I bumped into an acquaintance today who told me that he has just stepped away from his highly senior, highly paid City job. His story made me think that, after 50, we can find work ‘too hot’ or ‘too cold’, but struggle to find work which is ‘just right’ – a Goldilocks phenomenon. Stories of work after 50 Just into his 50s, my acquaintance had found that what initially looked like a golden opportunity had rapidly turned sour – ultra-long hours, heavy travel needs, invasion of vacation time. Friends and colleagues cautioned that this stage in a career was the...
The New Middle Age blog took a break over the summer – time out to help my 16 year old twins transition into 6th Form – and evidence of the ‘long tail’ on the childcare/work conundrum! As I work for myself, with no employer/funder/client issues as yet, this was relatively straight-forward. Short hours on social media and website maintenance sufficed. But it has made me think again about the issues around career breaks and the 50+ generation. The 21st Century Career Break Evidence is building that career breaks, and flexible working more generally, are increasingly important for all employees. A...
Yesterday, Angela was pleased to be able to attend the ILC-UK/renEWL/Uncertain Futures conference ‘Overcoming Inequalities: Addressing barriers to extending working lives’. The day included presentations from a large and impressive line-up of speakers, from the research project team, employer and third sector representatives and including a personal review of his last year’s work by John Cridland. Here she picks out some of the key issues. Structural inequalities Health and socio-economic inequalities, as well as ethnic and family structures, underpin many of the inequalities observed in achieving extended working lives. And the foundations for these inequalities are likely to have been...
