Employability of the maturing workforce in America
Now at "Red Alert."

A spine-tingling problem confronts the U.S. In the last decade of the last century, the majority of the U.S. workforce labored in reasonably stable jobs and lived in relative isolation from the rest of the world. As a result, many of us missed noticing the first large waves of workplace change - the growing tsunami of corporate mergers and acquisitions. Some of us were intently focused on the dot.com revolution, a mere blip in time that created new organizations into which we quite literally poured our hearts and emptied out pocketbooks. Others, especially those of us who lived and worked in the American heartland, labored on as in the past. A few of us felt the first tingles of concern.

Fast forward to today. This is the time and place where many of us find ourselves trapped in the torrential current of a different economy, paddling furiously in the waves of technological change and drowning in the whirlpool of remarkably increased global competition.

As the waves of change rock the U.S., private organizations try to squeeze every penny they can out of their thinning pocketbooks in the hope they will weather the storm of change and maintain enough profitability to last until the next wave of innovation.

Still, many of us hoped for the return of a mythological kingdom where all would be as it had once been.

"Things will soon be as they were" some dreamers still say.

"Things will never be as they were" a growing number of realists are saying today.

The facts are that employers will continue to ‘do whatever it takes' to effectively cut costs, and they will not return to the past, nor will we. Employers will accelerate their efforts to control their variable costs. "People" are the variable costs over which employers have the most control.

Even now, the public sector is being rocked by many of the challenges the private sector experienced a few short years ago. The truth is that our world - public and private - is forever changed and we should have seen it coming.

Workforce reductions and organizational restructurings will continue. This workforce fall-out has completely unraveled the regular, full-time employer/employee relationship.

This is what the change means to you.

Boomers, many of whose work lives were spent in a so-called merit (longevity) based economy, are the most costly to employ and, as a result, are the most likely to be affected by this unraveling. The same employers who have long used age and "early-retirement" as reasons for reducing headcount through massive lay-offs, are now doing so at an accelerated pace.

Cost cutting measures include the transition from employing long-term, full-time employees to a new kind of workforce model — one composed of flexible, part-time or just-in-time staff and outsourced, insourced or shared sourced solutions.

What is to be made of this spine-tingling problem?

Is all the news as gloomy as a recent joint study conducted by AARP and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) suggests? In their study, they found that the majority of employers—65%—do not actively recruit older workers in any capacity!

Or, does the fact that the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that by 2006, 40% of the adult U.S. population will be over 50 concern you? How about the fact that one American is turning 50 every 7 seconds? Finally, if Boomers are laid off at 4 or 5 times the rate of other employees, yet we are almost 50% of the population, what is to become of this segment of the workforce?

These facts should, at the very least:

• Raise the hairs on the back of your head
• Cause your spine to tingle
• Give you bad dreams
• Instill fears for your future, and that of your children to new heights

Concern is too soft a word to apply to the situation. Scared to death may be a more realistic response - especially, if you have no clue as to how to navigate your future. But, then again, why should you know how to do this? This is a NEW day in America.

Of course, this book wouldn't mean much to any reader if it focused on the gloom and doom of change or failed to suggest new ways to cope and to thrive in a new economy.

There are answers to working successfully in a new era - they are not difficult - but they are very different than our experience suggests.

The blueprint and process for effecting your own change is in the book. How you manage the personal impact of change is your challenge.

You will "Boom or Bust" depending upon the choices you make.

When you were young and new to the adult world of work, you were like the puppy, the youngster for whom every experience was novel. You learned by trial and error. You were adventuresome and foolish. You were independent and optimistic. When you did not like doing something, you stopped doing it, changed jobs - or changed companies - and went on. Change was more about getting rid of what you did not like rather than taking the time to discover what you wanted! You made mistakes but corrected course readily. You were not stopped by fear and uncertainty and had little to lose as everything lay ahead of you and there seemed to be plenty of time to change or adjust. Think of this time of your life as time spent in your first career or, metaphorically, as your 1st Act in a 3 Act play!

When you were in your early mid-life, you were apt to take a more cautious approach to work than during your youth. Perhaps you were caught up in consumer games of acquisition and one-upping the neighbors. You might have been raising children. This was also a time when the boomer generation was more likely to be changing spouses than jobs. During this mid-time of life you may have settled for "good enough" in your work life, confusing your security needs with the perceived risks that stood in your way of achieving a richly rewarding future. If you were part of a lucky few, you achieved what you went after and it was good. Yet, lucky or unlucky, wise or hard working, there are aspects to the work you once did that no longer matter. Think of this time of your life as time spent in your second career or, metaphorically, as your 2nd Act in a 3 Act play!

Now that you are in your mature working years, jobs you didn't like, work whose meaning has long since faded from your list of important memories, things you did for gain but that were not fun or worthwhile, the youthful ambitions that, once achieved, rang hollow - all of these may be unpacked from your "baggage" of long ago and left behind in the past where they belong.

