As a baby boomer, born between 1946 and 1964, you are likely to think differently about your future than did past generations. You are poised to enjoy a healthy active life for two or three decades after age 50 and live well into your 80s or 90s. You can look forward to many active years and a variety of unprecedented opportunities and choices for work and leisure.

You will likely want to make your own choices. This requires you to challenge attitudes and practices among employers and in society that do not serve you well. As a boomer in a managerial, professional, or technical occupation, you have strengths, capabilities, and opportunities that you can leverage to advantage. Even though you may have the income to “drop out” and play golf, travel, or simply retire, you may instead want to continue your lifestyle, continue to earn income, grow your retirement assets, and sustain your fitness in order to work and enjoy other activities. You may continue working, gradually phase into retirement, switch to another company or different type of work, go back to college, or become a free agent professional (consultant, contractor, volunteer, or entrepreneur).

Everyone has his or her own situations and stories to tell. Bruce and Carolyn reflect circumstances that many boomers share:

Boomers feel responsible for shaping their futures. Overall, boomers have been forceful in shaping their destiny in the past and are likely to shape the nature of work and retirement to meet their new goals. Accordingly, you will not be alone in pursuing opportunities to continue working, learning, and growing. In the next twenty years, boomers will swell the ranks of older workers as well as retirees. Many will blend work and leisure to find the desired personal balance. With the pressure from boomers, combined with the demand for managerial, professional, and technical skills, employers will learn to attract and retain older talent. This will become the norm, not the exception. The landscape will change.

Over the decades, boomers have been described as having unique characteristics as a generation. They are known to

As they grow older, these characteristics are expected to lead boomers to return to school, pursue new jobs or even new careers, start businesses, and be engaged in nonprofit endeavors. Boomers are not likely to sit idly by. They will pursue new, meaningful activities.

Within the generation, which has been defined (somewhat arbitrarily) as spanning 19 years, there are important distinctions. The first wave of the generation, persons born between 1946 and 1955, had different experiences and thus different attitudes and expectations than the second wave of the boomers, persons born from 1955–1964. Because the conditions in American society changed during these times, the experiences of boomers influenced their concerns, aspirations, and how they faced choices.

Early boomers experienced the space race, the death of two Kennedys, race riots, and the rise of rock and roll (including the Beatles and Woodstock), and parents who followed the guidance of Dr. Spock. Although many of these boomers were the cusp of the generation and followed the paths and attitudes of their parents (the silent generation), a great many actively changed the face of American culture, as discussed in Chapter 8, “Engage Younger Generations.” As teenagers through the sixties, they protested the Vietnam war, experimented with new lifestyles, and set new patterns for conspicuous consumption. As adults, they have worked hard to achieve career and financial success. Women entered the workforce in growing numbers and many pursued professional and managerial careers. Today these boomers are considering their opportunities to retire, to work, to start a new career, or create a portfolio of roles. Their children are typically on their own or in transition. They are considering pursuing unfulfilled interests in careers, travel, leisure, hobbies, or community service that are important to them.

Second-wave boomers were typically less proactive and more content to be observers of changes around them. They did not know John F. Kennedy, and instead grew up in the seventies in the tumultuous decade with Nixon, Ford, and Carter as presidents. They challenged the authority of institutions, including businesses and government. They railed at the consumption behaviors of older boomers whom they considered excessive. They gave more attention to their families—parenting and engaging with their children and pursuing work-life balance. Today most are in the peak of their earning careers and years away from making significant choices about work and retirement. Younger boomers will also likely be greatly influenced by the state of the economy during the decade ahead—affecting their work opportunities, their income and savings, and the circumstances affecting their families. They face greater uncertainties than the first wave boomers.

This book will help you consider your opportunities and formulate plans for your active years ahead. We present eight persistent myths about aging, work, and retirement and their implications for you as a boomer. We encourage you to challenge outmoded notions of aging and retirement and determine your own vision and plan for your future. New realities, such as changing attitudes toward aging and retirement and emerging talent shortages, are opening up new opportunities for work and for transforming retirement into a blend of work and other meaningful activities. Our discussion will help you explore and reflect on the choices available to you and to think creatively about your future.

