginning to take a positive look at the situation and say, ”If I have to work another15 years, I want it to be doing something I like, something of value.“ That's the beginning of a 200-year plan!
The ideas I've talked about in the last three issues of this newsletter—career authenticity, career autobiography, and mining stories of peak experiences for knowledge of the skills you most enjoy using—are all essential for preparing yourself for professional development along an unlimited timeline.
Here are some additional suggestions:
1. Collect role models. Eleanor Roosevelt, who served as Ambassador to the United Nations in her sixties, comes immediately to my mind. There are many others as well, famous people, as well as folks in my own backyard. I recently met a ”retired“ senior executive who had been ”recruited“ by the contractor who was doing work on his home to run his sales/marketing department.
2. Establish clear criteria for your ideal job. The more experience you have, the more clearly you should be able to envision what you want your work to look like at this point in your life. Map it out. Don't let thoughts like, ”I know this could never happen,“ stop you from going for your ideal job. If you don't know what you want, no one, absolutely no one, is going to offer it to you.
3. Research ”age-friendly“ companies. Use your own observation, the Internet, information interviewing and other techniques to find places where the skills of mature workers are valued. Traveler's Insurance Company, for example, has created a pool of temp workers made up of retired former employees. Home Depot and AARP have formed a national partnership to recruit workers over 50.
4. Learn about flexible work options such as job sharing, compressed work week, consulting, telecommuting, etc. Find out where, how and why these options have been successful. To get the work you want, you may need to sell an employer on the idea of a flexible working arrangement. I strongly recommend that work-seekers neither assume that employers know about these options, nor that they would not be open to them.
5. Understand and address your own age-ism. This topic really requires a column all to itself, which it will get at a later date. Age is not just a problem for people in their 50's, 60's, and 70's. It is frequently cited as a concern by work-searchers in their 30's and 40's, as well. Suffice it to say for now that how you feel about your age significantly influences how others are going to feel about employing you at any age.
6. Ask for what you want. This, too, is a big subject and I will address it in future columns on the topic of negotiation. It sounds simple to say that every work-seeker has the responsibility to know what they want and ask for it, rather than expect the employer to read their minds. Yet it has been my experience that most people have so many negative assumptions going on in their heads they don't even bother to ask for what they want because they've already concluded that the answer will be no.
The demographics of aging are real and point to a present need. Changing attitudes and behaviors, however, takes longer. We are in the midst of huge work transitions, of which these demographic shifts are only one dimension.
The first wave of 200-year plan people will be marching headlong into a clash between old attitudes about aging and the ”compelling need to integrate every available worker into the workforce.“ Acceptance may require a struggle, but time, and the statistics, are very much on the side of those who choose to be productive throughout the entire length of their lives.
A 200-Year Plan Story
by Eloise Morley
My 55-year plan was to raise my five children, write my memoirs, and retire with my husband to spend summers in the mountains and winters on the beach. As sometimes happens, things didn't work out that way and I found myself, at age 52, having to make a 60-year plan: with much fear and only a few workplace skills, I interviewed for my first outside-the-home job.
Then, somewhere in my mid-fifties, I discarded my 60-year plan because I found it too limiting—financially, intellectually, and emotionally. I dreamed of a richer work life and so I went back to school and earned an MFA in creative writing and began to freelance (with a heavy emphasis on ”free“).
My grandchildren lived halfway across the country and I wanted them in my life, so soon after my 60th birthday, I sold my home and moved to be near them. To get the lay of the land, I took a job in retail which lasted until I felt confident enough to enter an intensive training program in a field that I'd been drawn to but had never tried.
After certification, I took a brief free-lance job which led to a part-time position (with benefits!) in an old, well-respected organization where I admire my colleagues and I feel supported and valued—none of which I'd imagined possible in my original plan.
Whenever I find myself longing for the mountains and the beach I remind myself that, while they're beautiful and warm and sunny, the life I would have had in them, without the challenges, and especially without the grandchildren-who just keep on coming!-would have paled in comparison to the excitement and fullness I experience today. And I'm not even at year 66 in my 200-year plan!
Eloise Morley lives in New York City where she is a writing consultant and illustrator, teaches ESOL, and conducts workshops in journal-keeping and memoir through her company, Tracks Across the Page. She is also the graphic artist whose delightful stick figures grace the pages of this newsletter.
In this month’s issue ...
The 200-Year Plan
by Beverly Ryle
A 200-Year Plan Story
by Eloise Morley
Quotes-of-the-Month
About Us
Privacy Policy
As we move forward into the 21st century it’s pretty obvious to just about everyone that work isn’t what it used to be. Whether we work for ourselves, or for someone else, or are in transition, things are changing rapidly and we’re caught in a shift of seismic proportions. Many things are being demanded of us, and it’s going to require more than just new skills to survive and thrive. We’re going to need to learn how to get serious about taking care of the business of our professional lives.
Taking Care of Business was created to focus on issues related to this re-education process. If you find it helpful, please pass it on to others you know who are trying to find their way through the new realities of the world of work.
We invite you to share your thoughts by emailing us at:
“Mature workers will customize work to their own preferences and negotiate arrangements that square with their family commitments and leisure desires.”
Daniel Pink
Free Agent Nation
“The emerging phenomenon of unretirement can be confusing in that it seems to be taking place in a context of mismatched puzzle pieces. While there are many forces drawing businesses to employ older adults, there are still age discrimination cases, early-retirement incentives, and a seeming lack of strategies for effectively employing older adults.”
Catherine Fyock & Anne Dorton
Unretirement
40 Oak Leaf Rd
PO Box 156
North Eastham, Cape Cod, MA 02651-0156
508.240.3532
www.successonyourownterms.com
About Us
The Center for Career and Business Development specializes in teaching people how to manage their professional lives by providing customized counseling and educational programs which integrate conceptual thinking with practical training. Our long-term relationships with clients, recognition by peers, and growing reputation as a community resource speak to the excellence of the services we provide and our commitment to making the world of work a better place for all.
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The stick illustrations in this issue are by Eloise Morley.
Her email address is eloisemorley@earthlink.net
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