powered by performancing firefox
After more than 20 years in corporate jobs, Bob and Cathy Dammeyer of Dallas had become weary of all the travel and meetings, the politics and bureaucracy. The fiftysomething couple pondered early retirement.
"Bob bought an antique car, and I bought a pickup truck, and we were going to see what the end of the road looked like," Mrs. Dammeyer said.
Then reality dawned, and they figured they were too young to retire. So they went into business for themselves, selling Swirl frozen-drink distributorships. Three years later, the Dammeyers' company, Culpepper Sales, does several million dollars in business annually.
"It's rejuvenated us," Mrs. Dammeyer said. "We don't worry about corporate minutiae anymore. We only have to satisfy ourselves."
The Dammeyers represent a growing breed of baby boomers who have started their own businesses at a time of life when other people have begun to think longingly about retirement.
Workers 55 and older represent one of the fastest-growing groups of the self-employed, says consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The number of 55-plus Americans working for themselves has increased 28 percent since 2000, compared with stagnant or declining self-employment for most other age groups, according to a Challenger analysis of government data.
Today, baby boomers and seniors account for 56 percent of the nation's self-employed workers, the firm says.
"Boomers will use self-employment as a bridge to retirement," said Lynn Karoly, a senior economist with the RAND Corp.
Many boomers intend to work longer than previous generations, but they want to work on their own terms, she said.
"They're creating jobs that give them more control over their lives and more self-fulfillment," said Ms. Karoly, who co-wrote a report on Americans 50 and older who have become their own boss.
By the time Diane D'Agostino-Smith of Rowlett entered her mid-50s, she was putting in 15-hour days as an oil company executive's assistant.
"My work had taken over my life," she said. "I felt like I couldn't even take the 30-minute exercise break my doctor had recommended."
When her health began to slip, she knew she had to get out. After returning to school, Ms. D'Agostino-Smith set up a life-coaching practice to help others choose new careers.
She runs her business out of her home and values working her own hours.
"I took a difficult situation and changed it into something positive for myself and others," she said. "I'm proud of that."
John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said the corporate downsizings of recent years have provided another impetus for elder entrepreneurship.
Older workers accept buyouts from employers, but without traditional pensions or retiree health benefits, can't afford to retire, he said.
"The irony is that many companies' new openness to outsourcing and hiring independent contractors to perform certain tasks is creating business opportunities for the self-employed," Mr. Challenger said.
Experts agree that starting a business, whether by choice or necessity, is not for the faint of heart. The hours are long. The risks are high. And, as some self-employed boomers have discovered, friends may even question your sanity.
Mrs. Dammeyer advises new entrepreneurs to come up with a short speech to deliver to doubting friends and family.
"Some people will think you're crazy," she said. "So for your self-confidence, you've got to explain to them why this is the right move for you."
Gene Fairbrother, a consultant for the National Association for the Self-Employed, said the biggest challenge for many people is deciding what kind of business to open.
Staying in one's industry reduces the risks, because the new entrepreneur will have experience in that field and a Rolodex of business contacts, he said.
At 50, Karen Taylor of Richardson started her own public relations firm, Southwest Ink, after working in advertising and public relations much of her career.
She credits her network of contacts with helping her land her first clients.
Now 63, she says some of her business relationships date back more than 20 years.
"My longer-term clients have become close friends," she said.
For many of the self-employed, however, midlife becomes the time to start over and try something entirely different.
Marika and Howard Stone, co-authors of Too Young to Retire, have become gurus for boomers looking for the dream job that will carry them through the second half of life.
The couple's book, a popular text in business start-up courses, suggests 101 jobs for "the open-minded" – everything from a karaoke DJ ("turn your love for people and disco music into a career and party down") to a reunion organizer ("families and former classmates are pulling together once again, but not everyone has the time or talent to organize a reunion").
"This isn't a work of fiction; these are real jobs," Mr. Stone said. "Ask yourself what you have a passion for and then go for it."
Anyone wanting to start a business needs to start with a business plan, experts say.
"Great concepts can fail because of poor execution," said Mike Hernandez, a past president of the Dallas chapter of SCORE, a nonprofit group that works with the U.S. Small Business Administration. "A business plan spells out how to turn an idea into reality."
Mr. Hernandez said SCORE's volunteer corps of retired business executives can show prospective entrepreneurs how to write a plan.
"People often underestimate the money they'll need to get started," he said. "As a rule of thumb, I recommend putting up 20 percent to 30 percent of the cost. Lenders reviewing a business plan will expect that from you."
Mr. Fairbrother suggests turning to professionals for help with legal and tax issues. The National Association for the Self-Employed operates a hotline (1-800-232-6273) for members with technical questions.
When Connie Baird, 60, created a Dallas-area food brokerage three years ago, she relied on an attorney's advice that a corporation would be the best legal structure for her business.
She has also had an accountant handle her business taxes.
"If you don't know how to do something, hire an expert who does," she said.
Despite the challenges of self-employment, many 50-plus entrepreneurs say their only regret is that they didn't do it sooner.
"I may work more hours some weeks, but they're my hours," Ms. Taylor said. "I don't have to haul a briefcase through high-rises and garages anymore."
E-mail bmoos@dallasnews.com
Blamestorming: Sitting around in a group discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.
Body Nazis: Hard-core exercise and weight-lifting fanatics who look down on anyone who doesn't work out obsessively.
Cube Farm: An office filled with cubicles.
Ego Surfing: Scanning the Net, databases, print media and so on, looking for references to one's own name.
Elvis Year: The peak year of something's or someone's popularity. For example, "Barney the Dinosaur's Elvis year was 1993."
404: Someone who's clueless. "Don't bother asking him; he's 404." (From the WWW error message "404 Not Found", meaning the requested document couldn't be located.
Idea Hamsters: People who always seem to have their idea generators running.
Keyboard Plaque: The disgusting buildup of dirt and crud found on computer keyboards.
Mouse Potato: The online, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.
Ohnosecond: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a big mistake.
Prairie Dogging: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.
SITCOMs: What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids. Stands for Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage.
Starter Marriage: A short-lived first marriage that ends in divorce with no kids, no property and no regrets.
Stress Puppy: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.
Swiped Out: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.
Tourists: People who take training classes just to get a vacation from their jobs. "We had three serious students in the class; the rest were just tourists."
Treeware: Hacker slang for documentation or other printed material.
Uninstalled: Euphemism for being fired.
Xerox Subsidy: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.
American Management Association ©Copyright1997-2006
When generations collide at the office, the Resulting Sparks can be spectacular — and sometimes even illuminating.
Written By Chris Warren, Copywrite 2006 American Way Magazine
Illustrations by Ryan Snook
Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman 
didn’t exactly hit it off immediately. It was the mid-1990s and Stillman, who was in his 20s and a proud member of Generation X, was preparing to give a presentation to a group of CEOs. Lancaster, a communications pro and a Baby Boomer who was then in her late 30s, was asked to give Stillman some coaching on how to give an effective talk to a group of wizened executives.
Right away they clashed. As Lancaster tried to impart the pointers she had learned through years of experience, Stillman kept interrupting, questioning her approach and advice. A frustrated Lancaster felt Stillman was ignoring time-tested strategies for delivering an impressive presentation. Equally upset, Stillman wondered why Lancaster was so dismissive of his new ideas. Forced to work together, Stillman and Lancaster gradually began to understand where the other was coming from; indeed, by incorporating some of Lancaster’s more traditional ideas with his own creative, irreverent touches, Stillman was able to deliver a superb presentation.
More importantly, the two discovered something that would change the direction of both of their lives: “We realized that a lot of our head-butting wasn’t because we didn’t like each other — it was because we saw things differently,” says Lancaster. “It wasn’t that either one of us was right or wrong. We really saw the world of work through different perspectives.” That original fractious encounter and the realization it spawned spurred Stillman and Lancaster to form BridgeWorks, a consulting firm that helps companies recognize, manage, and hopefully take advantage of the generation gaps that are increasingly appearing in the workplace today; together, they also wrote the book
When Generations Collide: Who They Are. Why They Clash. How to Solve the Generational Puzzle at Work.
Meet Your Coworker
The nub of their work, then, is helping businesses mesh four distinct generations — each with its own attitudes and expectations around work — into teams that can excel in the increasingly competitive world economy. It’s no easy task. Using admittedly broad and imprecise generalizations, here’s how experts break down the generations:
Traditionalists, those born before 1945, typically have faith that institutions — be it the government, business, family, or church — have the capacity to accomplish great things, like winning a world war or overcoming the Great Depression. They tend to respect authority and are comfortable in a top-down hierarchy.
Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, are marked by their optimism, having been born into affluent times, as well as by their competitiveness — there are 80 million of them, after all — and a preternatural need to challenge the status quo.