There is a large and growing body of research and data on aging and adult development, workforce issues, age bias, work, and careers that is not discussed in most retirement and life-planning books. This book is fact-based, drawing on this body of research. Further, we provide references to the information upon which we have relied to enable you to consider the facts and to draw your own conclusions. You can draw upon research studies, others’ experiences, interpretations of boomers’ unique characteristics, and emerging practices and trends reported in news, business, and social science publications to inform your decision-making.

You may have read warnings of a coming workforce crisis—a shortfall of talent resulting from the mass retirement of baby boomers, particularly gaps in managerial, professional, and technical occupations. At the same time, you and many other boomers may feel that you enjoy working, like earning money (and spending it), and are not likely to retire any time soon. Current attitudes and trends indicate that boomer professionals are very likely to reject traditional retirement and instead stay in the workforce for a few more years than usual, thereby helping to avert a critical talent shortage. Work opportunities, boomer capabilities, health and longer lives, and the distinctive motivations of boomers to earn, spend, and find meaning in life all are converging to redefine the options open to individuals as they approach age 55, 60, or 65. Boomers are challenging old myths about aging, work, and retirement and are embracing and creating new realities. In order to make enlightened choices, you will need to understand the landscape.

In a meeting with a group of human resource managers from a variety of large employers (more than half of whom were baby boomers themselves) to discuss work and retirement trends, we found most firmly believed that there will be a talent crisis. They thought that their companies will be scrambling to recruit, develop, and retain needed talent. Most noticeable was the fact that aging boomers don’t figure into their analysis or planning for the future. In their view, boomers will continue to retire when they become eligible for retirement benefits, as did their predecessors. Boomers, they feel, will have ample retirement income to do the things they want. Even under voluntary staff reduction programs, retirees have left willingly and, seemingly, happily. They believe this even though the facts show that many people have not accumulated pension benefits as their careers progressed through multiple companies. They also fail to recognize that boomers have been poor savers, accumulating few assets other than their homes. Yesterday’s retirees had different situations and expectations than potential retirees in the boomer generation.

These managers said that their companies would prefer to fill the gaps and vacancies with younger talent. Aging boomers, they said, work at a slower pace, resist change, and are averse to new ideas; many are, in their estimation, technophobic. From their perspectives, it is appropriate to offer training and developmental experiences to younger professionals. Boomers are blocking advancement for these individuals—forming a “gray ceiling”—and this obstructs succession planning and development of future talent. It was apparent that their companies had few professionals or managers over age 55—and would clearly not want to have any around who are in their 70s.

Will boomers change these employer attitudes? Will boomers demand work opportunities after age 60, rather than going quietly into retirement? Will they push back the boundaries that constrain choices today? Are they likely to make work places more hospitable to older workers or, better yet, to diminish the relevance of age as a consideration? It is too early to see clear evidence of change. The first boomers turned age 60 in 2006; the first applied for social security benefits in 2008. There are just too few boomers over age 60 in the workforce to make a visible difference. Major changes by the generation have not yet taken hold. In fact, some of the first-wave boomers, at the cusp of the generation, share values in common with the previous generation—and are covered by traditional pensions and health care benefits. However, by 2012 or 2015, when about half of the generation has crossed the 60 line, companies are likely to have responded and adapted to the pressures for change. By the time the full generation has turned 60 in 2024, the workforce will likely be far more balanced by age categories, just as the workforce became balanced by gender. Demography will be destiny.

In the meantime, what’s a boomer to do? Stay young? Appear to be young? Marketers of age-defying pharmaceutical and cosmetics, cosmetic surgery, fitness programs, and diets (and supplements) target boomers who are trying to preserve youthfulness. But this merely reinforces a youth culture, sustains denial of healthy aging, and perpetuates a fear of growing older. When you are healthy, fit, and active through your sixties and seventies, chronological age doesn’t matter so much. Boomers need to challenge the myths of aging and recognize that important capabilities do not decline. Indeed, the facts about aging are great news.

