This blog is part three of a blog series culminating in the release of a white paper on the subject to our subscribers. Please stay tuned as we continue this series.
Boomers in the workplace address and experience their concerns about how long/if and whether they will be able to continue working on an intensely personal basis, centering on individual concerns having to do with power and identity.
"For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog"
At the same time, these issues are also an indication of a workplace revolution that bears far more import on our society’s future than the career paths of any one generation, let alone any one individual.
With demographers warning of a dramatic population dip in the generation that follows the boomers, there is growing concern about their departures en masse, as retirement becomes a viable option for many.
Again, the issues go not only to the personal career paths of any one generation—but to the growing awareness that whether you like it or not, our workplaces need boomers to stay engaged, heading off leadership and worker shortages in the years to come that would otherwise damage our worker productivity and economic output.
This is an issue that goes to the very heart of our economy, with both private industry and the public sector just now surrendering to the central role boomers will continue to play in the coming decades. In fact, the roles that boomers are now assuming and defining—and redefining—may well yet be the most significant contribution they will make to the American marketplace. What happens over the next two decades in regards to boomers in the workforce will directly affect how successful the new generations coming up in the workplace can be: both the gifts they reap or the messes they will have to clean up.
Eileen Marcus and Carol Orsborn