On the dangers of phased retirement from the Boston College Center for Aging and Work.
Boston College also has an interesting blog if you want to keep up to date on financial security research.
Min Hus with her final installment of the YMoYL book club.
I know we’re all sick of work-life balance articles (Heck, I was sick of them a year ago!), but read this one that Hush links to anyway.
Stole this excellent Swistle parenting link about what to expect with a kid from Ramble Ramble. It speaks truth (for some people).
Why I hate my work email, expressed in a poem by Profgrrrrl.
One of the things I love about summer is reading tons of novels. Man, I love to read so much! Here’s an interesting reflection on why people like mysteries with cats in them.
Eco Cat Lady talks about the affordable care act.
It is never too hot for a cat pic from dr. crazy.
Stole this link from Wandering Scientist on shopping for entertainment.
We were in this week’s carnival of personal finance.
July 7, 2012 at 9:52 pm
Can I just say that I LOVE mysteries, but I don’t even like cats, and I especially don’t like mysteries with cats!
Or dogs. Or guinea pigs.
O
July 8, 2012 at 7:26 pm
There are guinea pig ones? That seems… not exciting.
July 8, 2012 at 7:32 pm
Maybe I meant hamster, a la Stephanie Plum. I don’t like him, either!
July 8, 2012 at 12:15 pm
On phased retirement and shifting to part-time – yes, it is very hard to get or transition to those kinds of jobs. If I could find one, I’d do it in a heart beat. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to work primarily part-time the last few years (except at the current job) but I question the wisdom of that sometimes (you get 8 hours of comparable work done at 1/2 the pay if you only put in 4 hours to do it). I just want to get in, get done and go home and my hyper-focus lasts for about 4-6 hours. Having to be at work for longer than that is not productive. Plus I can’t do it now anyway since my job is managing other people, not doing. I need a demotion.
I also don’t think that older workers are necessarily that valuable. There’s a ton of boomers at the co. I’m at now – over 35% of headcount > 55 (more than I’ve ever seen before apart from when I did a stint at a university). I’m generalizing here but on average they are resistant to change and do things in such manual ways that they’re real inhibitors to process improvements for the entire organization. I’m not sure why boomers are so prevalent here – maybe because they have a defined benefit pension plan of your age plus years of service = 85, are in a regulated industry with guaranteed income, with no movement to or from other companies so there’s a culture of “this is the way we’ve always done it.”
July 8, 2012 at 12:40 pm
I would caution against drawing conclusions against an entire class of people. In addition to those specific workers not necessarily being representative of every single older worker, there are also psychological biases prevalent that lead to stereotype confirmation (such as the availability heuristic). Specifically, you notice when an older worker confirms your stereotype and you do not when an older worker does not.
An example of these biases might be: you notice when a woman leaves for maternity leave but never comes back, but you do not notice when a man leaves, and you especially do not not notice when he leaves to work for a competitor. Instead you end up thinking, “We should not hire women, they’re likely to just get pregnant and leave the company,” when, in fact, women have less turnover.
July 8, 2012 at 6:47 pm
Geez I hate my work email. So much junk there. And if it’s not junk then it’s either pertinent but unimportant, or it’s stressful.
July 8, 2012 at 7:27 pm
Sometimes it manages to be all of the above!
July 9, 2012 at 9:57 am
Just read the “What to expect with a child” post. It’s really good so thanks for linking to it!
July 10, 2012 at 7:53 am
Profgrrrl’s ode to work email rocked! And thanks for the shout out!
July 11, 2012 at 1:54 pm
I’d love to see the Grumpy Summer Reading List
July 12, 2012 at 10:43 pm
That post is scheduled for July 24th, so you’re in luck!
July 13, 2012 at 12:36 pm
YES!!!!!