Sixty is not the new forty. It’s the new sixty. I’m sixty. That’s the way it is. Get used to it.
—Gail Sheehy

Kathy Bates’ character in the movie, Fried Green Tomatoes, aptly characterized the baby boom generation by saying, “I’m too old to be young and too young to be old.” Having shaped trends in every phase of their lives, boomers are disregarding traditional views of aging and are redefining work and retirement. Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, are not about to leave the workforce and retire quietly as their parents did. Instead, they will do everything they can to stay young—defying aging and decline, staying active in work and other pursuits, enjoying their lifestyles, and developing new ideas and capabilities.

In particular, boomers in professional, managerial, and technical occupations in the American workforce, now approximately 19 million strong, have the capabilities and the will to consider new alternatives for work and retirement. Fortuitously, the economy needs to retain boomers’ experience and skills, lest there be a workforce crisis due to talent shortages. Many state governments are working to attract older boomers into government jobs. For example, California, where the 60-plus population will almost double to 8.7 million by 2020, expects to entice older boomer professionals to fill many of the 33,000 new math and science teaching jobs during this period.

The creativity, initiative, and strong will of the baby boom generation should not be underestimated. As teens, boomers molded their own identity as a peer group, ignoring or challenging not only their parents, but also the authority of anyone over 30. When they turned 30, however, being over 30 didn’t seem so old anymore. In a similar manner, we can expect that boomers will once again redefine norms as their generation progresses into their 50s, 60s, and 70s as they are already doing. For many boomers like yourself, these may be the best decades of your life!

As boomers mature, new realities are emerging that provide conditions favorable for more varied and innovative career and retirement patterns than those of previous generations. For example, because of their improved health and longer life expectancy, age is not a useful marker of capabilities, vitality, or life interests. There is no roadmap with age markers. Chronological age will no longer be the driver of work and retirement decisions as it was in the past. Boomers will demand that their interests and capabilities be recognized and accommodated, just as they have throughout their careers.

In the past, retirement meant total withdrawal from work and was characterized by an abrupt shift to a life of leisure and an eagerness to leave work rituals and responsibilities behind. Retirement for most people has meant the opportunity to spend more time on the activities they enjoy most. Traditionally, this implied travel, leisure activities, hobbies, and other community and social pursuits. An image of retirement communities, amiable senior social networks, group excursions, golf and bridge games, and sun-belt living was popularized by retirees who could afford a leisure lifestyle and enjoy it in good health. However, many retirees have reported that they would have liked to continue working for a few more years if permitted to do so.

In America, people have been expected to retire when they “get old.” Among men, while 90% between 20 and 54 are employed, only 68% between 55 and 64 are employed. Among women, 75% between 20 and 54 are employed, but only 55% between 55 and 64. Employment drops off sharply for both men and women after age 64. The average retirement age today is 63 for men and 62 for women. At these ages, more than half of men or women are no longer participating in the workforce.

Boomers are challenging the traditional definition of work and creating in its place a myriad of more flexible work and retirement alternatives. Today, distinctions between work and retirement are blurring. Many boomers want to continue working, but in different ways. Some may gradually phase into retirement by working part-time, reinventing themselves, changing employers, starting a business, or pursuing new interests. A Merrill Lynch study indicated that 75% of boomers intend to keep working in retirement. They expect to retire from their current jobs at an average of 64 and then launch into a new career. Many want a different, more personally rewarding job. Others want to remain in the same type of work, but with more flexible scheduling. Self-employed workers, on the other hand, are the most likely to keep on working. Among the boomers surveyed, 42% want to cycle between work and leisure. Still other boomers may want to keep working, but at different things and a different place. They may want to leave the organizational life and schedules that they found to be all too comfortable and routine.

For many boomers, work continues to be the center of their lives. The workplace is where their obsessions lie, where their friends and social relationships reside, and where they gain satisfaction from accomplishment. For some, their preference is simply to continue to work in the job without retiring. Because mandatory retirement is illegal under federal law, there are employees as old as 80 or 90 working in companies countrywide (an exception has been airline pilots, currently restricted to age 65 for safety reasons). Notably, some employers promote continued employment of their older workers and consider it a competitive advantage.

