It’s going to be a financial sector bloodbath.

The announcement Lehman Brothers, a once Wall Street titan, is filing for bankruptcy makes almost every employee wonder if their industry is safe.

Who would have thought 158 year old Lehman would ever not be a fixture in the financial world. But its future is unclear now. If the company liquidates, 25,000 workers will be out on the street.

Workers were already carrying their stuff out of Lehman last night, and one worker was quoted in the Financial Times saying, “I got a call from a senior executive and was told I should come in tomorrow, but that I should be prepared to pack my bags,” one investment banker leaving the building said. “No one knows what they are going to do, from kids in their first year out of college to senior managing directors, they are all in the same boat. It is just grim.”

And Merrill Lynch is going to be taken over by Bank of America. That means thousands of layoffs among Merrill’s 60,000 member workforce as well.

I wanted to write this post to workers who never considered doing anything else with their lives. The ones that thought they’d be working in the financial sector until they started collecting Social Security.

We workplace writers write a lot about how people are changing their jobs and trying new things, but the reality is few are able to make such a leap.

But for many of you traders, brokers and other number wizards, it may be time to start thinking about a new path. You can still use your big numbers’ brain, but you may have to redirect you career vision.

It got me thinking of Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. This guy used to sell Jell-O. Well, he was actually the vice president of marketing for General Foods.

This quote by Gioia is from my book, From the Sandbox to the Corner Office:

After 10 years in the business world, Gioia returned to the life of a full-time writer in 1992, publishing poetry and freelance pieces, but he walked away with something he says other managers did not have, creative thinking and qualitative thinking.

“Most people in business have a quantitative background, usually driven by mad power needs. Business is filled with would-be kings and a few statesmen. I realized most businesspeople don’t understand how creativity works. They think it’s wild and crazy.”

So how do you make that first step to something new?

Work/life balance consultant Mark Sincevich offers these strategies:

Stash the cash - It’s critical to save your money to cover the ramp-up to a new field.
Daily action - Start writing your plan on what you want to achieve.
Simplify - Have less ’stuff’ around and reduce the clutter. It’s much easier to change careers when you have less distractions that drain energy.
Visualize - Keep imagining how it will be in your new field.
Hang out with the can-do’s - Hang out with people who want to support you in your new endeavor and drown out the naysayers.

Alas, the highest hurdle may be your own negativity.

You have to get beyond the initial paralysis. “People say, ‘oh my god, I will never make enough money,’ or ‘I don’t know how to begin doing that’,” says Julie Jansen, author of I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This.

How do you begin even exploring a life long career dream?
How do you figure out how to make it happen?

These are two questions you need to analyze, Jansen adds. “I encourage people to dabble in it a bit before taking the plunge,” she explains. Maybe get certified, or take a part time job or volunteer in an area you’re interested in. Also, interview people in the field you want to check out, observe them, read books on the profession.

Jansen describes one of her clients who dreamed about becoming a florist and took a part time gig in a flower shop two days a week to test it out. She quickly figured out the business wasn’t for her because she hated waking up 4 a.m. in order to go buy flowers, which was a key to becoming a successful florist.

I’m not saying every employee in the financial services sector should be thinking about a new career. But, if you see little future for you in your industry, it’s time to get realistic and think about all your options. You may end up happier than you ever thought.

I understand why Sarah Palin, John McCain’s pick for his running mate, would want to sell the state’s private jet on eBay and I get that she may have seen little value in a bridge to no where.

But why would a working mom turn down a personal chef? IS SHE INSANE?

Do you see her family? They look like they eat to me.

Yesterday I thought I was pulling off a perfect super mom evening.

I was up to my ears with work but I figured if I made a simple meal I could finish work, feed the family and still do everything we all needed to do. My daughter had soccer practice at 5:30 p.m., it was also her open house at school that I planned to attend at 6:30, and my hubby had a 7 p.m. haircut appointment. The schedule allowed me about 25 minutes to cook if I could finish my work by 4:30 p.m., and then a 20 minute window for dinner.

