The future of work in our 40s, 50s: The “Educate – Work – Retire” model is dead

Need to know

4 Jan

Dreaming of retiring from a job you don't love? Imagine loving what you do so much you can't imagine stopping.

I worked in the same industry for, just shy of, 20 years.

Like many professionals who have invested a couple of decades in their career, I figured I was destined to stay in the same industry for the rest of my career.

But what happens when you start to feel stuck and that feeling won’t disappear…even after a few years?

Back then, I didn’t know I’d be working in a completely different industry, using some completely different skills, and interacting with totally different people.

I didn’t know any of this until I made the decision to “not be in the same industry next year”.

If I’d come across this report years ago, I’d have understood how to begin to alleviate my “stuck” feelings more quickly and might not have felt like the only lonely lemon in the world of oranges.

The report is called “Shift – the Commission on Work, Workers and Technology”, where leaders from the worlds of Technology, Business and Culture were asked to forecast what the world of work would look like in 10-20 years. Whilst it is US-centric, it has real implications globally.

Here is the over-riding message that you need to know from the report:

The “Educate – Work – Retire” model is dying

The linear career path that has been prevalent until now, simply isn’t useful or relevant for the over 40s/50s any longer. A more dynamic work/life path is forecast for over 40s/50s.

Not only are there other ways to work in your 40s and 50s, those other ways are definitely more flexible, can be more fun (if designed well) and are more likely to keep our demographic earning, for as long as we want to.

Specific forecasts from the “Shift” report for the next 10-20 years:

Education-work-retire model is very outdated

Retirement to a yacht isn’t that fulfilling, or possible, for most individuals

Many 50+ will delay retirement and/or working part-time, as funding retirements (in the old sense of 20-30 years with a fixed income) becomes risky and uncertain

Many over 50s will begin a second career for both financial, and social, reasons

Older workers will represent a larger part of the part-time work force – independent contracting, freelancing and consulting

Volunteering, or working part-time for not-for-profit businesses (high level team leadership included), will be viewed more highly in status than net worth

As adults, we will be in and out of school, in and out of work, in and out of volunteering jobs, multiple sabbaticals, and gap periods, more often than ever before

By God this excites me…but it would have scared the life out of me five years ago - staring down the barrel of one career, in one industry, for the rest of my working days.

Like many people, the thought of “retirement” also doesn't excite me as I get so much satisfaction, self-esteem and self-worth from working.

Whilst I do know a couple of individuals of my generation who are holding out for retirement, the majority have tapped into society’s feeling that “life is too short to keep your head down and bum up until we are 65 to start enjoying life”.

The sad truth is that many of us will have a serious illness before we even reach 65

So we need to somehow mix work with fun, in a way that hasn’t been necessary/available before.

SM Post We need to learn to mix work and pleasure more than ever before.png

I’ve made it my mission to try to mix work with fun, by doing work that I mostly find fun. But, that isn’t the only way.

This report suggests that the money-making element of work, will find us working until we are older than ever before, BUT that those long work years may be intermingled with back-to-school gaps, career breaks and/or sabbaticals.

On my street alone, I know one person who is on sabbatical for 6 months to invest time and energy into her husband’s fitness business
Another, who is ramping up artistic endeavours, as she wants to reduce the physicality of her earlier career
Yet another, who has just launched his first photography business

These individuals are in the experimental stages of their midlife careers. But they are attempting to design work in a way that allows them to create their own financially secure, physically and emotionally free and fulfilling work.

In my opinion (and the opinion of this report), the future workplace for midlifers, on every street in the western world, is exceedingly fluid…and more than a little exciting.

If the "Educate-Work-Retire" model is dead, or dying...what does the future workplace for individuals in their 40s and 50s on your street look like? And for you?