As millions of people in their 50s and 60s exit the corporate world, many will search for “encore careers” in the public and nonprofit sectors. This could result in the biggest transformation in the U.S. workforce since women began pouring into it some 30 years ago, says Marc Freedman, author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life.
Freedman, founder of San Francisco think tank Civic Ventures, discussed the trend with BusinessWeek:
How do you define an encore career?
It’s when someone can earn income, find new meaning, and use accumulated experience in ways that have a positive impact on society. At the same time, encore careers fill a set of talent shortages that threaten to compromise our education and health-care systems.
Despite boomers’ claims of wanting to help society, is it possible most would rather retire to a life of travel and golf?
Baby boomers could be blowing a lot of hot air. I think whether they retreat into another round of selfishness or can respond to JFK’s challenge—to ask not what the country can do for me but what I can do for the country—will have to do with whether we as a society call them up to a higher purpose.
What policy changes need to be made to promote encore careers?
We need to remove all barriers and disincentives that keep people from pursuing work later in life. Those policies are vestiges of the past, when we tried to push people out of the workforce.
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