Many workers retire and work in the same field with the same or different employer. Flexible options are of growing interest, including phased or gradual retirement, part-time work, or consulting and contract opportunities. Retirement may not mean withdrawal from the workplace, but instead merely the decision to begin receiving retirement benefits and then to work in different ways. Increasingly boomers are looking for new sources of satisfaction—ways to make their lives meaningful and significant. They are developing new mental models of what work means, envisioning new views of themselves and their identity, and rejecting the constraints of traditional career steps and hierarchical work environments.

Part-time or contingent work need not be considered less desirable than full-time work. In fact, surveys suggest that it is preferred by many. As companies seek greater workforce flexibility, both employers and employees are becoming more receptive. Employers are creating new options as boomers seek ways to extend their working careers. Because the marketplace balances supply and demand for talent by using part-time or contingent workers, as a boomer, you may accelerate this trend.

As more boomers near traditional retirement age, they will lead the way in tailoring jobs to their interests, skills, and expertise. In particular, professional and technical workers with critical market skills are negotiating with employers (or clients) about the terms and conditions of work, including the structure, scheduling, and employment relationship with the organization. Whereas Generation X and Y workers have advocated innovative policies and flexible work arrangements that allow greater work-life balance, aging boomers are embracing these options as well and are becoming vocal and demanding champions as well as users.

For decades, employer benefit programs provided attractive retirement income and health care plans to employees, particularly in larger organizations. Employees who were covered by a defined-benefit pension program could typically retire at age 65 with the expectation of a guaranteed retirement of 40% or more of their final-years’ income. Many could retire early with a somewhat reduced annual income (with the pension reduction allowing for the additional years of income received). Additionally, retirees typically received health care benefits at little or no personal cost. However, these benefits are becoming significantly reduced or less common.

The proportion of the U.S. population covered by private defined-benefit plans has fallen from 40% to 20% in just the past two decades. In recent years, some defined benefit pensions covering large numbers of employees have been frozen or eliminated. In their place, or as supplements, are 401(k) or other employee contribution plans that accumulate savings and, typically, include company matching funds. Employer-provided health care benefits are also being cut back and personal coverage is becoming more expensive. These trends are expected to continue. Employers are cutting back, capping, or completely eliminating their retiree health benefits programs. Accordingly, health care benefits provided to retirees by employers will be significantly less generous than those current retirees receive today. Watson Wyatt estimated that the level of employer financial support will drop to less than 10% of total retiree medical expenses by 2031 under plan provisions already adopted by many employers.

As a result, it is a myth that boomers can count on retirement income as being sufficient to meet their needs. The new reality is that many boomers will continue to work as employees to retain health care benefits and to accumulate assets for retirement income. Boomer professionals who have limited accumulated savings or retirement benefits will likely need to earn income well into their sixties.

In recent decades, retirement programs encouraged early retirement. These defined-benefit programs allowed workers to retire before “normal” retirement dates, usually age 65. Although retirement income benefits received under early retirement options were reduced, early retirement options were attractive to a majority of those eligible. As more retirees took advantage of the offer, early retirement soon became a social norm and was “expected” by many employers. However, in recent decades, early retirement took a negative turn when it was used as a management tool to reduce staffing levels. For example, in 2006, half of all employees at Ford Motor opted to retire early under terms of a special buyout offer. Voluntary early retirement options, including special limited-time “window” provisions, became a gentler tool for “reductions in force” than layoffs or restructuring. As a consequence, early retirement is now perceived as forced retirement by many employees.

For many workers, early retirement is no longer an attractive financial proposition. Benefit income is proving insufficient, given longer life expectancy and rising living expenses and inflation. In many cases, early retirees have gone back to work after a few years to supplement their income. Elimination of guaranteed benefits under defined benefit pension plans and their replacement with defined contribution and saving plans has, in many instances, reduced the degree of income security available to retirees.

