Book Review: "Retirement on the Line"

Frank Koller, in reviewing Retirement on the Line: Age, Work, and Value in an American Factory by Caitrin Lynch, says that "Lynch convincingly argues that regardless of age, people 'just want to matter.' With a rapidly aging population, the U.S. has to find ways to better harness the tremendous experience, energy and wisdom of its older citizens."

Lynch's book is the product of five years of research exploring Vita Needle, a small private manufacturing company in suburban Boston, which began to concentrate 20 years ago on hiring workers nearing or over the traditional retirement age of 65 and which now has 49 employees, with an average age of 73 and a few of whom are over 90. Koller says that "Lynch's book, however, asks tough questions about the ethics of Vita's reliance on "eldersourcing" and its relevance to the broader economic challenges facing the nation."

In my writing about the competitive advantages of formal no-layoff policies, this issue comes up repeatedly: why bother with a management system so different from what everyone else uses?

Lynch's answers are similar to mine.

First, Vita's long-term financial success (which the firm argues is directly supported by its hiring of older employees) "suggests that a practice that can be good for business can also be good for workers." It's certainly not about "being nice" to old people.

Second, does any thinking person believe that conventional management systems -- the ones which so quickly shed so many millions of workers in recent years -- are currently working well for the country as a whole?

Source: Huffington Post "Paid Work -- Long Past 65 -- Can Benefit Everyone" (April 20, 2012)

Book Reviews: "Age, Gender and Work: Small Information Technology Firms in the New Economy"

Kane X. Faucher in the Western News has reviewed The University of British Columbia Press's Age, Gender, and Work: Small Information Technology Firms in the New Economy edited by Julie Ann McMullin, and published in 2011. According to Faucher, this book is a culmination of the Workforce Aging in a New Economy research program (WANE), present findings after seven years of research related to the fact that "the acceleration on the 'information superhighway' will be spotted with accidents, of which we may count those who suffer age and gender discrimination in the IT workplace."

A full complement of case studies, statistics and detailed analysis shines an unflattering light on small IT firms in Canada, but one can hope that rigorous studies such as these may become a foundation for broad initiatives of awareness. With all the concern about obsolescence in the IT industry, it is the old attitudes and assumptions about age and gender that need to be upgraded.

An earlier review in Business New Technology stated that the "volume examines how women and older workers in small IT companies are disproportionately vulnerable to economic uncertainty within their industry," and that "the authors explore how gender and age affect work and workplace culture to produce a fresh contribution to the literature on inequality."

Sources: Western News "Read All Over reviews, March" (March 29, 2012); Business New Technology Review (February 12, 2012)

World Economic Forum on Global Aging, Releasing Social Capital

In advance of the winter meeting in Davos, the World Economic Forum released a book on global aging, addressing many issues, including how individuals find fulfillment, at what age they retire, and their quality of life once they do retire; how governments devise social contracts to provide financial security; how the older and younger generations interact as they divide up the economic pie; how businesses staff their jobs to compensate in many countries for shrinking workforces; and how health systems respond to the altered needs of those living longer.

With respect to the aging workforce itself, Global Population Ageing: Peril or Promise? has essays on:

• "Population Ageing: Macro Challenges and Policy Responses" by David E. Bloom, Axel Börsch-Supan, Patrick McGee and Atsushi Seike, who, among other things, suggest that "To adapt and possibly benefit from an increasingly aged world, businesses must shift organizational structures and practices in a number of areas.";
• "Social Capital, Lifelong Learning and Social Innovation" by Simon Biggs, Laura Carstensen and Paul Hogan, who conclude that "[i]f societies are to adapt, steps will need to be taken to release the social capital that is locked up in their older citizens. This potential would include the application of accrued social and emotional intelligence, an understanding of the ways things interact with each other and an ability to place single events in their wider perspective.";
• "Organizational Adaptation and Human Resource Needs for an Ageing Population" by Atsushi Seike, Simon Biggs and Leisa Sargent, who suggest that "Organizational adaptation will be a key element in achieving the human resource needs for a world with fewer younger workers and greater numbers of older workers. Where older people continue working, it can create a virtuous circle for public policy, whereby individuals continue to pay taxes while not drawing down on benefits systems."; and
• "Ageing Workforces and Competitiveness: A European Perspective" by Giles Archibald and Raymond Brood, who recommend focusing on flexible work, eldercare, flexible retirement solutions, training and working conditions.