I thought my menu was ingenious. Italian sausage with onions, sweet Bell peppers and fresh tomatoes on a crusty roll from the bakery. I estimated it would take minutes to prepare because all you do is saute everything in a pan, let it simmer a bit and presto, done. It would also include many of the food groups, especially if the kids drank their milk.

Well, the best laid plans always get screwed up, no?

It turns out I had not thawed the delicious Italian sausage I had purchased from the butcher a few weeks earlier. Some how I ended up thawing the spicy Spanish chorizo sausage that some how I forgot to label when I bought them months earlier.

I suspected something was amiss when I took the sausage out of the paper after they had thawed and noticed they had a deep, paprika-red coloring. In true mom form, I figured no one would notice and fed them to my six and eight year old with a sinking feeling in my stomach and a big smile on my face.

Oh the screams and wails of agony that ensued after the little buggers bit into their sandwiches. No problem getting them to drink all their milk because they downed a gallon to put out the fire after their tiny little bites of the meal.

For a second I toyed with the idea of forcing the kids to eat the spicy treat, knowing there was little time and no other choices at Eve’s short-order kitchen that evening. But then I figured my daughter would end up farting up a storm on the soccer field, so I decided to show mercy on the kids, and also on her coach and teammates.

I looked at the clock. It was 5:20, and my daughter, son and husband had to get the hell out of the house or they’d never make the practice. So I opened the fridge, spied the turkey cold cuts and threw a slab of meat at the kids. They scarfed it down, ate a little bread, sucked down the milk and everyone ran out the door.

I felt for a moment, as a sat at the table, like I had just survived a war or something. There were remnants of chorizo on plates, the floor and the table, and milk drops everywhere because the kids had scrambled to cool off their burning tongues. And I felt beaten, so tired from the crazy day at work and the rush to get dinner finished, only to have it go to waste. Ody the dog couldn’t eat it, he has a delicate stomach when it comes to spicy foods.

OK, I should have ordered pizza. But you can’t blame me for at least trying to prepare something sort of healthy.

My one piece of advice to all working mothers out there — When someone offers you a personal chef TAKE IT DAMN IT!! TAKE IT! TAKE IT! TAKE IT!

Given what I do, I get an endless stream of career books mailed to me every week. I’m not kidding folks, I have a stack that could crush my dog if it fell over.

People are always asking me to read their books and job seekers are always asking me what books they should buy to help their search.

I sometimes talk about books in the blog but now I want to make a concerted effort to include book reviews, written by me, my intern, or guest bloggers.

For the first review that’s part of this new formalized, initiative, I decided to have my intern Katherine Guiney, who is in college and still hasn’t quite figured out what to do with her life, to read a book I have often recommended called “What Color Is Your Parachute?” by Richard Nelson Bolles.

I figured it would be a great idea to see what a Gen Yer thought about a book that has helped so many Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. (It helped me when I was writing about underwear for a trade publication and I couldn’t figure out how to get to my dream job.)

So here’s the first review:

HELPING YOUR FLOWER BLOOM by Katherine Guiney
(“What Color Is Your Parachute? 2008: A Practical Manual for Job-hunters and Career-Changers.” by Richard Nelson Bolles)

“What Color is Your Parachute?” has been the title for many of Richard Nelson Bolles’ career guides over the years. But, as great as tradition is, Bolles may want to alter the title of his 2009 book ever so slightly. Instead, I was thinking “Finding Your Career by Finding Yourself,” or something equally as corny.

While my new title may remind you of an infomercial and may be a tad bit cheesy, it represents what the book is truly about: you. The problem many people have, including myself, it seems, is that they don’t know how to find a job that fits because they don’t know themselves. When searching for your dream job, Bolles says, “You will need only half the information you thought you would need about the job-market, but twice the amount of information you thought you would need about yourself.” In his 2009 edition of “Parachute,” Bolles seeks to help you solve this problem.

