More on encore careers

An ‘encore career’ was first defined quite specifically to mean a second paid career with personal meaning and social impact at a later stage of life. It was coined by American Marc Freedmen for baby boomers who want to work longer but at a somewhat slower pace and at something socially useful.
Marci Alboher tells her personal story of career reinvention and something of what she has learned since then, in an easy to read New York Times article, A switch at midlife, to make a difference, published in December 2012. The lessons she records are helpful for men and women in their 50s and 60s who are thinking about their work future.
Marci says she was taking a well-earned vacation and said ‘no’ when her boss asked if she would cut her trip short to take care of some work. She found herself looking for a new job, and knew she wanted to do something meaningful. She retrained as a journalist and now she is a vice president with Encore.org. She says the change can be hard work, it can take time – 18 months or more in which there is no income; it can mean retraining – and that too can cost; and it often means less pay than before, once you are earning again.
For her and others this has been well worth the effort but, as Marci points out, good and careful planning for this kind of change is crucial.
Since starting to explore this concept of encore careers I’ve come across a 2002-3 Australian research project by Jane Figgis, for the National Centre for Vocational Education. Jane’s project led to a modified and in some ways broader definition of an ‘encore career’. She found ‘what was imagined was not so much any particular field of work but the nature of that work’. People she spoke to expected it to be paid or unpaid work in which they held a fair degree of control, they wanted the work to be flexible in terms of the hours – leaving space for other activities. It had to involve a serious time commitment (averaging half-time over a year) for several years. And for many, to be attractive, it had to provide opportunity for learning. The project specified that this was about women and men who had reached or passed the age when they became eligible for the age pension.
In my research and interviews with older Australians there were many stories about job changes (see my book Baby boomers: busting the myths ). I asked myself which, if any, of these stories fitted the definitions of Marc Freedman and/or Jane Figgis? I found that while several women and men had taken on or continued to work in socially useful jobs, many had done so before they reached retirement age and others took on work that didn’t necessarily fit the socially useful category. Some were working in a voluntary capacity but not reaching the ‘averaging half–time and for three years’ requirements mentioned in the Figgis report.
Could the phrase ‘encore careers’ be stretched to cover these experiences? What happens if it slides into more general usage, to cover almost any downshift from a main job to something different, something lesser in terms of time and/or level of responsibility by someone in their 50s, 60s or 70s? Does it matter? Are there industrial issues here that would need careful thinking through? [See my previous blog on Encore careers and Doug Jacquier’s comments relating to the encore.org fellowship program] And what happens if employers begin to put pressure on employees to shift to lesser, lower paid jobs? Under what conditions might this be okay? How are those with less power and fewer options protected?
It is good to be having discussions about these and other issues raised by Freeman. I like many of his ideas. I think it is important to acknowledge – as he did in his discussion with Geraldine Doogue Too old to work too young to… on ABC’s Compass – that this time of life needs to be thought of as distinct from old age and from the early to middle years of adulthood. I find his willingness to think differently about work and jobs and how they are structured and designed refreshing. And it is always good to see an awareness that older people too like to learn new things.
Is an ‘encore career’ for you?

