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...
‘Do Not Go Gentle’ This week’s British Society of Gerontology Conference at Swansea was entitled ‘Do Not Go Gentle’, a sentiment absolutely encapsulated by the WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) women who also this week took such exception, quite righty, to the advice of Pensions Minister, Guy Opperman MP that women who had been caught out by changes to SPA should start an apprenticeship (report here). For WASPI, the complaint is that they have not been given equal time to men to make adjustments to compensate for the pension reforms – which they support. They recognise that reform is...
This wasn’t the blog I was expecting to write, being in the middle of new research on economic productivity of older workers (see here). And I rather expect to be following the proverbial lemming over the cliff given the controversial position of the issues involved. But here goes: Children – the best and worst thing I ever did. Why this topic now? I took a 15 minute break this morning and caught the broadcast of a Helen Simpson short story, ‘Café Society’ (see here); a biting commentary on the impact of motherhood on the careers of women. And it brought...