There are many exercises in Parachute designed to help you figure out who you are, but the one that seems the most beneficial, or at least the one I got the most out of, is the flower exercise. The flower exercise, or “That One Piece of Paper” as Bolles refers to it, has the reader list his/her favorite working conditions, favorite values/goals, favorite people to work with/serve, favorite areas of knowledge/expertise, salary and level of responsibility, and ideal locations to live. Each of these is a petal on the outside of the flower, while the center is a list of your transferable skills. Writing all these down is easy enough, and will do very little if you only list one or two things. However, Bolles doesn’t let you get away with this, (trust me, I tried). He dedicates the next 50 pages to probing your mind and teaching you, if you will, what to think about and what to list on your flower. In the end, even I, as a cynic and as one who didn’t do most of the exercises in the book, needed to draw a bigger flower.

In addition to helping you find yourself, Bolles includes the ‘how to find a job’ career advice. Apparently, although there are no right or wrong ways, there are the five best and the five worst ways to search for a job. Looking for employers’ job postings on the internet, which I am an expert in, is evidently #1 on the worst list. Oh well. At least now I know what I’m looking for in a job. I know I want to try to get into something dealing with book publishing. I found that I’d like to work in an environment where people are knowledgeable about what they’re doing, friendly and are part of a bigger whole. Given that I love books and can tolerate mass amounts of writing, book publishing may be the place for me. I’m also interested in traveling, politics and exercise, so maybe I can be incorporate that into the job too.

Here is the list of Bolles’ dos and don’ts –

Five best:

1. Asking for a job from: family members, friends, people in the community, stuff at career centers-especially at your local community college or the high school or college where you graduated. (33% success rate).
2. Knocking on the door of any employer, factory, or office that interests you, whether they are known to have a vacancy or not. (47% success rate).
3. By yourself, using the phone book’s yellow pages to identify subjects or fields of interest to you in the town or city where you want to work, and then calling up or visiting the employers listed in that field, to ask if they are hiring for the type of position you can do well (69% success rate).
4. In a group with other job hunters, a kind of “job-club,” using the phone book’s yellow pages to identify subjects or fields of interest to you in the town or city where you are, and then calling up or visiting the employers listed in that field, to ask if they are hiring for the type of position you can do, and do well (84% success rate).
5. Doing a life-changing job hunt (86% success rate).

Five worst:
1. Looking for employers’ job-postings on the internet (4-10% success rate).
2. Mailing out resumes to employers at random (7% success rate).
3. Answering ads in professional or trade journals, appropriate to your field. (7% success rate).
4. Answering local newspaper ads (5 to 24% success rate).
5. Going to private employment agencies or search firms for help (5 to 28% success rate).

I have to say that if there’s one thing Bolles’ book instills in you, it’s confidence. Confidence that, although it may take a while, you will find a job. Confidence that, with some effort, you can find one you actually like.

What if a computer program monitored every move made by Kay Krill, the CEO of retail chain AnnTaylor? What if it tracked all the time she wasn’t actually working during her work day…that cup of coffee with her CFO, or the trip to the bathroom?

And what if that computer spit out information that would allow AnnTaylor’s board members to cut back her hours as a result of the findings, let another executive handle her load, and dock her pay accordingly?

You guys probably think I didn’t have enough coffee yet this morning. But it’s not lack of caffeine that’s got me pondering this scenario.

It turns out AnnTaylor is using such a system but not on Krill. It’s being used on the retailer’s sales force.

There are few things that get under my skin more than treating workers like their animals to be whipped.

Performance metrics. Efficiency boosters. All this lingo translates into a lack of respect for the rank and file.

The Wall Street Journal today has a story on how retailers, including AnnTaylor, are using these types of systems to squeeze every productive second out of their workers.

This is the actual headline: “Retailers Reprogram Workers in Efficiency Push.”

I know the headline writers at the Journal are trying to be witty, and I guess the headline is, but it’s also insulting, insulting to all free-minded workers out there.

