The past two quarters have whizzed by! As a social entrepreneur in residence, I had hoped to learn a lot, and was not disappointed. Our first month comprised a wide array of speakers and meetings ranging from dementia, arthritis, polypharmacy, hearing loss, loneliness, care, to inclusive design, career ageism and longer working lives. Sadly within this hectic schedule, I was not able to get to know as many people as I would have liked to – in part due to the way it was all structured, and partly due to how various age groups interact. Interestingly, in a mixed cohort of 45+ people exploring possibilities, those of us older than 40 were not in the majority. And unless one actively manages for extroverts/introverts and the likelihood that people tend to gravitate to those who look and sound like themselves, it’s easy for cliques to form naturally, and perhaps even unconsciously.
In any case, I spent much of the next six weeks deep diving into the social care landscape (including parts played by the public sector and the charity/third sectors) in the UK – studying problems faced by informal carers and what’s not being addressed by existing or emerging solutions. While officially there are huge challenges in social care, I wanted to identify what could actually be solved by a start-up within the context of charities and public sector landscape. And after digesting a huge volume of research and speaking with people across the spectrum, I took the view this is purely within the domain of public policy and how care budgets are viewed (and prioritised) by government.
To avoid banking and fintech comfort zones drawing me towards a retirement finance or pension proposition, I made deliberate effort to look for a harder to define area: mid-life purpose. When I started my first job after university, the assumption was a 30 year career, with retirement somewhere mid-50s onwards. The unwritten guidelines were that you learned from the cohorts above you until you led the way, coached those less experienced and then handed over the baton. The reality, in a period of accelerated technological change, fragile corporate loyalties and increasing power distance is less forgiving.
A professional in their mid-40s today has probably been working for 23 years at least, and (if they have not already) meets the realisation they still have another 23 years to go before statutory retirement! Depending on circumstance (and sector), they’ve been working at pace in all areas of their life (work, childcare, parents etc) and are not likely to have the same expectations as when they first started work. Add to this ageism in the workplace, shrinking (or age-selective) learning & development, cohorts ‘right behind them’ and an increasing need for ‘work-life balance’ and there is an impending personal change ahead as we live longer.
For some, it may be about financial or professional survival. For others, it’s about purpose. What interests someone who has accumulated experience changes, but the work itself may not. And if financially comfortable (not necessarily rich enough to quit, but secure enough to make it work), money is important but not the main driver. Hence, finding renewed meaning can re-kindle the ambition and fires to match the energy of fresh graduates. Demographically, population shifts mean that there are more workers being ignored, pushed or leaving of their own accord than new young talent entering the workforce. And as the middle layer gets sacrificed in the wake of automation and maintaining quarterly profits, we lose the institutional knowledge and teaching necessary to imparted to the next generation!
What interventions could be designed to persuade the sandwich generation to proactively take time to acknowledge their strengths; recalibrate and renew purpose? Analysing research on attitudes to finances, learning, training and activity, I focused on motivation pathways to overcome midlife inertia – some way of making it easier for people to explore activities and social learning that helps them find purpose, financial resilience and wellbeing (midlife onwards). As part of my outreach to academics looking at motivation and midlife purpose, I was invited to join a multi-university Community of Practice around Flourishing and will be continue to keep up on concerns of employment and income.
Having already engaged with a few institutions looking at mid-life propositions in different ways, I had an idea of the gaps. Teaming up with an experimental psychologist we prototyped and piloted a digital proposition to a cohort of professionals from different sectors. The pilot cohort (diverse group of 45-59, employed, unemployed, self employed, multi-ethnic etc.) have been fairly positive and a significant percentage see this as support they would be willing to pay for.
However, events have moved swiftly and the pandemic has taken our attentions. I don’t believe that whatever form any proposition takes going forward, it could be effective during a prolonged crisis. With global priorities shifting over the next 12-24 months, mid-life purpose, in my view, will need to sit on the back-burner for now, overshadowed by health & environmental issues. Purpose will have to wait, for now.