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.