The writer of the story Vanessa O’Connell makes a case for how these types of systems will become a mainstay in retail and 15 million workers in retail better get ready.

She does a great job showing both the management and employee side of the story.

Such “workforce-management” systems are sweeping the industry as retailers fight to improve productivity and cut payroll costs. Limited Brands Inc., Gap Inc., Williams-Sonoma Inc. and GameStop Corp. have all installed them recently. Some employees aren’t happy about the trend. They say the systems leave them with shorter shifts, make it difficult to schedule their lives, and unleash Darwinian forces on the sales floor that damage morale.

This in an industry that already pays workers barely above minimum wage, and benefits are a rarity since so many of the people that take these jobs only work part time.

I know businesses all across this country are struggling but sticking it to workers isn’t a nice or smart thing to do.

Basically, the system tracks what workers are selling on average per hour and then assigns the big money makers to the busiest times of the day. For one worker quoted in the story who tends to spend a lot of time with customers and gets big pay offs one hour, and little the next, she’s pretty much screwed and eventually left the company as a result of the new system.

Even management knows this is a jerky thing to do to its workers.

AnnTaylor calls its system the Ann Taylor Labor Allocation System — Atlas for short. It was developed by RedPrairie Corp., a retail-operations software firm based in Waukesha, Wisc. “We liken the system to an airplane dashboard with 100 different switches and levers and knobs,” said AnnTaylor’s Mr. Knaul. “When we launched that, we messed with five of them.” Giving the system a nickname, Atlas, he said, “was important because it gave a personality to the system, so [employees] hate the system and not us.”

I have news for you Mr. Knaul, your workers aren’t stupid. They know exactly who to hate for the stupid system and it’s not an inanimate object.

A blogger took a cheap shot at me recently. He said one of my stories was “sloppy journalism.”

It really sucks when you come across information about yourself and it’s anything but flattering. Maybe someone blogs about what an idiot you are because they don’t like something you said in a blog, or in a research paper. Or maybe you have skeletons in your closet and someone’s decided to expose those in cyber space; or you got in trouble with the law and when someone Googles your name a small story from a local paper about what you did comes up. Or those suggestive photos of yourself you put on MySpace when you were 17 are now making the cyber rounds.

I was researching a story on how to erase negative information about yourself on the Web and a source made a good point about how you can combat bad things without actually erasing information.

“What to do when you don’t like the impression given by your online persona?,” asks C. David Gammel, a corporate technology consultant. “The counterintuitive response is the best: post even more content about yourself online.”

However, he adds, “the content should be of a nature that is at least neutral at best positive for your career prospects. Blog about your professional interests. Discuss research you have conducted yourself on a topic of interest. You get the idea. Since Internet skeletons are forever you have to bury them in more content that creates the impression you wish to have online. Once the less savory items are pushed off your first page of ego search results on Google you’ll be fine with most people. That’s why you have to post more, not less, to get rid of the impact of those skeletons.”

So, back to someone dogging the CareerDiva on the Web.

I came across a blog post written by Mark Story, a communications expert and adjunct faculty at the School of Continuing Studies at Georgetown University, that blasted a story I had written for MSNBC.com about social networking overload.

Here’s the post:

OK. Now I have to write about it.

Two people have sent me an article from MSNBC from last week entitled “Beware of social networking overload.” The author is Eve Tahmincioglu (imagine having to pronounce that last name for your teachers), but this article is maddening to me.

I am of the school that increasingly, “traditional” journalism is more about having headlines designed to garner eyeballs or sell papers — and this article proves my point. Among the things that Eve brings up are the following points:

Here’s what people have been asking me lately: “Is it enough just to be on LinkedIn and Facebook?” “I just got an invite from a friend who’s on Plaxo. What is it and should I join?” “Will I dilute my networking effectiveness if I’m on MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter?”

I know, there’s a hint of desperation in the air because of the tough economy, and everyone wants to have lots of connections just in case layoffs are looming. But beware. You might end up with social networking overload.