Compounding the situation is the fact that boomers have generally been poor personal savers. Gains seen in the dot.com era gave many hope of a substantial retirement nest egg, only to be disappointed and left with worthless stock options. Today, houses are the primary assets of many boomers, and values are vulnerable. As reflected in a 2006 MetLife study, 44% of boomers aged 55–59 are concerned about having enough money in retirement. Among the respondents, most had insufficient savings, and 18% expected to have no retirement income from pensions, 401(k) plans, or the like. More than 62% of these boomers indicated they wish they had done better financial and retirement planning.

Boomers are often motivated by lifestyle as a driver of financial need. They been known to spend freely (more so than their parents’ generation) and to pursue lifestyle pleasures. For many boomers, income itself became an obsession, and many managers and boomer professionals enjoyed high levels of affluence. Today, at age 55 or 60, many boomers are still enjoying the “good life” and see no reason to stop working (earning) in order to live in the style to which they’ve become accustomed. Many still have big houses, second homes, and large mortgages. Further, some remain employed in order to provide substantial support to family members. And a significant number of boomers are supporting aging parents as well as adult children. An estimated 15 million boomers are providing substantial financial assistance and care for elderly parents. One boomer couple with whom we spoke travels to Florida regularly to check on aging parents they are supporting. Another recently “welcomed” back three adult children, along with their families, to live again “temporarily” in the family home when their loved ones were overcome with economic setbacks through divorce. Being caught in a three-generation “sandwich” drains boomer resources and limits their ability to plan for retirement.

Boomers question whether they will have enough income and health care coverage to carry them through 20 or 30 years of retirement. For these reasons, it is reasonable to expect that boomers will remain in the workforce well beyond the current retirement ages. Surveys indicate that upwards of three-fourths of boomers see themselves earning a paycheck in retirement. While many will need to find new sources of income, others will leverage their past experience to advantage, becoming independent contractors, starting their own businesses, or creating new employment relationships with their current employers.

It is noteworthy that financial institutions are seeking out older boomers to help them plan and prepare for retirement—a good idea, but a few years too late for many individuals. If a person continues working until age 70 rather than retiring earlier and drawing on retirement assets, the funds available would be 30% greater. Boomers understand this logic. The Merrill Lynch survey on retirement found that 54% say they will still be working after age 65. The study underscores boomers’ desire to continue working for financial reasons and also to stay active, involved, and engaged at work.

Getting older itself isn’t a problem. It is true that some aspects of human vigor and capability peak in youth and decline thereafter. With age, most adults typically experience reduced mental functioning (especially cognitive and memory capacity), reduced physical activity (especially mobility and agility), and slower recovery from illnesses and injury. However, such capabilities diminish very gradually and at very different rates for different people. They are rarely impediments to productive work and other activities for persons under age 75.

Boomers are challenging the myths that the aging process will affect them in any limiting way, and with good reason. The new reality is that boomers are healthier than past generations and will be able to remain healthy and active longer. Most are focused on well being and healthy living and are working to age that way, striving to remain active and involved through their 70s and 80s. This goal is achievable, given medical advances, improved health care, and healthy lifestyles. Boomers retain the most relevant capabilities for day-to-day functioning well into their sixties and seventies. They strongly reject age alone as an indicator of their capabilities relevant to work roles. Particularly in professional, technical, and managerial roles, declines in capabilities may not be significant impediments to effective performance. They are, rather, reminders of aging that are unwelcome in youth-oriented cultures.

Baby boomer talent is typically as vital as younger talent and is a primary labor source in the coming decades. Employers need to look beyond chronological age and define the practical requirements for effective job performance. As more and more jobs require knowledge workers, limits related to doing physical work are becoming less important.

Many people believe that human aging may be halted or slowed through diet, calorie restriction, exercise, and living patterns. Boomers will do whatever they can to remain young, attractive, and active. The boomer generation is the beneficiary of truly life-extending medical treatments developed during their generation. Beyond life-enhancing benefits, boomers can take advantage of knee replacements, Botox, Viagra, and other innovations that improve the quality of life as they age. Contrary to myths of inevitable declines, individuals can influence their actions and continually make choices. Contemporary notions of aging present a dynamic, interdependent interaction of biology and self-determination. Boomers’ new socially constructed world view is enabling them to transcend the boundaries of stereotypical thinking about aging. They are determined to “stay young” even as they grow older. Whether entirely serious or not, they have been heard to say, “I want to stay in shape until I die” or “I hope I die before I get old”—a line in The Who’s 1965 hit, “My Generation.”

