Feature Article: Are You -- or Someone You Know -- a Workaholic?
Bonus Feature: Working Beyond Retirement: For Money, Identity, and Purpose
Quintessential Site: Featured Career Web Site of this Issue
Quintessential Reading: QuintZine's Review of Career Books
The Career Doctor: Answering Your Questions
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search
Notes from the Editor: About this Issue...
We're introducing yet another semi-interactive quiz in this issue
and have also recently optimized the e-mail responses that quiz-takers
receive for several of our other quizzes. A technical glitch previously
prevented quiz-takers from being able to view their own responses
while trying to score the quizzes. We've fixed those now, so we hope
you enjoy these optimized quizzes:
The new quiz, which gauges workaholism, is part of an issue
about several mid-life and mid-career concerns. Dr. Randall Hansen's bonus feature looks
at working beyond retirement, and his book review focuses on "Downshifting,"
about ways to make our crazy lives a little less crazy.
--Katharine Hansen, Credentialed Career Master, Certified Electronic Career Coach,
and editor at
kathy@quintcareers.com
Feature Article: Are You a Workaholic?
Are You – or Someone You Know – a Workaholic?
by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Does this scenario sound familiar to you? You love your work and are responsible for multiple projects and tasks
that continue to be assigned to you or your group. You actually thrive on the multiple deadline pressures. Or
perhaps you hold multiple jobs or own your own business. Your work hours are long, your at-home hours short, and
your sleep hours few. Vacations and social visits with friends are a distant memory. Your only hobby is your job.
Working Beyond Retirement: For Money, Identity, and Purpose
by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Who knew my father was a pioneer? He was one of those lucky folks who was able to retire early
from the Bell System with a full pension. And instead of just retiring to his garden or the
golf course, he reinvented himself as a part-time professor, consultant, and speaker. And from what
career experts are now saying, this new form of retirement will become more of the norm, especially
as the baby boomers move into retirement age and reshape the image of retired workers, just as they
reshaped many other aspects of life and work.
In fact, Marc Freedman, author of
Prime Time,
describes how the baby boomers will transform how
society views retirement -- bringing about a new
image of aging, retirement, and the role of older
Americans in our society. He cites statistics that
show that in just a few years the number of folks
over age 50 will surpass a quarter of the U.S.
population. And the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
reports that baby boomers will be reaching the age
of 60 at the rate of one every seven seconds starting
in 2005. Many of these folks will be searching for
something beyond a leisurely retirement.
Not Yet Retired is a career-inspiration site for job-seekers 50 and above. The site promises
to "help you uncover ways to continue to be productive and add to your retirement nest egg, while enjoying
your golden years!"
Not Yet Retired includes information on starting a business, freelancing, finding a post-retirement
job, and much more, including a listing of teleclasses and a newsletter.
The site is dedicated to reinventing retirement and re-imagining the meanings of work.
Joanne Fritz, a not-yet-retired, retired entrepreneur, is the force behind Not Yet Retired. She started the
site in 2001 with her husband, Thomas Carbone, "to share the wealth of information we uncovered searching
for retirement alternatives." Carbone died of cancer in December 2003.
Americans are certainly part of a culture that rewards hard work.
Many of us had parents who instilled these work-ethic values into us --
by their words and actions. Many of us do not work "just" 40-hour work weeks,
nor do we regularly use all of our personal and vacation days (and don't
even mention sick days). Some of us have daily commutes that add
hours to our lives away from our home and families. And some of us
work multiple jobs. We are a society driven by income and other perks
and rewards.
And so there I was, working on the
Quintessential
Careers Workaholics Quiz, doing my usual balancing act of the
many hats I wear -- full-time professor, full-time publisher of Quintessential
Careers, part-time speaker and consultant -- when I stumbled upon a tiny
blurb about this wonderful book, Downshifting: How to Work Less and Enjoy Life More.
Read all of our Quintessential Reading book reviews.
Are You Reading Our Career Blog?
Have you read the Quint Careers Weblog (Blog)?
It consists of career and job-search news, trends,
and scoops for job-seekers, compiled by the staff
of Quintessential Careers.
The blog is a great way to stay posted on the most
recent events occurring in the career and employment fields.
Mark writes: "I have a problem that is kind of work-related but more to do with my family. I
love my job and my company seems to really appreciate me. My problem is that my wife complains that I am
simply not home enough and calls me a workaholic. She keeps making comments like, 'I think you love
your work more than me.' That's not true, but I have been known to forget some dinners and other stuff
when I am deeply involved in a project at work. I don't know what to do. Any thoughts?"