AAAARRRGGGGHHHHH.

I have said this in my class before and will say it to anyone who will listen: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS “INFORMATION OVERLOAD” IF YOU DO NOT ALLOW IT TO EXIST.

Point #1: plenty of people, myself included, choose to be on Facebook, LinkedIn,Twitter and other social networking sites (I am experimenting with Identi.ca too), and I have a blog too. These are opt-in/optional tools, however. Sure there are some of my Tweeps out there who spend way too much time bouncing back and forth, but no one is twisting their arms. And almost every single social media relationship into which I have invested time and effort has led to meeting someone in “first life.” And I don’t mean dating, I mean things like participating in Blog World Expo (shameless plug, but I’ll be speaking there in September).

Point #2: this is sloppy journalism. There are plenty of aggregator sites out there like FriendFeed that do the work for you and pull all of this together. I check the automatic email or the site once every couple of days to see what the people in my online social networks are up to. Aggregator sites put everything in one place.

Point #3: “There is desperation out there about the economy?” Nice tie in. Sure, there is. But being on a social network is only (if you are lucky) ten percent of what is required to get a good job - and many postings on things like Facebook (keg stands) can have the opposite effect in terms of getting in the door for an interview.

Final point: do your research, Eve. Overload only exists when you choose to let it. And there are plenty of ways to pull everything into one place so you can keep up with all of your buddies online.

Mark

Oh man, did I get angry when I read this. I sat there wondering what to do. Should I respond on Story’s blog or just send him a nasty email? Or should I do nothing? I’m a journalist after all and we need thick skin. I’ve been called worse by people in the business world and beyond.

But then I wondered about how the blog post might be perceived by others who came upon it. This guy taught at Georgetown for heaven’s sake. What he had to say really didn’t help my reputation.

When I calmed down I decided to write a response on his blog. I’m a blogger after all and should put all the information I can out there, especially about my work and my reporting.

Here’s my comment:

Hey Mark,

I don’t enjoy being called sloppy but I’m open to any criticism if I can learn from it and get better at what I do. I’m not sure your criticism here really helped me out but I’d be interested in hearing more.

It’s great to hear you’re able to keep up with so many social networking sites, but alas, not everyone can, aggregators or not.

I have gotten tons of emails from people who believe they need to have hundreds of friends on every site out there and the thought of it is driving them crazy. The bottom line is they don’t.

Because of what we do we have to luxury to play around with all these new great sites, but there are many professionals out there scrambling to keep their jobs or find new ones that don’t.

If I had time, I would definitely attend the Blog Expo, being I’m a blogger myself. I would have stopped by to say hello.

And by the way, my name is pronounced, tach-min-gio-lou.

Best,
Eve

I waited a bit to see if Story would post my comment, and he did in fairly quick order.

“That was the end of it,” I thought. There are many schools of thought on how you should respond to negative info about you on a blog. Some worry that you may be goading a blogger into write even more bad stuff about you if you take the blogger to task. Others believe you should always get your side out no matter what the cost.

I decided to write my piece and let the Internet gods judge.

To my surprise I got an email from Story a couple of days later. The email actually made me a bit misty.

Hi Eve,

I posted on your blog (couldn’t find a contact me link - could just be me), but the bottom line is that your polite and measured response to my post cemented the fact that what I wrote was a cheap shot. And I apologize for it.

Where I come from, when you make a mistake, you own up to it. And I will. Expect a post, to be published on Monday, with a big apology in it. My response to your comment is here at the bottom: http://tinyurl.com/64jtmq.

And now that I have visited your blog, learned more about you and your experience, I have a big, fat egg on my face. And I will make it right.

Best,

Mark Story

OK, I have to admit I was totally shocked. I never imagined he’d even email me, let alone admit to going a bit too far.

His response meant several things to me.

