DEAR JOYCE: I'm a boomer in my early 60s, hoping to stretch out my job until retirement, which might be another 10 years considering what's happened to my investments. But in the bank where I work, I'm seeing a slew of recent college graduates coming in for jobs who are being hired at (I suspect) far less salary than I'm earning. I'm getting worried about being laid off and replaced. Don't young college graduates ever get laid off instead of experienced people over 50? -- P.O.N.
They do. Clouds are appearing in the rosy outlook for young, college-educated talent, people who traditionally could be hired for less money and lower health care costs than seriously experienced employees. Recent college grads are being laid off, current college seniors are having job offers rescinded, and employers tell surveyors they'll re-evaluate month by month how many 2009 graduates they'll be hiring. Reliable statistics on who's in and who's out aren't yet available in the complex economic gear-shifting the world is sorting out right now.
We haven't been down this exact slope before. As psychotherapist Peggy Drexler writes, "Historic changes are rattling this country to the core." (Google Drexler's "The End of Normal.") Adding to our discomfort, economic pundits forecast white-knuckle time in the summer job market. Here are quick strategic tips for both age-group bookends.
OVER-55 TEAM. If employed, avoid being perceived as a member of the old guard; go out of your way to interact with all age groups. Save management money by suggesting solutions to company problems you've seen often but that newcomers may miss. If you're in a profit-center department, don't be shy about suggesting ways to make money for the company.
Invest in a makeover to look younger. Don't recite a litany of your aches and pains. Take a class to fast-forward your mastery of computers and related technology and talk about it at the office. Act energetic.
Never speak of retirement. If you've already discussed it, move fast before your replacement is hired. Race to tell your boss that you love what you do and have deleted the R-word from your vocabulary and washed your mouth out with hand sanitizer.
Be a picture of level-headedness and stability -- people need an anchor in rough waters. Maybe it's not too late to butter up your boss, the individual who's likely to have a say in whether you stay or go.
If new management sweeps in and, heaven forbid, they're younger than you, go out of your way to communicate strengths such as flexibility, adaptability, commitment and institutional memory.
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