When today’s oldest boomers were born in 1946, their life expectancy was 66 years. Approximately 95% of these boomers are alive today, and now may expect to live beyond age 82. Note that life expectancy is an average—not a maximum. Indeed, a growing number of persons are living to 100 years of age. Various websites feature case studies and research on centenarians and super-centenarians that highlight how long and how well we can live. The interesting question to ask yourself is, “What would I do differently now if I knew I were going to live to 100?”

Lifestyle can have profound impacts and long-term benefits. Not smoking, remaining active every day, living with a sense of purpose, and being socially engaged all contribute to longevity. These are behaviors and attitudes that you can embrace and emulate. While having good genes is important, each day new knowledge and cutting-edge research emerges to inform and guide choices.

Gerontologists distinguish the “young old” (60–80) from the less-firm “old old” (80 and older). Boomers reject the label of being “old.” Older, aging, senior, or even mature are adjectives that boomers dislike and rebel against. Words like elderly, geriatric, or senescent are reserved for the very old and infirmed. Most likely, boomers will coin new, more positive and hopeful language to describe their evolving state. Most importantly, boomers will not consider age alone as requiring them to retire. While the focus of baby boomers is on making the most of their “young old” years, you also need to plan ahead for your later years.

While boomers’ motivation to work may be to amass supplemental income, additional reasons drive many to continue work based on a desire for social interaction, satisfaction derived from making a valued contribution, and pleasure gained from belonging to a good organization. At 55 or 60, for individuals who want to stay connected and to continue contributing, it is not time to drop out. This is a highly productive period in the lives of boomer professionals whose work is less stressful and more interesting than it was in their early careers.

While some companies have developed reputations as employers favorable to older workers, many boomers want more than part-time employment in routine jobs. A Home Depot job or Wal-Mart greeter job is not what many have in mind. People want meaningful professional work that is fulfilling, motivating, or satisfying—work that they feel is important and significant. Boomers work not just for the money, but also for the stimulation, satisfaction, and opportunity to contribute, learn, and grow.

Some people began retirement with a brief period of exhilaration and liberation but later looked around for more meaningful activities. Some played all the golf they could for a year or more, or traveled to places they dreamed of, only to ask what they should do next. Many boomers retire and then return to work shortly thereafter. It may be continuing to do what they enjoy but in a different organization or as free agents. It may involve developing and performing work that builds on past experience and skills, but in a different area. It may include doing something different in the same organization—“creating a space.” For many, meaningful work means activities that contribute to the greater good of the community or society—morally significant work.

Meaningful work is emerging as a strong and powerful trend in business and in the popular press. It is what drives innovation and productivity. It is also a defining characteristic of a “preferred employer” among all generations of workers. In order to retain talented, mature workers and tap the strengths of individuals who still have a great deal to offer, a business case can be made for the value that can accrue when employers and boomers partner to identify meaningful work. Doing so will not only enable boomers to contribute to organizations, but it will also enable them to simultaneously realize their personal goals.

In American culture, the myth persists that learning and education are best left to the young. Young people are often perceived to be better able to learn, adapt, and change. Investing in the education of younger persons is seen as having greater and longer-term returns. These are assumptions that cannot stand the test of scrutiny, especially given all we know about adult learning and development. Boomers are challenging this bias because it influences individual choices and the opportunities available for personal growth.

The emphasis today is on current skills and knowledge, particularly with respect to rapidly evolving technology and markets. Employers prefer to invest in younger “digital natives” rather than retrain and redirect older workers who are “digital immigrants.” Conversely, companies tend not to invest in retraining, development, or further education of older employees, instead focusing on maintaining performance in their roles. “Peaked and parked” is an insulting, outdated notion when it comes to baby boomers.

