JOB TALK AMERICA

There are a lot of men who are healthier at age 50 then they have ever been before, because a  lot of their fear is gone.

     Robert Bly

     I’ve been thinking about fear a lot, especially for Boomers.  The poet Robert Bly clearly wasn’t thinking about unemployment when he wrote the above passage.  He was concerned with how men expressed themselves and the father-son relationship.

    But the notion that people in their 50s should expect a healthy dose of fearlessness seems fair to me.  Before the Great Recession most 50 year olds, indeed most Boomers, probably believed they had conquered their careers and the rest until retirement was going to be relatively smooth sailing.  For most of our careers our saleries were good and our retirement funds fat.

    But now many Boomers are on unemployment, they've dipped into their savings and their retirement funds were mauled by Wall Street. (see my previous post)

    Career fear is creeping up on Boomers.

    I saw this post on Linkedin from a woman named Linda, “Somehow I never thought I would not be able to find a job and still have 15 or more years ahead in which I need to work. What are we to do?”

    And I read this letter on Mike Thornton’s great site, Layofflist.org, “I am 58 years old and my husband of 36 years is 72.  His disability insurance pays the bills but not the mortgage.  I never in my life thought things would end up like this.  I want to work but nobody will hire me...I am at my wit’s end.”

    My guess is that until a year or two ago neither of these writers had ever experienced career fear.

    I want to fully cover career fear on a future JobTalkAmerica.

    For now, take a listen to our shrink, Fred Stechmann.  He has great advice on dealing with job loss here and how to overcome anger here. (Fred is the second interview in both shows)

    And if you have a story you'd like to share, email me at hope@JobTalkAmerica.com.