If you are alive, everything still lies ahead. There is still time to be the best of who you might have been. There is still time to do good work.

Following a short intermission,
while you let go of the past and strategically plan your third career,
you will come to see that your 3rd Act is your opportunity
to pull your life play together for a grand finale.

You are, at long last,
both the author and the central character
of your 3rd Act.

End of your 2nd act. Intermission is over. Let the 3rd act begin…
The 3rd act signals the moment in time when you are given the opportunity to align yourself with good work that you define based on this moment in your lifetime.

Your first exercise is to let go of what you no longer want in your work portfolio. The following exercise, in letting go of past experiences that no longer serve you well, will help you to get started.

Note what others have said they no longer want from their past work experience. Reflect on their thoughts. Is there a grain of truth in others' words that rings true for you?

It's a new day and a new game. After we overcome certain myths about economic recovery and those stories that set a false expectation about a return to the world of work as it was, those of us who will thrive in this forever changed, largely jobless world of the mature worker will:

Continue to develop and focus our expertise. This focused expertise will enable us to thrive in a largely de-jobbed U.S. world of work. Think of us as the Sages.

Start our own businesses now, on the perceived early edge of change and forget seeking employers as the panacea for our false source of security. Think of us as the Hardy Pioneers.

Follow the trends avidly - paying good attention to broad-based change and relating that change to our own work lives. Think of us as the Keen Observers.

Always have a Plan "B" - never resting on our laurels from the past. Plan "B" will include continued formal education and skills development over our lifetimes. The online classroom will prove to be the leap forward in providing skills/education to the older worker, and we will move quickly towards this form of formalized learning. Furthermore, we will be the generation that will change the way our colleges and universities teach and, ultimately, change the cost of advanced learning. Think of us as the Swift Learners.

Sustain our marriages or form alliances with other mature folks to share financial burdens and allow more freedom from the need to work in endless drudgery. Later stage marriages or alliances will allow us to remain independent and self-sustaining. Think of us as the Brave Hearts.

In summary, the people who will thrive are the Sages, Hardy Pioneers, Keen Observers, Swift Learners and the Brave Hearted. But, then, aren't these the same qualities you have noted in people who have triumphed throughout your lifetime? Dare we imply that we simply need to re-discover the best in ourselves?

Ah… so that is, in some part, what this book is about. Our journey is to re-discover the person we were meant to be! That person who is smart enough, swift enough, courageous enough, curious enough and connected enough will have the best chance to succeed. Come along, brave souls, it is the moment to look at the world intuitively, observe the big picture, make a few good guesses at its implications and then process the information logically, analyzing your ideas until you understand where it is that you are headed.

Who They Are

These are the people who appreciate the value of not putting all their "career eggs in one basket." They believe that the diversified work portfolio, over time, increases their probability of realizing financial success, improves their sense of control and boosts their feelings of security.

What you need to know.

The first person who opened our eyes to this way of thinking about work was the well-known author, Charles Handy. His book, The Age of Unreason, changed the course of a lifetime of thinking about work. In brief, Mr. Handy compared work to managing a stock portfolio.

Some investments, he proposed, are initially risky but they offer a high degree of probability for future growth.

Other investments, such as long-term growth stocks, provide a steady and relatively certain climb over time.

Diversifying the portfolio between stocks representing different industries increases the probability of financial return on your investment.

In other words, smart investment strategies are usually balanced between high risk and reasonable certainty, between long and short-term growth.

Think of portfolio work in this light. If this strategy makes sense to you, you will be one among many others who have diversified their portfolios and created their own working models.

Pretend for a few moments that your work has been that of a career management specialist. Within the scope of that profession you have done many things. You have helped mature workers to navigate a confusing new world. You have helped the person who is returning to work after many years at home raising a family. You are published in your area of career management expertise. You are leaving, or have left, your regular, full-time job. Rather than seeking work with one employer, you choose to create a work portfolio that will allow you the greatest time flexibility in order to continue to develop your writing skills.

The thought process of balancing this example of a portfolio career goes like this:

• From a perspective of the marketplace, there is no doubt that the needs for the mature worker are high and good fees for this type of service are well established.
• Helping people to re-enter the workforce after a long hiatus is also a high need. However, this type of service is reasonably well staked out by a variety of government agencies and private service firms. A review of the market suggests that opportunities may be sporadic and fees will be modest. However, because of your credentials in this area, this service belongs in the portfolio.
• A third investment, as a writer, offers an undetermined financial return. It is likely to provide a modest, consistent income stream over time. This investment provides an opportunity to continue to work well into late life.
• A final investment is your continued development of related skills. A formal course in desktop publishing, and a commitment to learning the art and skills of self-publishing, will provide you with an effective way to leverage your abiding interest in writing and publishing.

A visual representation of the amount of investment in each segment of this portfolio looks like:

Note that this example of a portfolio career is balanced with the largest investment of time and effort allocated to the area of highest gain. The smallest, yet very important long-term investment is allocated to learning new skills and it is work for free.