The emerging reality is that boomers are continuing their own personal growth and development. They are striving to stay current, competitive, and knowledgeable and therefore valued. They are taking advantage of new channels for learning, including adult education, self-directed learning models, distance education, and computer-based learning. They are rethinking careers and often going to “a new place,” developing enhanced capabilities and expertise to undertake new and different kinds of work roles. And many are preparing for retirement by gathering knowledge, formulating plans, and making decisions about what paths they want to pursue actively.

Educators talk about “learning organizations” and our “learning society.” Given the changing demographics of the population, there will be even greater emphasis on formal, informal, and self-directed lifelong learning. We will experience more age-integrated learning rather than age-segregated education. Adults and youths will sit side-by-side in college classes, as is often the case today, and this trend will continue. Learners of all ages in even greater numbers will access Internet-based learning resources and learn from this powerful medium. Even traditional “senior centers” are redefining themselves to welcome adults of all ages to participate in their educational programs and classes as merely adult or community centers.

Developing programs and learning opportunities for adults at all stages in their lives is a critical starting point for rethinking how to make development and training inclusive and available to adults of all ages. Many boomers did not take the time or have the opportunity to continue their education as their careers progressed. Today, they are eagerly buying books, taking courses, and otherwise pursuing personal growth. They are driving new approaches to continuing professional education and influencing college and university curricula.

Boomers are certainly interested in getting up to date on current technology, professional and occupational knowledge, and changes occurring in the world around them. However, they are also engaged in learning to pursue a new sense of purpose or refocus on new objectives and interests. They are often seeking better or different careers and personal improvement. Also, they are seeking social interaction and meeting social needs. In taking initiative for learning, they are being active, rather than passive, and hence taking charge of their lives as they grow older.

Past generations were guided through their careers in the context of career phases or life stages. The assumption was that age-specific periods in adults’ lives determined age-appropriate behavior and activity. Although there are many variations of the framework, Gail Sheehy’s categories are useful in that they suggest every person confronts a series of career transitions: entry (age 18–30), growth (age 30–45), mastery (45–65), and integrity (65–85). These patterns may apply to many boomers, but there will be many exceptions as the notion of age-appropriate behavior is challenged. In reality, careers are rarely so linear. For example, boomers who leave their jobs and start new careers as entrepreneurs in a different field are essentially cycling back to entry, growth, and mastery phases—with the intent of moving through them at an accelerated pace and thereby experiencing a wide variety of “mini-careers.” Life stages are not fixed, and you have the opportunity to do what is best for you, without boundaries suggested by ages. You can call it your age of discovery, your “second middle age,” or your pre-retirement years, as you desire.

You may want to extend your career, especially if you have critical skills, knowledge, or expertise. You may also want to try something different, requiring you to cycle back to focus on your personal growth—acquiring new knowledge and skills needed to stay abreast of changing demands and opportunities or to pursue a new field. You need not follow the life phases and career paths that others have followed. You can challenge the myths of aging, work, and retirement. You can push back the boundaries of custom and shape your own future.

Many books, articles, and speakers argue that there is an imminent crisis in the labor force. If boomers retire at the same early ages as workers did in the past two decades, the result will be a significant loss of vital knowledge and a shortage of critical talent for organizations. Generation X, which follows the boomers, is a smaller talent group, and it will be years before Generation Y talent is ready to take on critical professional and managerial roles. The losses may be particularly severe in certain industries (for example, oil, gas, energy, and health care) that rely on specialized skills and expertise and in specific organizations where a great number of boomers perform in critical roles.

However, we believe this crisis is a myth. Demography is not destiny, and talent shortages have a way of being filled (nature abhors a vacuum). The interaction of supply and demand in a dynamic labor market will result in a self-correcting balance. Ironically, unfilled talent demands mean more opportunities for boomers to stay at work. If a substantial number of older boomers continue working in professional, technical, and managerial roles, the talent pool will be sufficient to bridge the gap to the younger talent supply. Gen X talent, long in the shadow of the boomers, will have opportunities to progress more rapidly as vacancies occur. High-potential Gen Y talent may have early opportunities to prove their mettle.

