plus 1, Some Boomers 'retire' to jobs that allow them to help others - USA Today |
| Some Boomers 'retire' to jobs that allow them to help others - USA Today Posted: 28 Jan 2011 05:33 AM PST By Richard Wolf, USA TODAYUSA TODAY and CBS News are exploring the aging of an iconic generation and its impact on the nation.
By Rhyne Piggott, USA TODAY Pat Daly now works for an organization that promotes science and technology education. This series also will be on boomers.usatoday.com and cbsnews.com. For more coverage, watch CBS' The Evening News with Katie Couric, 6:30 p.m. ET After college, Pat Daly wanted to "save the world" by working with children, but the money wasn't there. So she went into investment banking, became a director of her firm and opened offices around the world, eventually earning in the "high six figures." Along the way, Daly got involved in philanthropy, took a course in fundraising and began to volunteer. When her job at Credit Suisse was eliminated in 2008, she chose to pursue a second career — working with kids. Now 57, Daly is the New York regional director for an international robotics organization that promotes science and technology education. The job offers a much smaller salary but "huge satisfaction," she says. "I have absolutely no interest in going back to corporate." Daly is part of the growing "encore careers" movement — an effort to match older workers who can't or don't want to retire with public service jobs that benefit society. The movement, begun in the late 1990s, has spawned non-profit groups and programs from Boston to Portland, Ore., aimed at helping older workers find new work. Many of the programs are run by people who have made the transition. At a time when 77 million Baby Boomers ages 46-65 are moving toward traditional retirement age, analysts say the movement could grow exponentially in the coming decades. A 2008 survey by MetLife Foundation and Civic Ventures, a national think tank on boomers and work, found more than 5 million Americans in encore careers. Half of those ages 44-70 expressed interest in them. Moving from one career to a more altruistic job late in life isn't easy, however. Analysts say there aren't enough of those jobs yet, the pay is usually low and employers often favor younger applicants. Even so, several factors point to a surge in second careers, particularly of the giving-back variety: •Many older workers can't afford to retire. In Schenectady, N.Y., Elaine Santore runs a program that has helped about 600 elderly families stay in their homes, thanks to the help of other seniors. The 143 retired workers do housekeeping and maintenance and provide transportation — and companionship. "They're making a little extra money, just enough to tide them over," Santore says, referring to the $12-an-hour pay. "We provide them with the opportunity to do something meaningful." •Today's job shortage may soon become a labor shortage. Unless those 55 and over stay in the work force longer, the nation could be short up to 5 million workers by 2018, says Barry Bluestone, dean of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University. "We're going to need all of them, plus all the immigrants," Bluestone says. He volunteers with the Boys and Girls Club in his spare time, teaching 12-year-olds in inner-city Boston the marvels of math and statistics. •Older workers are marketable. They have more skills, experience and stability than their younger competitors. In Chicago, Chris Campbell's Executive Network Group helps downsized execs find volunteer opportunities in the non-profit world that can lead to new jobs. "The opportunity to help other people and use my skill sets ... was very satisfying," says Campbell, who was paid $250,000 annually as a marketing executive before joining the non-profit in 2008. Between that job, consulting, making furniture and rehabilitating apartments, he says, "I make half as much as I used to, but I enjoy it twice as much." •Boomers tend to be altruistic. Like Daly, many of those born between the World War II and Vietnam War years only deferred thoughts of saving the world in order to make a living. Now they want to return to their roots. Gary Maxworthy emigrated from England in the 1960s and thought about joining the Peace Corps. Instead, he rose to become president of a food brokerage company, with a six-figure salary and a desire to "give back." In 1994, when he was 56, he joined the VISTA program as a $7,000-a-year food bank employee. Six years later, he founded the Farm to Family program, which last year delivered more than 100,000 pounds of fresh produce to California food banks. For all those reasons — economic, social, altruistic — society must create more opportunities for boomers, says Laura Carstensen, director of the Stanford University Center on Longevity. "The older people are, the more interested they are in doing something that is socially meaningful," Carstensen says. Boomers "may be just the generation to make this change. Future generations will follow if we start." 