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Tag Archive for: Work-Life Balance

Retirement Age Versus Marketplace Reality: The Elephant in The Room

Leadership
Retirement Age Versus Marketplace Reality: The Elephant in The Room- By Alexandra HumbelAlexandra Humbel

While the debate over extending the retirement age rages on in the French political arena, the reality screams one figure: Only one-third of the 60-64-year-olds are still working.

Is this new? Hell no. Against senior unemployment, “we have tried everything”… said a former French president thirty years ago. As stated by Jean-Francis Pecresse in Les Echos, “this calamitous admission on the fight against unemployment remains relevant to the specific employment level of the over-55s.”

We can only rejoice that the debate is finally widening to the reality of a labour market that is consistently getting rid of experienced workers to replace them (or not) with younger employees.

On the bright side, governments are now aware of the cringing gap between what is requested of experienced professionals, and the lack of opportunities available to them. The French government considers launching an index on equality between the ages, a tool that is quite effective to measure professional equality between women and men. Let us salute this initiative. Hopefully, governments will do what they are supposed to do to bring about change: Evaluate, incentivize, regulate, reform, and provide resources.

On the corporate level, one can shame and blame companies for their policies. But how does it help individuals? What are your career perspectives for the next decade? While governments govern and companies question their HR policies regarding age, experienced professionals must do their share of the work.

Hanging on to your seat in the hope of keeping your job as long as possible is just one way to stay in the game. It may not be possible. It may not even be desirable.

Where do you stand?

You don’t have to wait for the sky to fall in the form of a layoff. Change is going to happen anyway, whether you like it or not.

You are the only one in this situation. An entire generation is between a rock and a hard place, between the necessity to work longer and the lack of perspectives. However, only you know when it is a good time to figure out the next stage of your career.

When you start this reflection in a moment of relative calm, the work gets done, not from a place of fear, but from a place of anticipation. Not from a place of scarcity, but from a place of abundance.

Is now a good time?

by Alexandra Humbel
https://alexandrahumbel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/alexandra-humbel-elephant-in-the-room-career-change.jpg 1193 1600 Alexandra Humbel https://alexandrahumbel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/alexandra-humbel-logo.png Alexandra Humbel2022-10-18 09:01:232023-02-20 03:05:24Retirement Age Versus Marketplace Reality: The Elephant in The Room

7 Tell-Tale Signs You Need a Career Transition

Career Transitioning
7 Tell-Tale Signs You Need a Career Transition - By Alexandra HumbelAlexandra Humbel Coaching

You may be surprised to hear that most of my clients do not feel an urge to change careers because they hate what they are doing. Like them, you may feel it deep down, even though things are going smoothly. Work is good, pay is good, and the position is generally satisfying. Everyone else thinks you are in an enviable place and have no reason to change the status quo.

Here are some signals that should get you curious:

1. When asked about who you are and what you do, you deliver a conversational version of your CV, which starts to sound like a well-rehearsed loop. You actively mask your boredom behind a cheering tone, but something is just … off.

2. You avidly read articles and stories about people succeeding in another area, living a different life, or both. Your rational self tells you it is too late anyway and that this would require a massive set of skills you don’t have. But you persist in documenting the topic. Avidly.

3. You go through the moves at work because you have mastered what you do. But you are not completely at it. You are on auto-pilot more than you want to admit.

4. You wonder, so often this thought has become a part of the furniture in your mental space, whether you will do the same thing until retirement. The question remains open and makes you slightly anxious.

5. You are getting intrigued when you hear people talking passionately about the job you are doing right now. You used to be that passionate person. In the past.

6. You are experiencing more and more internal conversations starting with “What if… I was doing this different thing, living this different life, woke up every morning with this different agenda”. These internal conversations both scare you and make you feel incredibly alive.

7. You focus on small increments in your life, your health, your home, and your work. Without a sense of purpose, your energy focuses on fixing stuff while avoiding the fundamental question:

Why are you doing what you are doing?

If you experience some of these feelings, it may be time to ask yourself this question. There is no wrong answer. Money, status, convenience, and safety are valuable reasons to continue doing what you do. What else needs to be heard? Who is the person you would like to be? How far are you from becoming this person? Where would you be in a year if everything went as you wished? What are you ready to say “yes” to and say “no” to? How would it feel to remain in the same place for one year? Five years?

Every life-changing decision starts by being the best listener of your true feelings. Accepting the confusion and antagonist demands that will inevitably come out. It requires some guts to question the status quo of your life and work. If you do, you may be in transition already.

by Alexandra Humbel
https://alexandrahumbel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/alexandra-humbel-tell-tale-signs-you-need-career-transition.jpg 1004 1800 Alexandra Humbel https://alexandrahumbel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/alexandra-humbel-logo.png Alexandra Humbel2022-09-05 10:40:212022-09-05 11:12:237 Tell-Tale Signs You Need a Career Transition

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