Source: Fox News"Economies thrive on older staff, new social policy book claims" (January 31, 2012)

Book: "RIPE: Rich, Rewarding Work After 50"

Julia Moulden, a Toronto-based author, career coach, speaker and Huffington Post columnist, has published RIPE: Rich, Rewarding Work After 50,a guide to help people transition into what she describes as "the next, best phase of your career."

In her book, Moulden identifies six major reasons people decide to “ripen,” from those who are looking for a new challenge in their fifties, to empty-nesters, to people who’ve retired and are miserable. As stated in the Financial Post,

In any case, most boomers can’t afford full retirement, Moulden says, though she says they shouldn’t be lumped in one category when it comes to their financial resources. She cited an RBC survey that found four in ten boomers are still carrying a large amount of debt — often in the form of mortgages on their homes. “A lot of people are continuing on for financial reasons,” she said in an interview, “It depends on who you are and your life circumstances.”

Moulden maps out a 12-week process people can use to find their way into this new phase of their careers.

Sources: Financial Post "Older workers have much to offer, experts say" (May 19, 2011); Financial Post "Boomers ripe for non-traditional retirement" (April 14, 2011); Harvard Business Review Blog "The Value of People Over 50" (January 18, 2011)

Norway: Centre for Senior Policy to Hold Book Launch Covering 2010's Conference on Older Workers in a Sustainable Society

Norway's Centre for Senior Policy (Senter for seniorpolitikk) is holing a book launch on May 5 for Older Workers in a Sustainable Society, edited by Richard Ennals and Robert H Salomon. The launch will include comments by the Centre's director director Kari Østerud about the challenges and opportunities for older workers in Norway and by Liv Tørres political adviser in the Ministry of Labour, who will speak about Norway's position before the European Year of Active Ageing in 2012.

Ennals and Salomon's book follows on from the conference sponsored by the Centre in 2010. The three-day conference ("Older Workers in a Sustainable Society: Great Needs and Great Potentials") heard from speakers from several countries about the potentials of older workers, both individually and as an important part of societies' work force.

The conference was designed to put a different perception on the agenda; older workers as experienced and mature, a valuable source of talent, skills and knowledge, and ready, willing and able to work. It explored the social and economic potential in an ageing society and addressed the question of research contribution to employment of older workers. Among other topics, the conference had sessions and workshops on older workers work performance, productivity and quality; reducing age discrimination in working life; the work environment and older workers; and lifelong learning and competence at work. Presentations and abstracts from the conference are available on the web.

Source: Senter for seniorpolitikk Calendar of Events (May 5, 2011)

Working and Longevity May Go Hand in Hand

As Emily Yoffe writes in Slate, people who keep doing useful work may have the secret to living longer and healthier. Drawing on The Longevity Project, by psychology professors Howard S. Friedman and Leslie R. Martin, which presents the end-of-life findings of the Terman study, one of the longest-lasting longitudinal research projects ever undertaken, she finds evidence that maybe retirement should not be seen as the severing of oneself from the work of a lifetime.

Friedman dislikes that notion of retirement, and from his research he's come to believe such an attitude is bad both for society and individuals. Most "of the Terman males (given the attitudes of the times, far fewer of the women Termites worked) had solid, sometimes even exceptional careers. Interviews done with successful Termites in their 70s, several of them lawyers, showed a striking number continued to work part time."

Furthermore, Yoffe notes, those who contemplate retirement as decades filled with leisure and relaxation may be mistaken; fun may be overrated and stress can be unfairly maligned. "Many study participants who lived vigorously into old age had highly stressful jobs."

