Maggie Jackson notes (Balancing Acts: Age Discrimination, Business Section, Boston Globe, July 27, 2008: G1, G4) that seniors have three motives for seeking work: to make money, to stay active, and "giving back."
Those of us who do not need to continue working for financial reasons can easily find worthwhile occupations as volunteers.
Many places need voluntary labor. You can find information on volunteer opportunities at http://volunteerboston.org/ or http://www.volunteermatch.org/. Many kinds of volunteer placements are available: there are placements that fit the extroverted (tutoring) and others that fit the introverted (stuffing envelopes).
I do recording for the blind a couple of mornings a week. I started to do this because one of my good friends had a period of temporary blindness when his retinas had detached. After six months, laser surgery had put him partially to rights and he could see well enough with one eye. But during his months of blindness, he had to rely on talking books and recorded journals to keep up with our academic field. I thought that a good way to honor him would be to do some of that recording -- a classic case of "giving back."
Of course, in this election year, political campaigns -- from President to town council -- are looking for volunteers to go out into the community and pass on the candidate's message. But there are non-partisan political opportunities too: many good government organizations need volunteers to plan fund-raisers, send out mailings, and generally keep the office running on a shoe-string. My choice was Common Cause where I volunteer a couple of times a week.
So, if you don't need paid employment, do not despair: there is no age discrimination in the volunteer sector.
Sent to Boston Globe
Showing posts with label career. Show all posts
Showing posts with label career. Show all posts
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Second Acts
I enjoyed Ellen Goodman's piece on second acts (Boston Globe, October 19, 2007: A17).
I used to be a Professor and a Researcher. Since relocating from Toronto to Cambridge -- I figure there is enough research going on here -- I have reinvented myself as a volunteer and gadfly. A few years ago, one of my friends went partially blind. During his recovery he used taped versions of his academic journals. I therefore record for the blind a couple of mornings a week. I also volunteer a day a week at Common Cause because I have always been impressed with the energy expends to keep politics honest and open -- that's a task that will long be with us.
In my gadfly mode I write op-eds and letters to the editor -- mainly about politics and managerial issues. Now if only I could figure out a way to get more of them published!
I hope that others of my generation will join me in these activities.
Sent to Boston Globe
I used to be a Professor and a Researcher. Since relocating from Toronto to Cambridge -- I figure there is enough research going on here -- I have reinvented myself as a volunteer and gadfly. A few years ago, one of my friends went partially blind. During his recovery he used taped versions of his academic journals. I therefore record for the blind a couple of mornings a week. I also volunteer a day a week at Common Cause because I have always been impressed with the energy expends to keep politics honest and open -- that's a task that will long be with us.
In my gadfly mode I write op-eds and letters to the editor -- mainly about politics and managerial issues. Now if only I could figure out a way to get more of them published!
I hope that others of my generation will join me in these activities.
Sent to Boston Globe
Saturday, September 15, 2007
New Career Structure for the Army
In his article on the failures in Iraq, Fred Kaplan (Challenging the Generals, New York Times Magazine, August 24, 2007 pages 34-39) states that the US Military has to change its career structure from one in which those promoted General come up through a single branch of the service and are rewarded for this narrow focus to one that encourages a person to take a broad view with an appreciation for the work of a number of different branches of the service and indeed other options including diplomacy and liaison with foreign military units.
These different career structures are well known in modern organizations. The first, where promotion occurs through the narrow focus, the manager moves through a series of assignments involving larger or more important units of the same type. This is called a command centered career structure. The second where promotion occurs by moving to different types of unit doing different types of things is called a constructional career structure.
Many in the US Army are hoping that the Army moves from the command centered career structure to the constructional career structure by changing the criteria used by promotion boards who select the men and women for promotion from Full Colonel to Brigadier General. That will be insufficient -- changing a career structure in a large organization is extraordinarily difficult.
The rewards and encouragements must be incorporated much earlier in the individuals' careers, Right now, one of Kaplan's informants tells him that the Army promotes the "can-do, go-to people." Obviously this skill is important, but so are others. From the officers' earliest time in the military, both the goals associated with the current focus of the job must be set high but other learning goals about other units and their activities also need to be set. The young officer then needs to be rewarded and promoted for achieving both goals not just for one. These two types of goals then need to be instituted at all ranks between Lieutenant and Colonel so that mid level officers like Captain Kip Kowalski do not feel that if they take lateral moves to other parts of the military such as becoming Foreign Affairs Officer means that they can "never come back" to the regular infantry. This, of course, comes at the cost of lesser expertise: the more officers make these lateral moves, the more apposite becomes the old saying: "jack of all trades, master of none". But you can't have it both ways: as many large corporations have found. But this is the only way to develop top executives with a proper overview of their business.
Without this change in focus and reward at each of these levels, the high level promotion board will have few candidates to select with the breadth and knowledge required by today's General Officers
Hugh P Gunz & Martin G. Evans
Sent to New York Times Magazine
These different career structures are well known in modern organizations. The first, where promotion occurs through the narrow focus, the manager moves through a series of assignments involving larger or more important units of the same type. This is called a command centered career structure. The second where promotion occurs by moving to different types of unit doing different types of things is called a constructional career structure.
Many in the US Army are hoping that the Army moves from the command centered career structure to the constructional career structure by changing the criteria used by promotion boards who select the men and women for promotion from Full Colonel to Brigadier General. That will be insufficient -- changing a career structure in a large organization is extraordinarily difficult.
The rewards and encouragements must be incorporated much earlier in the individuals' careers, Right now, one of Kaplan's informants tells him that the Army promotes the "can-do, go-to people." Obviously this skill is important, but so are others. From the officers' earliest time in the military, both the goals associated with the current focus of the job must be set high but other learning goals about other units and their activities also need to be set. The young officer then needs to be rewarded and promoted for achieving both goals not just for one. These two types of goals then need to be instituted at all ranks between Lieutenant and Colonel so that mid level officers like Captain Kip Kowalski do not feel that if they take lateral moves to other parts of the military such as becoming Foreign Affairs Officer means that they can "never come back" to the regular infantry. This, of course, comes at the cost of lesser expertise: the more officers make these lateral moves, the more apposite becomes the old saying: "jack of all trades, master of none". But you can't have it both ways: as many large corporations have found. But this is the only way to develop top executives with a proper overview of their business.
Without this change in focus and reward at each of these levels, the high level promotion board will have few candidates to select with the breadth and knowledge required by today's General Officers
Hugh P Gunz & Martin G. Evans
Sent to New York Times Magazine
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Junior officers' disquiet over Generals' speaking out in 2006
In the magazine several weeks ago, Fred Kaplan, (Challenging the Generals, New York Times Magazine, August 24, 2007 pages 34-39) states that many mid-level officers "reacted with puzzlement and disgust" at the retired generals being critical of the conduct of the Iraq war. Why didn't they speak out when they were in uniform and affect the course of the war?
In your reporting of the Generals' criticism, I do not think you ever talked about their failure to speak out earlier nor did you report on the disquiet caused to lower level officers. Had you done so, opposition to the war might have occurred much earlier.
Sent to New York Times
In your reporting of the Generals' criticism, I do not think you ever talked about their failure to speak out earlier nor did you report on the disquiet caused to lower level officers. Had you done so, opposition to the war might have occurred much earlier.
Sent to New York Times
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