First off, it renewed my faith in journalism. The profession has taken a beating lately as traditional media tries to adapt to the ever changing digital world of information. There’s a lot of bad journalism filling the cyber airwaves and you wonder if all this information is really sparking an inclusive debate for the citizens of the world, or if we’re just making each other dumb and dumber. But he gave me hope. Here was Story, his readers and me having a conversation. He questioned me. I questioned him, and ultimately, we had a deeper exchange about social networking.

Secondly, it shows that countering bad stuff about youself on the Web can sometimes payoff. When someone comes across the “sloppy” post they’ll also see Story’s mea culpa. So get out there and start getting your story out.

And thirdly, despite the recent rancor between Democrats and Republicans vying for office, we don’t live in a world where everyone is so tied to what they freakin say and believe that they won’t listen to the other side.

I know, this post I’m writing now would be a lot different if Story had responded to my post on his blog with a “bite me Eve.”

But he didn’t so this is how my post ends.

My hats off to Story, who really did write another post on me today.

Here it is:

I Was Wrong. Sorry, Eve.
September 08th, 2008 | Category: In the news, Online public relations, social media

In a moment that was likely based on blogger hubris and too much caffeine, a few weeks ago, I blogged about an MSNBC piece on social media overload and called it “sloppy journalism.”

The point that I was attempting to make in the post is that there are enough tools and aggregators out there to eliminate social media overload. FriendFeed and other tools can put it all in one place. Almost as soon as I wrote it, some regular readers chimed in and politely took me to task; the article was note written for propeller-heads such as myself, but for people for whom social media may indeed create overload.

Among the initial comments were:

* Jonathan Trenn said: You’re an online strategist, a PR pro, a social media practitioner. Being networked on all these sites is in your professional blood. In addition, you likely feel somewhat required to take part in all of these networks because it’s tied into what you do for a living. She’s likely writing that piece for a lot of the working professionals who are getting all sorts of information on this network, on that service, etc.
* Jenn Zingsheim said: I agree that this seems to be sensationalist journalism, but Jonathan has a really great point. I find that when I’m talking about what I do to friends & family, they get quickly lost when I’m describing all the different networks. They like to package things neatly into boxes (”…ok, so Flickr does photos, LinkedIn is professional, Facebook is college…what? It’s not just college? and you have professional connections there too?…I thought that’s what LinkedIn was for…” etc.)

And then, yesterday, the author of the original article, Eve Tahmincioglu wrote a polite and measured response to my posting which was critical of her piece (which I am listing in its entirety):

*

Hey Mark,

I don’t enjoy being called sloppy but I’m open to any criticism if I can learn from it and get better at what I do. I’m not sure your criticism here really helped me out but I’d be interested in hearing more.

It’s great to hear you’re able to keep up with so many social networking sites, but alas, not everyone can, aggregators or not.

I have gotten tons of emails from people who believe they need to have hundreds of friends on every site out there and the thought of it is driving them crazy. The bottom line is they don’t.

Because of what we do we have to luxury to play around with all these new great sites, but there are many professionals out there scrambling to keep their jobs or find new ones that don’t.

If I had time, I would definitely attend the Blog Expo, being I’m a blogger myself. I would have stopped by to say hello.

And by the way, my name is pronounced, tach-min-gio-lou.

Best,
Eve

Just like the old saying goes, if one man calls you a jackass, pay no attention. If three people call you a jackass, buy a saddle. So I am going saddle shopping later today.

I’ll say publicly what I posted in the comment thread and what I emailed: my post was a cheap shot and Eve responded politely and without rancor. And the fact is that Eve, Jonathan and Jenn were right: it’s easy for me to dismiss social media overload because I live in a different world. Given time to think about it, my response is akin to my accountant saying to me, “There’s no such thing as difficulties in doing your taxes because Microsoft Excel is so easy to use.”

I was wrong, period, and am eating a big crow sandwich. After I researched Eve a little, I discovered that she has her own blog, has published a book, and is well-thought of enough to have column on MSNBC and is clearly somewhat of an expert in the career field.

And to top it all off, when subject of a pithy post, Eve is unfailingly polite.