Generation Xers, born between 1965 and 1977, by contrast are considered skeptical, raised as they were in a time of recession and downsizing. In response, Gen Xers are resourceful and independent, intent on burnishing their own skills as a way to achieve job security; they’re also typically more concerned with work-life balance than Boomers. “They want to be constantly learning — that is their job security,” says Stillman. “If I know enough and am constantly getting new skills, then if anything bad happens, I’m going to be all the more employable.”
Finally, there’s the tech-savvy progeny of the Boomers, known alternately as Generation Y (and sometimes why), Millennials, and Echo Boomers. These newest entrants to the workforce are used to customizing everything they touch — from their iPods to their sneakers, and now perhaps their careers — and having been fed a steady diet of positive affirmation by their parents, now expect the same from their supervisors and bosses.
With four generations thrust together in offices and factories around the country, conflict is inevitable. Some of the flare-ups are downright humorous, like the pique a Traditionalist or Boomer may feel at getting a thank-you note e-mailed to them or the confusion over the difference between fat and phat. Less funny are stories like one reported in a recent issue of 
Fast Company: Angry parents of a Generation Y car salesman showed up in the CEO’s office, demanding to know why their son didn’t receive a bonus. They left only when security booted them out.
Perhaps more common, though, are simmering resentments that often go unsaid, but have a definite impact on workplace harmony. At Sutter Gould Medical Foundation in Northern California, some Baby Boomer doctors are quietly exasperated with what they see as their younger colleagues’ lack of commitment to the organization. “We have doctors who are in their early 50s who, when they came to Gould early in their career, paid their dues,” says Stephanie Miller, executive director of human resources, who is in the process of launching some programs to address the generational divide. “They took calls every night and every weekend, and these new guys want more work-life balance, and they want to spend more time with their family.”
Bottom-Line Impact
If these generational fissures were just a matter of grumbling and mild discontent; they could easily be dismissed as a nonissue. But more and more companies are realizing that managing and rewarding different generations in ways that meet their respective hopes and expectations has a real bottom-line impact. One area where it’s particularly important is in the recruitment and retention of the most talented, productive people. “It’s expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to find talent,” says Susan Johnson, vice president of strategic talent management for Pitney Bowes, a Connecticut-based document and communication management company. Or, as Paul Silverglate, an audit partner at the consulting company Deloitte & Touche, puts it: “It’s a seller’s market for talent in our industry right now. There’s so much work and fewer people coming into the job market that we have to figure out a way to get the most talented people.”
Also important to the continuing, long-term viability of companies is planning for the day when Baby Boomers — who hit age 60 en masse this year — begin to retire or move to a reduced work schedule. “From a company standpoint, they are looking to build bench strength.
They want the next generation of people ready for when the Boomers do leave or change their status or go part-time,” says Rex Davenport, editor in chief of Training + Development magazine. “A lot of companies are looking at developing the next generation of leaders.”
Of course, grooming a new group of leaders means ensuring that those same people don’t bolt; and to keep Generations X and Y around often requires becoming an active partner in their career planning. That fact was driven home for Susan Johnson at Pitney Bowes last summer when the company put on a discussion with two panels, one consisting of executives near retirement and the other of younger, promising employees. The more senior executives, Johnson recalls, talked about the corporate hierarchy and how they had to rise methodically in the company, going step by accepted step. “Contrast that with the voices of the future panel,” she recalls. “They said, ‘If Pitney Bowes doesn’t give me what I want, I’m ready, willing, and able to go someplace else, because it’s all about me managing my career.’ ”
To meet that expectation, Pitney Bowes has a formal initiative that focuses a lot of attention on what Johnson calls “emerging strategic leaders.” It boils down to her staff and senior executives spending time and effort cultivating promising employees. “We see what development planning and mentoring and assessment we can put in place for them to help them realize their potential and show them we care about them enough to help them manage their careers within PB,” she says.
Rewarding Experiences
Another effective way to manage a multigenerational workforce is to understand what each group considers an adequate reward for a job well done. In his research and experience working with companies, David Stillman at BridgeWorks says he has found that, by and large, Baby Boomers have been satisfied with what can only be considered traditional rewards like a monetary bonus or promotion. “Where Baby Boomers have always been so competitive, title and rank has been very important,” he says.
