Involuntary Retirement
by John G. Agno
Published on this site: May 17th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
More Baby Boomers are becoming members of a burgeoning species:
the involuntary retiree.
An expert estimates that 3.5 million people between the ages of
40 and 58 vanished from the American workforce from 2001 to 2004.
That's about 5% of all Baby Boomers.
In a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey which covers 2001-
2003, 55 to 64-year-old displaced workers were less likely
to find new jobs than 25 to 54-year-olds (57% vs. 69%), and
more likely to drop out of the workforce altogether (20% vs.
11%). Age discrimination and the business necessity of reducing
costs to compete globally are parts of the problem why Corporate
America has decided that employees at 50 are over-the-hill;
marking time, lacking in energy and not up-to-date in necessary
skills.
Of those over 50 who have filed tens of thousands of age-discrimination
suits every year due to being forced into retirement or dumped,
less than 1% of the complaints are litigated by the short-staffed
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and in 2004, just
15% of the cases closed by the agency yielded out-of-court settlements.
In the 17,837 age-discrimination cases reported in 2004 by the EEOC,
people who file these complaints will rarely win or even get a cash
settlement.
What's an outplaced employee to do as the 55 to 64-year -olds increase
by 8.3 million from 2002-2012?
The answer is to come to the realization that this is not your
father's economy. Now is the time to move on to a phased retirement
by abandoning the hope that you will find another corporate job.
Starting or buying your own business is an option if you have the
required skills, cash and attitude to make a go of it.
Having more fun out of life and work is a good way to spend the
best years of your life.
For some phased retirement tips, go to:
http://home.att.net/..../babyboomerstoday.html
Source: FORTUNE, May 16, 2005
John G. Agno, certified executive & business coach Signature,
Inc., PO Box 2086, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Telephone: 734.426.2000 (US
Eastern Time Zone) Email: mailto:[email protected]
The most critical knowledge is self-knowledge. http://www.MentoringandCoaching.com
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