Not content to exit the work force because they've hit some predetermined magic age, those of the baby boom generation -- the first of whom turn 65 next year -- are expected to transform their later years, much as they altered every life phase they have passed through since making their entrance in 1946.
If pundits have it right, Herb Johnson may well be the poster child for the retirement of the future. Johnson blazed a 30-year trail in supply-chain management through such major companies as Polaroid and CVS Caremark, capped off by a stint consulting to Fortune 100 companies. Rather than retiring five years ago, Johnson leapt into an entirely new role as the president and CEO of the San Diego Rescue Mission, a faith-based recovery and rehabilitation program for the homeless. Now 66, he works more hours than ever.
He is thrilled with his career turn and has no thoughts of stepping down.
"It's nice to hit profit goals and make a company successful, but it's much more rewarding to watch people at the bottom of their game transform their lives right in front of you," Johnson says. His corporate experience helps him to manage the 90-employee, $14.5 million operation and to dream up initiatives such as his bold, all-night fundraising event, Sleepless America, which he is bringing to missions across the country.
The implications of this coming trend are enormous, thanks to the generation's sheer size: By 2030, the number of adults 65 or older will skyrocket to 72 million, from just over 40 million this year.
Steve Slon, who chronicled the boomers as the editor of AARP's magazine, takes it as a given that they can reinvent their lives at every turn. "This generation has long had an arrogance -- and I use that word in a positive way -- in believing a career path should be as flexible and resilient as they want it to be."
Slon shares this belief. At 58, after leaving the magazine, he considered opening a bicycle shop before deciding to start a nonprofit healthful-cooking magazine for children. Last summer, he worked remotely from a rented beach house.
More than money
Part of the impetus behind the expected new path is, of course, financial. With private-employer retirement plans having moved toward 401k's, boomers are less likely than the previous generation to have pensions financing their post-work years. Moreover, Social Security will likely undergo significant changes; whereas in 2000 nearly five workers supported each retiree, by 2030 there will be fewer than three."People in their 40s can't rely on Social Security to be there in the same way," says Mary Claire Allvine, a financial planner who works out of Chicago and Atlanta. Allvine expects benefits to decrease, the retirement age to rise (it's already been bumped to 67 for the youngest boomers) or the system to morph from a broad entitlement program into a more-limited safety net.
Another key factor, however, is that boomers find the current retirement landscape wanting. The notion of taking that time and withdrawing to a permanent vacation dates only to the 1960s, Dychtwald says. Before that, most people were not expected to live many years after they ceased working, if they stopped at all.
"There's a dawning realization among boomers that a life of pure leisure, with no challenge or stimulation, is both unaffordable and boring, especially since -- with increasing life spans -- this phase might last for 30 years or more," Dychtwald notes.
Boomers are also the generation that aspired to change the world. Though they got sidetracked for, oh, about 40 years, as they raised their children and earned their paychecks, many still harbor the dream.
A 2008 survey by Civic Ventures, a San Francisco think tank, found that half of Americans ages 44 to 50 hoped to move into an "encore career." The nonprofit's founder, Marc Freedman, defines the term to mean later-in-life work that combines income with social impact, like Herb Johnson's position.
"At a certain life stage, people have always asked themselves, 'What should I do next?' But where the last generation primarily answered that by planning for retirement, increasingly people want to do something with meaning," says Marci Alboher, a vice president of Civic Ventures.
Fortunately, boomers' desire to continue working dovetails with an expected shortage of younger workers. Researchers at Northeastern University in Boston predict that the United States will create 14.6 million new payroll jobs by 2018 but that there will be only 9.1 million new workers to fill them -- a shortfall of 5.5 million people. The biggest gaps will be in education, health care and business operations. "We're at the point where we're surprised by late-life productivity, but in 20 years it will be normal to see older workers in a myriad of jobs," Dychtwald says.
That doesn't mean seniors will want to continue working full time. Many will seek part-time hours, more vacation or the ability to work at least sometimes from home. "At this stage, people have other obligations and desires, which may involve their health, the needs of their parents or grandchildren, or just recreation and travel. They want work that offers flexibility," Alboher says.
However, to get and keep their jobs, boomers will need to adjust to a rapidly changing workplace in coming years, cautions Jeanne Meister, a co-author of "The 2020 Workplace." Boomers constitute the majority of the work force today. But by 2015, Meister says, the "millennials" -- those born from 1977 to 1997 -- will overtake them. (The group in between, Generation X, is too small to ever be a majority.) And by 2020, boomers won't represent even a quarter of working Americans.
"Millennials have a different way of working, and boomers will have to adapt to stay relevant," Meister says. For example, she envisions a not-too-distant day when team leaders will routinely motivate and manage employees across the globe without ever meeting face to face -- something today's younger generation knows about from playing online multiplayer computer games. Marketing and communicating via social-networking sites will also become the norm.
"Older employees frequently tell me they don't have time for social networking because they're 'too busy working.' But that's part of many jobs now and will be increasingly so in the future," Meister says.
What a drag of a article?? Pure BS about how the world will fall apart if baby boomers don't continue working? I am low 50's and working two more years and Then relaxing doing whatever the hell i want to do? No SS early, No SS disability early, No welfare, No Gov hand outs, its called Work for what you Want to have in life?? duh!! For this cat, yep, you betcha, i invested my hard earned money wisely over the past 35 yrs and have been fugal so quit whining people about this and that, I have been working since i was 15 yrs old in one way or another? Simple Rule, Is this a need or a want?? So light up Man and be Cool, Relax and be thankful for what you Have>>>>. Nice not Nasty comments welcomed!! Peace