So where I come from, when you’re wrong, you apologize. Sorry, Eve.

Mark

When I was in my teens I remember taking the bus to Flushing, Queens, with my grandfather to the unemployment office. He used to work for a clothing factory cutting fabric.

I love and respected him more than any other man in my life at the time. He worked hard and was an honorable man. And he never felt even an inkling of shame when it came to collecting his unemployment benefits.

He understood how the system worked. During tough economic times in the 1970s, his factory and many others around the nation, had to lay off workers from time to time, and there was a safety net for people like him who still wanted to provide for their families — an unemployment check.

We can all end up in his position today, especially during this economic downturn. The U.S. jobless rate jumped to a five-year high of 6.1 percent in August and 84,000 people received pink slips.

I hope all the individuals out there that need the money make their way to their unemployment offices. And do it with your head held high. Don’t worry, you’ll find another job if you stay positive. But for now, accept a little help.

Just in cases you’re wondering how this works, go to this great overview from Alison Doyle, the workplace writer for About.com:

She offers a great, simple overview on what it is:

The purpose of unemployment insurance is to provide workers, who are unemployed through no fault of their own, with monetary payments for a specific period of time or until the worker finds a new job.

I typically focus on ways to enhance your career and your work-life balance in my blog, but I’ve decided to start adding occasional posts on the other end of the spectrum…retiring.

OK, many of us may be too young to consider it, and still others may want to work until the day we drop dead. But most of us look forward to the day we don’t have to dress up and attend another meeting, or performance review, etc.

As a kickoff to my retirement coverage, I decided to include a guest post from a woman, who was once a high-powered executive, and is now in retirement nirvana.

I interviewed Janet Banks recently about an article she co-authored for the Harvard Business Review about layoffs and middle managers. I wrote about it for MSNBC.com. But our discussion veered off a bit. We talked about what she faced having left the Corporate World behind, and the many people that have been asking her about her experience, so I suggested she write a post for me about her step into retirement.

Banks was a managing director at FleetBoston Financial; a former vice president at Chase Manhattan Bank; and she was an executive coach and organizational consultant.

Her retirement story is unique to her experience and her financial and personal lot in life, but I believe we can all learn from what she learned about retirement.

Here’s her post:

“Four Questions to Consider Before Retiring”

Janet Banks
janetbanks@mac.com

“No more endless meetings of monumental insignificance. No more rants about the boss, budget cuts and layoffs,” I tell my younger Boomer friends, those hoping that the volatile market, college tuition bills and the health of aging parents won’t ruin their plans to retire. I’m lucky to be in the narrow slice of my generation who had the means to shift from thirty-five years of work into this new chapter where the choices are mine. I’m five years out and I’ve never been happier, even though I’m making it up as I go along, without a retirement role model in sight. As a former corporate executive who is also female, I’m used to being ahead of the curve – and that’s why I’ve begun to write about my experiences. I salute people who love their work and hope to die with their boots on, but here are four important questions I’ve posed to those who have asked me for advice about retirement.

Do you have a partner and/or a social network of people who you want to spend more time with, who will have the same availability you’ll have once you leave work? One of the reasons my husband and I retired was to enjoy each other’s company. The sudden deaths of close friends and an accident in a Boston cab spotlighted the fragility of our lives. Even with a terrific partner, I felt lonely after the euphoria of the first three months. I needed friends who were peers, experiencing similar life challenges, and although I knew men who had retired, I wished I had other retired businesswomen to talk to. Lunches back at the bank with former colleagues, listening to rumors about acquisitions and reorganizations were depressing after the first couple of dates. It took two long years to develop a new group of women friends, most of who never worked in business – and that’s been wonderfully enriching. Writing classes and a women’s spirituality group offered me shortcuts to friendships that might have taken me decades to develop – which leads us to the next question.