Clarence writes: "It's been more than 18 months since I last held a full-time job in the electronics
field. I have placed many, many resumes with employers. Many told me they have hiring freezes, most have cut
back and not hiring at all, and the rest are seeking individuals with core experience. Also, I'm 50 years
old. Question: Do I keep taking the rejections in stride and keep placing resumes, hoping for a break.
Or, should I drop my field and try to get a loan to go back to school and start over again at age 50?"
Kate writes: "Here's my situation. I have worked at the same company for the last 22 years. I'm 54 and ready
for a complete change in my life. I think I'm about to get a retirement package, and so I'm thinking of a
change to something related to helping people. I wouldn't mind going back to school. I don't know, and I don't know
where to start or how to figure out what I want to do. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Help!!"
Cathy writes: "For the first time in 23 years, I am conducting a job search that includes the
Internet. I understand the importance of having a resume in text format to submit where requested.
I am also hearing that most recruiters, employers, etc., prefer resumes now be submitted electronically.
Is this true? Maybe it's the old-fashioned marketer in me, but my tendency is to search the Web for jobs
and then send my resume the traditional way by mail so I can differentiate by different fonts, paper style, and other
appearance-related factors. Could this approach be working against me?
If so, even when I am asked to attach my resume as a Word document, I fear that various PCs will alter
formats, fonts, and spacing -- so it's back to the plain-Jane text, or is it?"
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
Exec-U-Net recently surveyed 278 executives about age discrimination. Here are their findings:
72 percent of executives fear being victimized by age discrimination.
40 percent are worried they will be forced into retirement due to age.
36 percent fear becoming too old to find a new job.
22 percent are concerned their skills are becoming outdated.
Companies will face a severe shortage of badly needed skills in this decade, unless they act now to entice
top-performing older employees to delay their retirements, according to a report from The Conference Board called
"Valuing Experience: How to Retain and Motivate Mature Workers."
The findings are based on the responses of 150 senior human-resource executives to an online survey -- 76 percent from
U.S. companies, 24 percent from other industrial nations. The survey participants were about evenly divided between
manufacturing/utility firms and service firms. More than 67 percent of the companies represented have worldwide
annual sales of $5 billion or more.
Of the 150 responding companies, 68 have workforces with 20 percent or more employees who are 50 years of age and above.
Among other findings:
81 percent do not deal with cross-generational issues in their diversity training.
More than two-fifths of survey participants have 30 percent or more employees who are 50 years of
age and above; 77 percent of this group are manufacturing firms.
Almost two-fifths of companies in the survey offer their employees early-retirement incentives.
Of that group, 64 percent say they offer them to "avoid downsizing," suggesting their aim is to cut
costs without wholesale dismissals.
The average retirement age in the companies represented is under 59.
The following 15 companies have been ranked as the best places for workers over age 50, based on
willingness to hire, career development and training, compensation, advancement and benefits:
Elsewhere: ABN AMRO North America (Chicago), Baptist Health (Coral Gables), The Hartford Financial (Hartford),
Howard University (Washington, DC), Principal Financial (Des Moines), Prudential Financial (Newark), The Stanley
Group (Muscatine, IA)
Information excerpted from "Bottom Line Personal."
If your school, organization, business or other
entity has a Web site, we welcome you to link to Quintessential Careers.
If you already have a link from your site, we want you to know we
appreciate it. If you don't have a link to us, please
send a request to your site's Webmaster to establish a
link to Quintessential Careers. Thanks so much!
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Link to Us page.
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QuintZine: Topics in Upcoming Issues
WATCH FOR feature articles on these topics in upcoming
issues of QuintZine:
* Dining etiquette
* Career Focus Quiz
* Pre-Employment Testing
* Exude Confidence in Interviews
* Reinventing Your Career at Midlife
* Building Your Brand
* Pros and Cons of Nontraditional Careers
* Nontraditional Career Paths for Men and Women
* Make Your College Application Shine
* Changing Landscape of College Admissions
* College Admissions Annual Report/Panel Discussion
* Internet Jobhunting Annual Report
* Top 5 Networking Strategies
* Quintessential Career Profiles of YOU, our readers
* Q&As with well-known career experts
* Book reviews
. . . and much, much more!
Don't ever want to miss another issue of QuintZine? Get a free subscription to
the email version of QuintZine by completing our
subscription form.
Ad: Quintessential Careers Career Coaching Services
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desiring to bounce ideas off of a career expert?
trying to discover the keys to career success?
Let Dr. Randall S. Hansen, The Career Doctor, help you work through all your college, career, and job-search concerns,
issues, and problems. He has helped hundreds of teens, college students, and experienced job-seekers identify obstacles, develop
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And for an economical online-only career-coaching alternative,
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Exec-U-Net recently surveyed 278 executives about age discrimination. Here are their findings:
