An Aging Workforce – We Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet
When I first came across this article from the BBC, Retirement age 'should reach 85, I thought, So what’s the big deal? Lots of the elderly poor are working part-time. Just go to a McDonalds or a Wal-Mart.
But then it got me thinking about Dan Pink’s book. The implications for the aging workforce over time are just enormous.
Working longer means working smarter – that’s the easy clichéd part. But it also means a kind of intergenerational workforce never imagined even a generation ago.
When I think of the key skills that Pink foresees in the new Conceptual Age - design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning, I have the sense that several of these skills improve over time, especially story-telling, empathy and meaning making.
If anti-aging breakthroughs really do come to fruition, then we may not end up in an intergenerational war where the older folks are completely draining the resources of the society. Then it just may be possible for an entirely new working culture to emerge in a few short years.
Again, here’s the link.