'Returning to earlier ideals'The idea of second careers that help "save the world" grew out of older Americans' involvement in community service. Federally funded programs such as Experience Corps, which puts volunteers 55 and over into public schools to help struggling students, motivated the tutors and mentors as much as the kids. From that experience grew Civic Ventures, the leading national think tank promoting encore careers. Marc Freedman, its founder and CEO, sees its focus as a third, pre-retirement stage of life for people ages 55-80. "People are hitting the reset button," Freedman says. "There is a tremendous feeling of kind of returning to earlier ideals." Among the groups that have cropped up across the country, most run by people in encore careers themselves: •Coming of Age, which began in Philadelphia and has expanded to five other cities, is led by former screenwriter Dick Goldberg. Seeking to use his writing skills in a more meaningful way, Goldberg, 63, had volunteered with the Anti-Defamation League, drafting sermons for rabbis to use on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur condemning global anti-Semitism. "That was a little more satisfying than getting people to laugh when I wrote a Kate & Allie episode," he says of his work on the 1980s sitcom. •Transition Network, based in New York with 13 national chapters, targets women older than 50 with workshops and peer support. It's led by Betsy Werley, 55, a former corporate lawyer and banker at JPMorgan Chase who took a severance package five years ago and decided it was time for a change — and a 75% pay cut. She left a company that employed 160,000 to become her current employer's second hire. The experience, she says, "has been incredibly energizing and is a whole new lease on my professional life." •Discovering What's Next, based in Newtonville, Mass., was founded by Caroline Greenfield to offer older workers a bridge from their first careers to retirement. "We really just wanted to change the view of aging from a liability to an asset," she says. One of her employees is Christine Osborne, 63, a former advertising copywriter and creative director who can recall the times when she stayed overnight at the office. "I had my big-chair job," she says. Now, "part of the pay is feeling good about what you do." •Life By Design, based in Portland, Ore., was founded by Jay Bloom, who coined the term "returnment" as a giving-back alternative to retirement. Now in Hawaii, Bloom, 59, is a 30-year veteran of non-profits who coaches people on "vital aging." "Unless you're engaged in your later years, you're just dying longer; you're not living longer," he says. Negotiating the hurdlesOnce older workers decide to make the transition, they face a maze of potential obstacles as well as opportunities. About one in four people older than 50 moves into a new line of work, but the attraction usually is fewer hours and responsibilities, says Richard Johnson, a retirement expert at the Urban Institute. "How many of these fulfilling, socially useful jobs are there? And are there people willing to pay you to do this type of work?" Johnson says. "I'm skeptical about the notion that a lot of people can really donate their time for the public good in their 50s and 60s." Older workers also face the daunting prospect of convincing employers that they're still up to the job. "The person interviewing you is going to be about 30, 32, and they're going to see their mother when they see someone 50, 55 walking in the door," says Karen Shimada, executive director of Life By Design. She says older workers should take community college courses or get trained in "transferrable skills." While older adults want to continue working, "the world hasn't caught up with what they might have to offer and how to help them offer it," says Jackie James, research director at the Sloan Center on Aging and Work at Boston College. One way to start, experts say, is by volunteering — sometimes for a minimal stipend. Federal programs such as Senior Corps provide opportunities for hundreds of thousands of older workers and retirees. An example is Experience Corps, run by Lester Strong, a former local television anchor in Boston, New York, Charlotte and Atlanta for 25 years, who launched a second career in non-profits. He ran a foundation for yoga and meditation in Upstate New York, then a non-profit for struggling elementary school children in Boston. "I felt that there was more I wanted, needed to do, that there were skills and interests that I had that had not been cultivated," Strong, 62, says. ReServe, a New York-based program that gets federal support, pays $10-an-hour stipends to adults over 55 who work at non-profits. Its workforce of about 400 people had been mostly in their 60s and 70s, but "with the change in the economy, our median age is getting younger," says communications manager Jesse Dean. The federal government offers another option for boomers. Its workers' average age is 47, and 150,000 leave each year, says Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service. "The federal government's a one-stop shop for Baby Boomers who want to give back," he says. "From astronomer to zoologist, the federal work force has it all." Growing numbers of non-profits also are reaching out to older workers. At the Rochester, N.Y., YMCA, the effort began with a "silver sneakers" program to encourage seniors to exercise. Then the Y recruited many of them to work, usually part-time. "They have the least amount of sick time and injury," says Fernan Cepero, the organization's vice president of human resources. "They're here, like the postman, through all types of weather." 'Most important thing'What binds many older workers together is the desire to work directly with people after careers that were more impersonal. For Michael Schade, 66, that meant switching from the high-tech industry to a part-time job as executive director of the Watertown Community Foundation in Massachusetts, where he works with children, seniors, low-income residents and others. "I was making six figures, and now I'm making five figures — very low five figures," Schade says. "Most of the time, I don't even think about the money." For John Colligan, it meant leaving his building maintenance and security job at the American Bible Society in Manhattan after 40 years and finally using his English literature degree to teach English as a Second Language at a Queens public library. "Now I'm dealing directly with people," says Colligan, 62. "They need to know things like, 'What's an idiom?' " For Will O'Brien, it meant leaving the computer industry after more than a quarter-century and teaching environmental sustainability at Clark University in Wooster, Mass. "I think it's critical to leave the Earth in as good a shape or better shape than when we found it," says O'Brien, 68. "I genuinely believe this is the most important thing I've done."  