Boomers have the capacity to change the trends and past patterns of work and retirement. As they shift their mental model from being “older” to being “more experienced,” they will reject organizational limitations on their careers. Believing the mantra of “building on your strengths” promoted by Marcus Buckingham and others, many boomers are pursuing options with optimism and vigor.

If boomers are recognized as potential workers instead of probable retirees, they will ease imbalances in the workforce. As noted, boomers have financial incentives to continue working past 65. Employers who offer work tailored to abilities and interests, stay-put bonuses, attractive contracts, flexible schedules, and telecommuting are likely to be successful in retaining boomer talent.

Even with fewer retirements, there are other factors that will minimize the potential for a serious talent gap. One is that the demand for workers is likely to lessen as a result of changes in how work is performed. Fewer workers are required because of increased productivity and technology applications. Corporations typically eliminate, combine, or otherwise redesign jobs and organizations in conjunction with the outflow of talent through turnover, staffing reductions, and retirements. Additionally, the trends of outsourcing and off-shoring of work results in elimination of jobs and typically involves redefinition of many remaining jobs. However, the increase in older workers and resultant loss of workers through retirement will be gradual—more of a glacier than a flood.

In recent years, considerable attention has been given to the unique behavioral characteristics of younger generations in organizations. The intent is to help managers understand the motives, needs, and behaviors of young employees and prospective employees. But while focusing on younger generations and attracting and retaining high potential talent, many organizations have missed opportunities to build intergenerational understanding and teamwork. The myth is that Gen X and Gen Y, representing the future, should receive special attention, at the expense of boomers. Boomers are frequently considered to be radically different from younger generations, outmoded in a changing society, and are therefore undervalued.

There is no denying that generational differences exist. Generations are variations on the relationship between life experiences and group behavior. However, characteristics associated with different age groups often become stereotypes. We believe that viewing generational differences should be examined to facilitate awareness rather than serving as a simplistic way to paint generational cohorts with the same brush. Although differences among boomers and Gen X and Gen Y individuals may suggest incompatible world views, understanding the socio-historical factors that contributed to the values, behaviors, and work ethics of each can go a long way toward promoting intergenerational collaboration. Fewer miscommunications, less confusion, and fewer flash points exist as individuals from different generations interact and discover that collaboration and shared learning are beneficial.

Gaining a fuller appreciation of generational characteristics and sharing alternate perspectives with workplace colleagues is one way to bridge gaps. For example, while many boomers were socialized to see themselves as stars, tend to keep attention on themselves, and are workaholics who question linking fun with work and or learning, they are also optimistic individuals who value personal growth and development.

Slower to embrace new technologies and ideas than technology-savvy Gen Xers, boomers often struggle with new technologies and don’t want to be embarrassed by their limited facility. As a result, ambitious, team-oriented boomers may not relate well—whether as managers or as parents—to technology-wise Gen Xers in the workplace who tend to be self-reliant, fun-loving, risk-taking, and skeptical. It seems only a few decades ago that boomers felt that their parents and managers did not relate well to them. Generation gaps have always existed, but they may have been—and continue to be—overdrawn. The perception of alienation is far greater than the reality.

Today many managers in organizations are boomers. It is to their credit that attention to next generations has been intensive. In order to achieve their goals, including extending their working careers, boomers will effectively leverage the talents of the younger generations. By capitalizing on the strengths of Gen Y individuals who want to keep work fun, fast, and interactive, boomers can optimize the strengths of this talented cohort by fostering playing by the rules and fostering teamwork. Boomers, as managers, are making the benefits of work long-lasting for their own sakes as well as for the next generation of talent. It will be boomers who shape and lead the transition to becoming 21st century organizations during the next 20 years. They can avoid generational conflict and instead find tremendous opportunity for collaboration.

Active boomers—working to make contributions, stay young, and remain vital—will redefine social norms, making possible the many opportunities discussed in this book. In so doing, they will ally with younger generational talent to create opportunities and set new benchmarks for career and work styles.