Not so with younger workers. In Stillman’s observation, Generation Xers would often rather have a day off than a small bonus. In their thirst for new skills, too, Stillman says a bump up the corporate ladder can actually be disheartening for early-career employees. “I did really well in marketing, but I’m dying to learn PR,” he says. “Move me to PR and that would be a great reward for me.”
It’s not just what a reward is that matters, it’s also how fast it comes. Boomers and Traditionalists are accustomed to a yearly bonus and performance review. Younger employees, though, often need feedback more quickly, having become used to it in their everyday lives. At Pitney Bowes, they’ve instituted a rapid rewards program, where managers can award bonuses based on the success of a particular project. “I think the X and Y generations respond very well to that direct feedback and that recognition of success,” says Johnson. “It gets them away from feeling they have to pay their dues in order to be successful.”
Mutually Assured Understanding
When devising policies that have a company-wide impact, like those designating rewards and flex time, Stillman advocates including representatives from all generations. And to be blunt, that’s really what successful intergenerational management is all about: fostering real communication and understanding between people of different ages. It’s not about one group being right and the other being wrong, and it’s certainly not about older workers reconfiguring the way they do everything to conform to the demands of early-career employees.
That’s one of the lessons that Stephanie Miller at the Sutter Gould Medical Foundation took home from a seminar led by BridgeWorks. It was enough of an “a-ha” moment, in fact, for her to begin rolling out classes so workers of different ages could understand each other better. “We hope they’ll appreciate the differences rather than focusing on them as something negative,” she says. “That can only help to strengthen the teams.”
There are advantages and opportunities for companies that do this well. In her work for the Pittsburgh-based consultancy Key Group, Joanne G. Sujansky helps businesses get the most out of the diversity of their workforce. To her, having multiple generations working together is a boon in many areas, including creativity. “The reality is that a heterogeneous workforce brings wonderful things to idea generation,” she says. “What we say is don’t just invite diversity to the table, tap it and employ it. Some of these younger folks that come into the workplace are never a part of brainstorming. What a waste.” Sujansky also believes that including people of different generations in every facet of a business can be particularly helpful when it comes to meeting the needs of multigenerational customers.
Promoting intergenerational understanding, then, can be very profitable. Making connections between employees of different ages, though, can be tricky. Mentoring is one way to do it, but when it’s forced and regimented, it can be awkward and unproductive. At Deloitte & Touche, they’re taking the basic concept of mentoring and giving it a slightly different spin, one they hope will boost intergenerational ties. With some 35,000 employees across the United States, Deloitte has workers that represent four generations: Most of its staff-level people are Generation Y, managers and senior managers are Generation X, and partners are primarily Baby Boomers, with a few Traditionalists still in the mix.
Paul Silverglate says Deloitte is developing what he calls a “mentor exchange” as a way to connect younger workers — who he believes crave a relationship with the people who impact their careers — with more senior partners. Rather than just picking names of partners and staff out of a hat and forcing them to meet for a half hour each month, Silverglate says the company wanted to instead facilitate more organic connections, ones that are actually based on mutual interests. “It works when it’s natural, when both mentor and mentee get benefits from the relationship,” he says.
To ensure that’s the case, Deloitte has developed a database where staff members list their skills and interests, which vary widely — everything from the ability to program an iPod 
to cycling to photography to knowledge of the best places to visit in Italy. Partners search the database and seek out staff members they think can help them do something. “Partners reach out to staff and say, ‘Hey, I want to learn about cycling, and I understand that you’re a cycling specialist,’ ” says Silverglate. There is a quid pro quo involved. “The staff person goes back to the partner and says, ‘Okay, I would like to learn about navigating through the firm.’ Or, ‘I’d like to learn what career struggles you had and how you got around them,’ ” he says.
The only compulsory aspect about the exchange is that after the initial interaction there has to be one follow-up; there’s no commitment to become lifelong friends or to meet a set number of times a year. It’s all meant to progress naturally. To Silverglate, putting together people who have common interests is an effective way to get beyond the labels and stereotypes that generations have about each other. “The reality is, we are more similar than different,” he says. “We care about the same things: We care about providing for our families; we care about doing work that we are passionate about and interested in. So if you can erase the ‘Kids are crazy these days; they want everything on their own terms,’ and get to ‘Hey, these people are a lot more like us,’ then you will be able to deal with nuances and differences a lot better.”
CHRIS WARREN is a former editor of Los Angeles magazine. He has written for the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Sierra, and a variety of other publications.