A series of reports by USA TODAY and CBS News explores the aging of an iconic generation and the impact on the nation. •Today's job shortage may soon become a labor shortage. Unless those 55 and over stay in the work force longer, the nation could be short up to 5 million workers by 2018, says Barry Bluestone, dean of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University. "We're going to need all of them, plus all the immigrants," Bluestone says. He volunteers with the Boys and Girls Club in his spare time, teaching 12-year-olds in inner-city Boston the marvels of math and statistics. •Older workers are marketable. They have more skills, experience and stability than their younger competitors. In Chicago, Chris Campbell's Executive Network Group helps downsized execs find volunteer opportunities in the non-profit world that can lead to new jobs. "The opportunity to help other people and use my skill sets ... was very satisfying," says Campbell, who was paid $250,000 annually as a marketing executive before joining the non-profit in 2008. Between that job, consulting, making furniture and rehabilitating apartments, he says, "I make half as much as I used to, but I enjoy it twice as much." •Boomers tend to be altruistic. Like Daly, many of those born between the World War II and Vietnam War years only deferred thoughts of saving the world in order to make a living. Now they want to return to their roots. Gary Maxworthy emigrated from England in the 1960s and thought about joining the Peace Corps. Instead, he rose to become president of a food brokerage company, with a six-figure salary and a desire to "give back." In 1994, when he was 56, he joined the VISTA program as a $7,000-a-year food bank employee. Six years later, he founded the Farm to Family program, which last year delivered more than 100,000 pounds of fresh produce to California food banks. For all those reasons — economic, social, altruistic — society must create more opportunities for boomers, says Laura Carstensen, director of the Stanford University Center on Longevity. "The older people are, the more interested they are in doing something that is socially meaningful," Carstensen says. Boomers "may be just the generation to make this change. Future generations will follow if we start." The idea of second careers that help "save the world" grew out of older Americans' involvement in community service. Federally funded programs such as Experience Corps, which puts volunteers 55 and over into public schools to help struggling students, motivated the tutors and mentors as much as the kids. From that experience grew Civic Ventures, the leading national think tank promoting encore careers. Marc Freedman, its founder and CEO, sees its focus as a third, pre-retirement stage of life for people ages 55-80. "People are hitting the reset button," Freedman says. "There is a tremendous feeling of kind of returning to earlier ideals." Among the groups that have cropped up across the country, most run by people in encore careers themselves: •Coming of Age, which began in Philadelphia and has expanded to five other cities, is led by former screenwriter Dick Goldberg. Seeking to use his writing skills in a more meaningful way, Goldberg, 63, had volunteered with the Anti-Defamation League, drafting sermons for rabbis to use on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur condemning global anti-Semitism. "That was a little more satisfying than getting people to laugh when I wrote a Kate & Allie episode," he says of his work on the 1980s sitcom. •Transition Network, based in New York with 13 national chapters, targets women older than 50 with workshops and peer support. It's led by Betsy Werley, 55, a former corporate lawyer and banker at JPMorgan Chase who took a severance package five years ago and decided it was time for a change — and a 75% pay cut. She left a company that employed 160,000 to become her current employer's second hire. The experience, she says, "has been incredibly energizing and is a whole new lease on my professional life." •Discovering What's Next, based in Newtonville, Mass., was founded by Caroline Greenfield to offer older workers a bridge from their first careers to retirement. "We really just wanted to change the view of aging from a liability to an asset," she says. One of her employees is Christine Osborne, 63, a former advertising copywriter and creative director who can recall the times when she stayed overnight at the office. "I had my big-chair job," she says. Now, "part of the pay is feeling good about what you do." •Life By Design, based in Portland, Ore., was founded by Jay Bloom, who coined the term "returnment" as a giving-back alternative to retirement. Now in Hawaii, Bloom, 59, is a 30-year veteran of non-profits who coaches people on "vital aging." "Unless you're engaged in your later years, you're just dying longer; you're not living longer," he says. Negotiating the hurdlesOnce older workers decide to make the transition, they face a maze of potential obstacles as well as opportunities. About one in four people older than 50 moves into a new line of work, but the attraction usually is fewer hours and responsibilities, says Richard Johnson, a retirement expert at the Urban Institute. "How many of these fulfilling, socially useful jobs are there? And are there people willing to pay you to do this type of work?" Johnson says. "I'm skeptical about the notion that a lot of people can really donate their time for the public good in their 50s and 60s." Older workers also face the daunting prospect of convincing employers that they're still up to the job. "The person interviewing you is going to be about 30, 32, and they're going to see their mother when they see someone 50, 55 walking in the door," says Karen Shimada, executive director of Life By Design. She says older workers should take community college courses or get trained in "transferrable skills." While older adults want to continue working, "the world hasn't caught up with what they might have to offer and how to help them offer it," says Jackie James, research director at the Sloan Center on Aging and Work at Boston College. One way to start, experts say, is by volunteering — sometimes for a minimal stipend. Federal programs such as Senior Corps provide opportunities for hundreds of thousands of older workers and retirees. An example is Experience Corps, run by Lester Strong, a former local television anchor in Boston, New York, Charlotte and Atlanta for 25 years, who launched a second career in non-profits. He ran a foundation for yoga and meditation in Upstate New York, then a non-profit for struggling elementary school children in Boston. "I felt that there was more I wanted, needed to do, that there were skills and interests that I had that had not been cultivated," Strong, 62, says. ReServe, a New York-based program that gets federal support, pays $10-an-hour stipends to adults over 55 who work at non-profits. Its workforce of about 400 people had been mostly in their 60s and 70s, but "with the change in the economy, our median age is getting younger," says communications manager Jesse Dean. The federal government offers another option for boomers. Its workers' average age is 47, and 150,000 leave each year, says Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service. "The federal government's a one-stop shop for Baby Boomers who want to give back," he says. "From astronomer to zoologist, the federal work force has it all." Growing numbers of non-profits also are reaching out to older workers. At the Rochester, N.Y., YMCA, the effort began with a "silver sneakers" program to encourage seniors to exercise. Then the Y recruited many of them to work, usually part-time. "They have the least amount of sick time and injury," says Fernan Cepero, the organization's vice president of human resources. "They're here, like the postman, through all types of weather." 'Most important thing'What binds many older workers together is the desire to work directly with people after careers that were more impersonal. For Michael Schade, 66, that meant switching from the high-tech industry to a part-time job as executive director of the Watertown Community Foundation in Massachusetts, where he works with children, seniors, low-income residents and others. "I was making six figures, and now I'm making five figures — very low five figures," Schade says. "Most of the time, I don't even think about the money." For John Colligan, it meant leaving his building maintenance and security job at the American Bible Society in Manhattan after 40 years and finally using his English literature degree to teach English as a Second Language at a Queens public library. "Now I'm dealing directly with people," says Colligan, 62. "They need to know things like, 'What's an idiom?' " For Will O'Brien, it meant leaving the computer industry after more than a quarter-century and teaching environmental sustainability at Clark University in Wooster, Mass. "I think it's critical to leave the Earth in as good a shape or better shape than when we found it," says O'Brien, 68. "I genuinely believe this is the most important thing I've done." For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 28 Jan 2011 04:50 AM PST Ask Marcia!
Please include your name, city and state with each question. Friday, Jan. 28 Thanks to all who participated in my online chat yesterday. I'll be doing more, so stay tuned to this blog. Here is a question that I came in after the chat ended. Marcia Q: My work environment is toxic. Should I start a low-profile job search? - J, S. Florida A: Only you can decide whether it's time to move on. But a job that is stressing you out to the max is not good for your health. There are ups and downs to every job, but if you are dreading going to work every morning or every Monday, then it's time to look around. Don't be concerned that you've only been at your current job a year. Workers are changing jobs more than ever these days, and it's not something that is looked upon negatively as it once was. Employers like to hire people that have varied experience because they're always looking for new solutions to problems. If you've already met someone who is willing to recommend you to her company, you've hit the jackpot. Find out as much about the company as you can from this person and ask her to advocate for you until the right position comes along. Obviously, you don't want to talk at work about searching for a new job. Keep your search low profile, as you say, and lay the groundwork for a job that makes you happier. There are more jobs opening up, even in Florida, so there is no reason to stay at a job where you are miserable. Wednesday, Jan. 26 A bill introduced this week by Rep. Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples) would make four hours of volunteer service mandatory for each week of jobless benefits. H.B. 509 would change eligibility so that an unemployed individual could receive benefits only if the Agency for Workforce Innovation confirms that she or he has volunteered for a minimum of four hours for that week for a nonprofit organization. The requirement also would apply to those receiving extended benefits. In December, then Gov.-elect Rick Scott's transition team recommended that the state's unemployed receiving 12 or more weeks of benefits do community service. If you're unemployed, what do you think? Should community service be a requirement for unemployment benefits? E-mail me your thoughts and contact information (include city and phone number) at mpounds@sunsentinel.com. Tuesday, January 25 The PGA of America highlights online employment resource tools and jobs within the industry at the 58th PGA Merchandise Show through Saturday, Jan. 29. The PGA of America is at 100 Avenue of the Champions in Palm Beach Gardens. If you go to the event, visit Booth #2401 for job opportunities posted on PGAJobfinder.com (or go to the website). PGA JobFinder. There will be onsite interviewing for industry positions as well as resources and workshops. For more information on PGA employment, go to PGA Employment. Educational seminars at the PGA Member Business Center include "Tools to Build a Stronger Relationship with Your Employer," "Solving the Job Search Puzzle," "Demonstrating Your Value," "The Interview, How to Get There, How to Be Successful," and "Utilizing PGA Resources: Your Competitive Edge." The PGA also offers CareerLinks, a employment referral service that helps employers identify the skills and experiences necessary to perform a specific job, and then identifies qualified candidates in the database. Last year, more than 445 positions were filled through the CareerLinks service. Since last January, more than 2,730 jobs for PGA Professional positions were posted on PGALinks.com and nearly 1,720 positions were listed on the public job board on PGA.com. Tuesday, Jan. 25 Ask me questions about job hunting on Thursday in an interactive chat available through www.sunsentinel.com/jobschat. My Thursday column will give readers a glimpse of my book, I Found a Job! Career Advice From Job Hunters Who Landed On Their Feet. I interviewed nearly 100 successful job seekers across the nation to tap their knowledge on finding a job in the recession. Ask me about the book, your own job hunt and other questions about Florida's job market at 1 p.m. Thursday. To participate, click on www.sunsentinel.com/jobschat between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. Look forward to chatting! Thursday, Jan. 20 JM Family Enterprises, a Toyota distributor in Deerfield Beach, moved up in the ranks from No. 28 to No. 16 on Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list for 2011, released Thursday. Fortune looks at pay, perks, and job growth in selecting the top 100. Of the 2011 companies, there are more than 150,000 job openings, the magazine reports. The magazine cited JM Family's reinstatement of employee benefits, some of which were cut to cope with financial crisis. It noted in particular JM Family's seven health centers for employees, staffed with doctors, nurses and physical therapists. JM Family's total employees are at 3,688, down by 2 percent over the year. Baptist Health South Florida, also a regular on the list, fell from a ranking of No. 32 to No. 42. But Baptist grew in jobs by 17 percent in the past two years, the magazine notes. Baptist has a total of 12,249 employees, up 5 percent over the year. CHG Healthcare Service, which has 265 employees in Fort Lauderdale, ranked No. 27 on the list, slipping from No. 26 in the previous year. The healthcare recruiting company, headquartered in Salt Lake City, is one of the few on the list that offer domestic partner benefits, the magazine notes. Several other companies on the list have operations in South Florida including Publix Supermarkets and American Express. To see the nationwide list and others in Florida, go to: Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For. Tuesday, Jan. 18 American Intercontinental University in Miramar holds a job fair on Wednesday, Jan. 19, with scheduled employers including: Liberty Power, Teleperformance, Finish Line, Macy's, Northwestern Mutual, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, United Secret Service, Wells Fargo, Office Depot, U.S. Customs, Bank of America and TD Bank. The job fair will be in two sessions, 11 a.m to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at AIU, 2250 N. Commerce Parkway in Weston. To sign up, contact Dana Williams at dwilliams@aiufl.edu or call 954-446-6305, or Felica Medina at fmedina20@aiufl.edu or 954-446-6329. Tuesday, Jan. 18 A job fair will be held from 10 a.m to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 18, at Signature Grand, 6900 State Road 84, Davie. Lines are usually long for job fairs at Signature Grand so get there early to beat the crowd. Dress professionally and bring enough resumes and business cards to pass out to both those at booths and others who attend. Companies signed up to attend include: Companies Attending: Allied Health Institute Aflac Carriage Services Colonial Life DNC Travel Hospitality Services Domino's Pizza Fast Train General Hotel & Restaurant Supply Interactive Response Technologies Natures Products, Inc. New York Life Northwestern Mutual Norwegian Cruise Line Sullivan & Cogliano The Art Institute US Gas & Electric, Inc Amtrak CarMax The Paradies Shops US Marine Corps Convergys DeVry University Career Learning For more information, visit Job News USA. Monday, Jan. 17 This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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