Boomers Ruling the Old World or Helping to Raise Up a New One

Being a Baby boomer looking for a new paradigm shift means trying to understand where the changes in the world are arising. It is young who create the new paradigms. The old more often than not just recycle the old ones. There does though often seem to be a connection possible between old and young, more often than we acknowledge. More importantly, there are questions being asked and challenges to boomer paradigms that need to be pondered. The personnel paradigm change is accepting that one's old paradigms don't necessarily fit in the world anymore while at the same time not surrendering those that define one's ethics and spiritual foundation. Whether we are old or young the question below applies to many of us today.

The Gig Money v. meaningful work, the battle continues «
Many asked, though, how they could keep their Yers engaged — and frankly, coming to work — in the face of huge salaries from big corporations trying to poach them. The plans they work on have a huge impact on people’s lives, another attendee said, but is that enough for Yers? I’m inclined to say that, yes, along with lots of exposure to higher-ups’ passion, Yers will choose high-impact jobs like these over high-paying, but perhaps less rewarding, ones. (Leaving aside, of course, debt. The average college grad with loans has more than $19,000 to pay back, so s/he may have to choose salary in the short term.)

But I think the key is seeing the dedication of senior staffers. As psyched as these Boomers were about their work, I couldn’t imagine any Yer I know not finding it a little infectious. This seems to be borne out in the research, which Tamara Erickson — one of our recurring Gig experts and president of the Concours Institute — says shows that Yers value expertise above all else, including authority. Meaning that, a lot of the time, we’ll take the old guy with great stories and good advice over the younger one with a big title. So for those senior folks in the public sector or nonprofit world, retaining their Yers may just be a matter of sharing a few tales about the lives they’ve changed.