Source: Slate "Don't Stop Working!" (March 10, 2011)

Book: Global Aging Spurring Globalization, with Younger Countries Poised For Growth

The New York Times Magazine has published an extensive excerpt from a new book by Ted Fishman (Shock of Gray: The Aging of the World's Population and How it Pits Young Against Old, Child Against Parent, Worker Against Boss, Company Against Rival, and Nation Against Nation) in which he, looking at aging demographics globally, argues that he pace of global aging is quickened by the speed and scope of globalization, that these intertwined dynamics bear on the international competition for wealth and power, and that the high costs of keeping our aging population healthy and out of poverty has caused the United States and other rich democracies to lose their economic and political footing. Thus, "[c]ountries on the rise amass wealth and geopolitical clout by refusing to bear those costs. Older countries lose work to younger countries."

Among the many examples Fishman offers of how countries are differing in their approaches to aging populations he shows what China is doing to lure the world’s production and capital while its work force is young.

In large part, it does this by denying meaningful pensions and health care to its people today. Not only do the vast majority of elderly Chinese have little more than their meager savings, but today’s workers have pensions so measly as to be irrelevant. To keep the cost of manufacturing in China low for the rest of the world, the young Chinese work force is, for now, rarely provided more than token pensions, health care or disability insurance. In aging, developed countries, older workers with long tenure are usually at their peak in terms of pay and the cost of their benefits. Here in the United States, for example, health care costs for workers who are between 50 and 65 are, on average, almost two times what they are for their peers in their 30s and 40s. When the median age of workers climbs in the United States, so does the cost of insurance their employers must buy for them.

However, Fishman also points out that the United States is not in the same boat as many rich countries where aging populations have taken hold. where balization can take hold with remarkable swiftness. Thus, Japan was one of the youngest countries in the world until around 1950, and now may be the world’s oldest. In contrast, the United States, while subject to the same two big trends of longer lives and smaller families, is aging much more slowly due to the arrival of young immigrants, including millions from Latin America.

Fishman also addresses various aspects of the aging workforce. For the United States, he notes one apparent contradiction: that at the same time that unemployment among older workers is at a peak, the percentage of older people with jobs is also near a high, because more people must work to make ends meet. He also points out that there is a transformation starting of older workers into a giant contingent workforce. He also suggests that looking at what is happening in "older" countries can help inform where the United States is heading:

In Japan, retirees from the biggest companies are well provided for, but for many of the rest — workers at smaller companies, the self-employed — the fear of outliving their money is real. One in five elderly Japanese lives in poverty. So the Japanese stay on the job when they can. Since 2006, the number of Japanese still working after the customary retirement age of 60 has risen by more than 11 million. Most are officially retired but are back at their companies, under contract. They typically earn about half their former wages.

Source: New York Times Magazine "As Populations Age, a Chance for Younger Nations" (October 14, 2010)

New Book on Managing the Older Worker

According to a review in the magazineCanadian Business by Jasmine Budak, Peter Cappelli and Bill Novelli, in their new book Managing the Older Worker: How to Prepare for the New Organizational Order, make the case that "as life expectancies rise, more and more managers will be supervising people twice their age, starting with the already–lingering baby boomers."

Among other things, the authors "urge employers to acknowledge both the value of older employees (for training, mentoring and their corporate knowledge) and their workplace needs (flexibility, respect)." Employers will need to make bridges over the generational gap or face a looming labor shortage. "If you ignore [boomers]," says Novelli, "you're ignoring a third of the workforce."

Source: Canadian Business Magazine "How to manage an aging workforce" (Oct. 11, 2010)

New Book Explores Industries at Risk and How to Stop Brain Drain from Boomer Retirements

For those worried about the brain drain to follow the retirement of the Baby Boomers, Ken Ball and Gina Gotsill have identified the following industries as ones most likely to feel the impace: oil and gas producers, manufacturers, educational institutions, health care, and government. Their findings, as well as proposals for how employers can assure knowledge transfers, are presented in their book Surviving the Baby Boomer Exodus: Capturing Knowledge for Gen X and Y Employees.

"Negative perceptions and image problems make industries such as utilities, oil and gas producers and marketers, and manufacturing especially vulnerable to impending Boomer retirements," the authors write. "These industries aren't drawing the people who might replace mature workers as they step away. Systemic losses, such as hiring practices and cost-cutting, compound the problem and have created an environment where knowledge gaps could impact operations."

