Baby Boomers aren't remotely ready to stop working, and we resent the endless calls for us to do so. Day by day, the resistance movement is growing, and our slogan may well be the one many of us once used to protest the war in Vietnam: "Hell no, we won't go!"
Loyal readers will know that I'm writing a new book called RIPE, which will help boomers answer the question that's on our minds: "What's next?"
In last week's column, I said that the simple answer would be "work." Research backs this up. Four out of five baby boomers will continue to work. McKinsey Global Institute surveyed 5,100 American households to better understand boomers' current attitude toward work. "Our research shows that boomers want to continue working -- as much as 85 percent say 'likely' and 40 percent say 'extremely likely.'"
When I started connecting the dots of this emerging trend, I had a sense that it was about more than simply continuing to work. After all, my generation was now talking about looking for stimulating new work and more satisfying ways of working.
I went back and looked at the notes from the interviews I'd done with my peers. Reading through the transcripts, some stories suddenly stood out from the rest. There was the management consultant who went back to school to earn a Ph.D. in marine biology, the publisher who became a playwright, the serial entrepreneur who returned to revitalize his first company, and the academic who discovered a rich, new vein of research.
I realized that something unprecedented is happening. We are approaching this new phase of our careers with the confidence of professionals and the zest of beginners -- and, in the process, reaping enormous rewards.
We are becoming what I call "ripe."
Next Saturday, I'll begin to share stories of people who have ripened. In the meantime, please keep writing about what's going on in your life. Comments are welcome! And you can always contact me through my website. I look forward to being part of a lively conversation.
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Barbara Hannah Grufferman: Life After 50: How You and Your Partner Can Be a Couple Again
I'm over 50, but I still have -and am looking forward to - many more years of meaningful productive work. Why should I retire? And do what? Play rummy or Bingo at the Senior's center? Hell no!
Moved back to the Midwest to do this from S. Florida where we had lived for over 20 years. Cut our own wood, clear fields, and love to live on one of the prettiest places around.
Keep working until you spoil on the vine. It is not for those of us who want a change and saved all our lives to have savings to do what we find fulfilling.
I suspect that many of those gung-ho work 'til we drop types have little option in these sour economic times. We have friends who made more than we did who have little or nothing in savings.....they will have to continue working (to achieve some trumped up new goal).
Don't mean to be less than appreciative but, we lived our lives watching people in our income level who always had new cars, continued redecorating on a semiannual basis,took cruises, bought vacation homes when those things were were true luxury. Now they have no choice except to draw up highminded new goals. Good luck to us all.
I suspect that many others are so wrapped up in their work that they don't have -- and can't imagine -- any life outside of it. I retired at 62 and am glad I did. My days are my own now to do with as I please, when I please -- read, write, walk, play my guitar, garden, fish, go on a photography expedition, have a couple of beers with friends or just sit and think.
Older workers who become a little forgetful or have numerous medical problems that the boss knows is costing the company begin to find themselves mistreated and disliked. It is a sad thing to push on people and we as decent human beings need to watch out for these people and the day we become one of them.
I am retired and do volunteer work at my local hospital, since my work revolved around retail, I chose the Gift Shop where my talents are best utilized, mainly in the designing of the displays. Since then I have branched out into doing the art work for various fundraisers for other groups in the hospital. It is something I enjoy and keeps me active and busy. The rewards are numerous other than monetarily. To have some one come up to me and comment on my work is all the reward I need at my age. I will let the younger toil away and I will enjoy my golden years with my family and friends and no time limits.
Some government bureacrat?
Unbelievably, the western world went along with the notion, crippling economies with useless, but forced, government retirement funds, social security and medical funds and turning corporations into pension funds, with side commercial ventures.
Now we are getting smarter. Or at least, those of us who know what is good for us better be getting smarter. We can no longer rely on governments, corporations or even families to look after us in old age. We are each in charge of our own futures.
When I was forced out, I was still the most productive worker in my field, by all of the measurement yardsticks that were used to measure productivity. I did more work than any other three workers, according to the employer's measurements. I was also good at teaching others. I used to get phone calls from hundreds of miles away asking how best to do certain tasks. I had to make adjustments for a worn out body, but I still got more than my share of the work done.