Thanks for your comment. It raises a really good point:

As part of a long-term HR strategy, companies need to create working conditions that would encourage baby boomers to remain active in the workforce for as long as they need/want to.

In the past year, I have worked on two projects where, from the client side, a retired manager was pulled back in to act as project manager during major facility re-engineering. These retired managers bring enormous experience to the table, not just general work/project experience, but experience specific to the company, its culture and customer service requirements. They played critical roles in the effort.

As for the generation labels, we used the labels as defined by Foote in the book, Boom, Bust and Echo. He distinguishes the “Bust” generation from “Gen-Xers”, arguing that Gen-Xers actually form the tail of the baby boomers - meaning their parents came of age at or just after WW2. They are currently 38-45.

He makes that distinction only to point out that Gen-Xers have a much different career landscape than the Bust generation. Whereas the Bust generation have opportunities born of boomer retirement; Gen-Xers have had a career held in check by the fact that there are plenty of people one step ahead of them in the corporate ladder.

Anyway, just throwing that out as fodder for discussion!

I’ve seen this argument over and over on the Internet. Some discussion is beginning about the fact that about 25 percent of boomers won’t have enough money to retire and others want to work; some part time and some in a new career. Human relations staff and managers need to be aware of these boomer needs and make plans that will fit the needs of older workers.

I write a blog for boomer consumers called The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide at http://boomersurvive-thriveguide.typepad.com.

Rita