What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up? Why Longevity Changes The Question & The Answer
Dr. Joe Coughlin
Translating global demographic, social & technology insights into business strategy
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Grandparents, uncles, aunts, and of course, parents, ask this question of tikes, teens, today’s graduates. Not a bad, or incorrect question, just incomplete. Longevity demands we change the question and rethink the possible answers. Longer life means that being a “grown up” is for many more years than ever before.
Nearly half of today’s 2022 graduates from high school, vocational schools, and colleges will experience lifespans of nearly 100 years. Possible implications? Their work spans are likely to be 50-plus years. Newton did not name retirement at 65-years old a law of physics. Unfortunately, our institutions from education to employers are not ready to support careers that will span many professions, jobs, and employers.
Here are just a few challenges longevity poses to our current idea of career and work.
In a world where technological advances, globalization, and dynamic industry structures are reshaping the future of work, are our schools, training programs, and colleges ready to prepare and continuously refresh the knowledge and skills of workers of all ages?
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Are employers prepared to offer the flexibility and resources necessary to engage, train, and manage a multigenerational workforce where new recruits may be 50 or even 60-something?
Are retirement plans prepared to offer flexible and portable benefits to a workforce that may no longer invest two or three decades of their career with only one or two firms?
Are financial service companies and advisors prepared to develop new products and to provide longevity advice to clients that do not fit into today’s expectations of age, life stage, wealth accumulation, and retirement?
And, for those of us that are parents, are we prepared to ask a different question, perhaps one that sounds more like, how many things will you be when you grow up?
Please follow me and read more of my thoughts on this topic in my recent Forbes article Graduation, Longevity& The New Meaning Of Career ----- Feel free to begin a conversation on longevity and the changing meaning of career here on LinkedIn.
Human Resources Advisor for small employers 2-200 ❖Help Clients Thrive ❖SBDC HR Consultant ❖Speaker ❖Avocation: Careers
2ySo true, even now. I have been talking about longevity and work with women's groups for decades> Yet still am surprised we have not made much progress in getting everyone who is currently working (as well as new grads) to be thinking of longer, changing work-lives. Have passed your Forbes article on. Appreciate your work.
Meticulous, on-brand copywriting, editing & content strategy for purpose-led businesses and solopreneurs
2yThese are such important observations to share
CEO @ My Longevity Pty Limited | Longevity Planning Innovator
2yEven the average increase in lifespans seems to have stalled in the US with similar signs in Australia, If they decline we will see a real logjam of older people who are even less likely to be self-sufficient than seniors today, requiring more support. If the neuroscientists like Australian David Sinclair are correct, then a least some of the midlifers today may indeed live to well beyond 100 in reasonable shape, with a growing longevity gap becoming apparent between the well-off and others. Changing longevity is a social phenomenon and we need to give much more thought to financial and social solutions not just medical ones.
Certified ESG Specialist, National EHS Counsel and Mediator of Complex Environmental Issues
2ySo spot on !!
I was thinking about this the other day. I have 2 gen x and one Millennial adult children. they know that they'll be living longer and will have a few more career choices