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Baby Boomers: born mid-1940s to
mid-1960s
Boomers are the first
generation to take care of their parents longer than their
parents took care of them.
Over
78 million Americans were born between the mid-1940s and
mid-1960s, the years that have come to define the demographic
anomaly known as the Baby
Boom, the most fertile period in U.S. history.
Postwar prosperity had much to do with it, as did faith in the
future and an ideology of reproduction that pushed women out of
the wartime workforce and into motherhood.
It was the largest
generation ever, accounting for about a third of the U.S.
population by the 1980s. And Baby Boomers made their
presence felt: 15 million homes built in the 1950s; 50,000
classrooms created in 1952 alone; 1.5 billion cans of baby food
sold in 1953. As empty nesters,
Boomers have more money to spend as the median income for
Boomers bracket is $47,300 annually.
The number of couples
without children between the age of 45 and 60 will increase
from 8 million in 1980 to 16 millions in the year 2010.
This was the first
generation to live with a fear of no tomorrow, with the
knowledge that the entire world could be annihilated by The
Bomb. A possibility reinforced every time they had to
crouch under their desks at school or in bomb shelters at home.
However, in Canada, the
Baby Boom is usually defined as the generation born from 1947
to mid-1960s. Canadian service personnel were repatriated
later than the Americans, and Canada's birth rate did not start
to rise until 1947. Baby boomers are the largest single
age group in Canada, at 7 million (31%), according to
Statistics Canada. Within the next 10 years, 2.6 million
of them will be 50 to 60 years old.
To attract
Baby
Boomers, companies
need to become age-friendly – giving employees
opportunities to contribute to society, providing a
flexible workplace that balances work and retirement and
organizational policies that empowering Baby
Boomers.
In a widely
cited 2002 paper entitled “Will there really be a labour
shortage”, professor Peter Cappelli, of the Wharton School of
the University of Pennsylvania, argues forcefully that it won’t
happen, primarily because baby boomers who might have retired
at 60 or 65 under normal conditions, will be persuaded to stay
in the workforce, en masse, due to the opportunities and
rewards available because of demand. Studies by the AARP
support his theory. In surveys involving thousands of
baby boomers conducted in 1998 and 2004, 80 per cent and 79 per
cent respectively said that they “plan to work in some capacity
during their retirement years”.
Convincing older workers that they need to remain productive
into their 60s, 70s and even 80s wouldn’t seem to be the
challenge. Rather, organizations and society in general have to
get better at making older workers want to work, even if they
can afford to retire.
So far, companies aren’t doing a very good job of it. Ageism is
an issue, particularly in the youth-obsessed US culture.
Necessity will eventually eliminate the problem but
organizations shouldn’t wait until a crisis
(sometimes referred to as Grey2K) arises to
start including age in their diversity strategies.
Now is the time to start implementing older-worker recruitment
and retention policies like job flexibility and talking to
critical employees who are nearing retirement about what it
might take to keep them a few years longer. The winners in the
competition for the best of the baby boomers will be the ones
that start early and develop a reputation as a great place for
older workers.
In North America, every
7.5 seconds, a Boomer turns 50!
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Some Characteristics
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At Work
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Busy
“sandwich” generation
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Team
oriented
§
Idealistic
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Health
and wellness
§
Human
rights activists
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Highly
educated and affluent
§
Competitive
§
Success
= money, title,
recognition
§
Anti
rules & regulations
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Contributions
u
Service
oriented
u
Comfortable
with long-term
employment
u
Willing
to “go the extra mile”
u
Good
at relationships &
communication
u
Cool-headed
during a crisis
Cautions
u
Not
naturally frugal
u
Coasting
into retirement
u
Prefer
high level of process
u
Accustomed
to feedback once per year, whether you
need it or not
u
Will
vigorously protect Power &
Turf
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Misconceptions About
Boomers
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Media Myths:
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Reality:
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On
their way out.
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Average
life expectancy for today’s woman is 78.8
years; for men, 72. Boomers
will have longer, healthier work lives than
any previous generation.
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They’ll
have to grow up.
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Sales
of Harley-Davidson motorcycles doubled in
the early 1990s; majority of buyers were
Boomers.
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They’ve
always had it easy; they’re assured of a
comfortable retirement.
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Of all
generations, Boomers have the largest credit
card debt. They have
an average of 20 years remaining on their
mortgages.
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Quit
learning.
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Enrollment
by Boomers in adult education programs,
everything from tap dancing to elementary
economics, is up
significantly.
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Workaholics.
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Have
worked grueling hours for the past thirty
years; now 80% agree their private life is
more important than work.
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when a Silent collides, they think
…
u
Stop
talking about personal things that should
be kept private.
u
Me,
me, me.
u
Another
divorce ??!!
when a GenX collides, they think
…
u
Are
you crazy - meetings after
5?
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u
Moralistic
and hypocritical.
u
Always
doing office politics.
when a GenY collides, they think
…
u
Work
too much.
u
Lighten
up.
u
Stop
hovering.
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Generation
Y
Generation
X
Baby Boomer
Generation
The Silent or Veteran
Generation
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