Encore careers

American Marc Freedman coined the phrase ‘encore careers’ to describe later-in-life work that combines personal meaning, continued income and social impact. The Wall Street Journal has referred to him as ‘a leading voice in discussions nationwide about the changing face of retirement.’ His books include Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America and, more recently, The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife. Freedman seeks to translate the concept into practice through Encore.org and ‘building a movement to make it easier for millions of people to pursue second acts for the greater good.’
Undoubtedly this is a laudable and inspiring ambition. It is wonderful to see a program that rests on a positive view of human beings as capable of altruistic behaviour.
Sensibly though Encore.org has reduced the grand vision to construct a program that is solid and achievable. It establishes Encore Fellowships to bring together sponsors, ‘skilled, experienced (baby boomers) professionals’ and not-for-profit organisations to put in place ‘structured assignments’ that will deliver ‘significant, sustained impact to their host organizations’. Typically Fellowships run for six to twelve months, they can be from half to full time and there is a stipend.
The initial program ran in Silicon Valley and Encore.org continues to run the Silicon Valley and New York City Encore Fellows Programs. Independent programs are starting across the US and in London.
In Australia discussions with interested parties are beginning to happen and the Australian contact for the Encore Fellowship Network is Doug Jacquier [contact Doug at dougj147@gmail.com]. The Program deserves serious attention and support.
However, I find some aspects of the program disquieting:
– There is an implication that older workers will happily work for less. Some people can afford to do this but many cannot. Already there are examples of this happening in particular industries – the biggest hardware chain in Australia being the one I heard about most recently. It would be good to see some analysis of what is happening now and what sort of checks and balances are needed to protect older workers and to protect wage levels. Trends should be closely monitored.
– Historically, the not-for-profits sector has been the one to pay relatively lower wages than other sectors and care needs to be taken to make sure there are no unintended flow-on effects in terms of (even) lower salaries and wages or through loss of ongoing positions.
– The program is designed to make use of those older workers who are skilled, experienced professionals. This is a small proportion of the older workforce. Programs like this are not a panacea, they represent a small component of what is needed in order to make it easier for older people who want to continue to work and to be paid a reasonable wage to do so.
– This kind of program will not suit everyone and it is important not to judge harshly those who choose different pathways or who have different priorities.
Finally, I come back to the point I make in my book Baby boomers: busting the myths – that baby boomers are not all the same and that there is a huge downside to making blanket generalisations about a generation.
There is another strand of Encore Career– more of a do-it-yourself model – which I’ll look at next time.

What it’s like when you leave work – interviews with older Australians

Here some words from just a few people I interviewed, talking about what was happening for them in the early months after leaving their primary job.

Several women, all who continue to lead busy active lives, spoke eloquently about being ready for quieter time, time for ‘me’ and richer interactions.

Carol (September 2008) valued working fewer hours and fewer days and so having more time to herself. She found this ‘nice to have’ because:

… all through my 30s and 40s and halfway through my 50s I spent a lot of time just never sitting down, always doing, always being there, always working, children, cooking, gardening, entertaining. Then I had my partner’s mother living next door and she came every week if not twice a week for dinner. It was a huge commitment.

Rita (March 2009) had recently left a demanding middle management position in health to work for herself. She experienced some health problems and liked having the scope to respond to other priorities in her life and to take better care of herself:

The last three days have been quite hectic with a lot of driving, with a new grandchild, up and down to the city, and then I tutor at university down south, so that’s a distance, and I’ve been on the road too much, and I was thinking, ‘Oh, I want a day for myself’, but the difference is I can do it. I can go, ‘Well, that’s nice, Rita, you can have today for yourself.’ It’s lovely. That control, as opposed to other people in control.

Rita was also celebrating having time to read, time to listen to the radio, time for her children and time to think and reflect:

That stillness has probably been the most precious thing. I love the silence. I think that’s perhaps a reaction to a busy life, but it’s a sort of surprise to me how much that’s true. I’d actually almost like more time for that reflective stuff.

Lizzie (March 2009) had resigned from her full-time position working in the welfare sector. She appreciated finding a different quality of relationship with people because of being more relaxed and more able to enjoy other people’s company, whereas before everything was so busy that really it was ‘state your business, sign here, thank you’.

And she was loving being able to please herself more:

I’m a very happy chappy right now. The whole thing for me it’s about having control over my circumstances. If it’s not how I like it, I change it, right now. This is the only time in life that you can actually do that, so I tell everyone that I really embrace this time of life. This is the best time for me. There were the times when you were newlywed and a new baby and all of that stuff, but in terms of lifestyle, I make the best of every day because this is the best time. It’s never going to get any better.

In contrast William (August 2008) was finding adjustment more difficult. He had run his own successful courier business, working in excess of 60 hours a week, with 60 staff and contractors. He had built it from scratch, regarded it as ‘his baby’ and was proud of his success.