Among other things, the book is advertised as a practical, step-by-step guide that managers and leaders can use to analyze their workforce and the impact retirements could have on business continuity. Using templates, checklists and case studies, Ball and Gotsill explore methods for assessing a company's knowledge gaps and explain how to create a knowledge retention, transfer and retrieval plan.

Sources: HR Morning "Ready for talent crisis after Boomers retire? These industries could be hardest hit" (July 16, 2010); AOL Find a Job "Dime Crunch: Baby Boomer Exodus Puts Many Industries at Risk" (July 12, 2010); Cengage Learning Press Release (June 22, 2010)

Book Review: "Working Longer: The Solution to the Retirement Income Challenge"

According to a New York Times book review of Working Longer: The Solution to the Retirement Income Challenge, overworked, underpaid, aging baby boomers may have no choice but to work longer and retire later if they want to avoid a precipitous decline in our accustomed standard of living. Hunter Hurt III refers to the book by Alicia H. Munnell and Steven A. Sass as "thought-provoking" (albeit "if sometimes cloistered academic terms") and as defining "succinctly the problem faced by baby boomers, and for that matter, by all Americans who aspire to retire now or in the near future."

The authors contend that working longer and retiring later can generate powerful benefits for aging baby boomers and the workers in their wake. First, it would delay the need for people to tap into I.R.A.’s and 401(k)’s, thereby swelling their total assets and increasing the future income they can produce.

Second, it would help maximize the benefits of Social Security, which are about one-third higher for recipients who are 66 than for those who are 62.

Source: New York Times "Who Wants to Retire Later? (Don’t Laugh)" (July 20, 2008)

Book: How a Few Additional Years in the Labor Force Can Make a Big Difference.a Retirement

The Brookings Institution Press has announced the release of Working Longer: The Solution to the Retirement Income Challenge by Alicia Munnell and Steven Sass, the director and associate director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. According to the publisher, amid all the calls to fix Social Security, shore up employer pensions, and redesign 401(k) plans, the auhtors suggest that the most effective response to the retirement income challenge lies in remaining in the workforce longer: "By staying on the job for another two to four years, retirees in 2030 can be as well off as those in the current generation."

Working Longer investigates the prospects for moving the average retirement age from 63, the current figure, to 66. The authors ask whether future generations of workers will be healthy enough to work beyond the current retirement age, as well as whether older men and women are willing to do so. They examine companies’ incentives to employ older workers and ask what government can do to promote continued participation in the workforce. Finally, they consider the challenge of ensuring a secure retirement for low-wage workers and those who are unable to continue to work.

A summary of the book is available, as well as the authors' list of 10 myths and realities about working longer.

Source: Brookings Institution Press Book Announcement (May 2008)

For other books on older workers and the aging workforce, see The Aging Workforce News Book Store.

Book Review: "Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life"

Most baby boomers aren’t ready psychologically and far more often aren’t set economically to stop working entirely, writes Vince Carducci, and Marc Freedman is getting a bead on the situation and offers a solution in his new book "Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life."

According to Carducci, Freedman considers that the trend of corporations shedding older employees and slashing payroll and benefit costs is creating a tremendous waste of human capital. While he goes through policy issues that are underlying this trend or contributing to the problems, he also profiles individuals who are part of the solution. In particular, he focuses on career shifts and "highlights several innovative programs that give an idea as to how we might usher in what he terms the 'encore society.'”

Wonks will debate these and other proposals Freedman puts forth, but average readers will no doubt be most interested in the self-help section at the end of the book. Freedman provides a self-reflection matrix—Are you a “recycler,” leveraging your past experience to enter a new field? Or, are you a “changer” looking to start anew? Are you a “maker,” trying to mold an interest into a career, turning an avocation into a vocation? Whatever your persuasion, Freedman offers online resources, networking ideas and other tips to help you follow your bliss in a more well-managed way.

Source: PopMatters.com "Work, the Sequel" (July 17, 2007)