Are you motivated by a sense of purpose? Free time can be exhilarating or a black hole. Goals are as important in retirement as they were when I was working. I didn’t want to continue the same kind of work I’d been doing. I wanted to experience a new beginning. My goals are to write, to become physically vital through regular exercise, to contribute help where it is needed, to continue learning, and to enjoy people I love. I think Boomers are being set up to feel guilty when they retire if they aren’t re-wiring themselves, transforming America and solving world hunger. I’m not against these efforts, but I’ll offer an alternative framework for setting goals in retirement: do what makes you happy. Being endlessly lazy won’t bring you joy, but being mindlessly busy won’t either. Experimenting has been key for me, and I’ve learned to say no if what I’m trying isn’t a fit. Time is limited and aging is a given, regardless of reports that sixty is the new forty. I also need quiet, to be free of commitments, so that I can listen to myself and to others, so I can be awake to what I value in life – a life that I know isn’t going to last forever. It is a luxury – it is what I longed for when I worked twelve-hour days.

Are you living within your means and saving enough money to provide for your future, regardless of what happens to Social Security or the stock market? No more paychecks or bonuses. I admit to having been terrified when these stopped after having worked every year of my life past college, living paycheck to paycheck for most of those years. What helped was that my husband and I practiced for two years, living on what we assumed we’d have available for the next thirty years. We didn’t spend the income we earned at the peak of our careers. We also agreed that we’d rather live in a trailer with a couple of lawn chairs and a black and white TV than go back to jobs like we left. We come from humble backgrounds, and are in sync with each other about our finances. Amassing wealth was not a goal, nor was buying a second home or other big-ticket luxuries that many of our business friends sought. We paid off our condo, eliminated all debt and know we can reduce our run rate significantly if we need to. We sleep at night, confident and very grateful that we’ve been fortunate enough to save for this time of our lives.

Are you willing to give up the perks? The identity I’d built over a thirty-year career evaporated the night after my retirement party when I hung my St. John suit in the closet, where it still hangs, waiting for a wedding or funeral, when I might wear it again. I miss the wonderful people I worked with – not just those I knew well, but the whole community that I’m no longer a part of. I hired fantastic assistants during my career that simplified the complexity of schedules, travel, budgets and computer glitches. I could go on…When my husband and I meet new people, they ask what he did before he retired. Hearing that he’d been an executive, it is assumed that I’ve been a stay at home mom. My competitive blood boils and then I let it go. The titles, the prestige associated with international jobs and companies aren’t pertinent any more, except for the perspective gained from the experiences. Now I’m a beginner – not an expert, sitting in creative writing classes, soaking up feedback from young classmates and teachers. I do miss having a sense of mastery – I think that’s just human, but learning is more fun. I get a chance to use my old expertise when former staff members call me for some mentoring or for a reference, or when a friend needs some perspective about her organization. I enjoy helping – no fees required.

I began preparing for retirement during my mid-fifties so that I could leave corporate life and live my sixties with the level of personal freedom I’d been craving. I’m looking forward to what I can create, not backwards to what I used to have. Emotionally supportive family and friends, financial security and challenging goals that keep me learning, are the reasons that I’m enjoying retirement.

There’s been a lot written on how Generation Y is transforming the workplace. They don’t want what their parents wanted, but it looks like they may not really know what they want. (By Gen Y I mean those of you born roughly between 1982 to 1994.)

A new Gen Y survey found that 70% of recent graduates leave their first jobs within two years. College career-services company Experience Inc. released the survey yesterday that also revealed:

* 43% of Gen Y are not in the career they expected to be in after college, either because they couldn’t find a job, or another opportunity presented itself.
* 60% are currently looking for another job or career, despite the fact that 57% indicated that they are also happy at their current job.

So what do these numbers tell us about this generation?

Personal branding expert Dan Schawbel has some thoughts:

1. They leave their options open, ready to snag the best opportunity possible, regardless of their current employer.
2. They are branded as “disloyal” and demand a lot from their employer to even stay a few years.
3. They are not taught how to secure a job that matches their passion in College, so they jump around from company to company in search of the perfect job.
4. They realize that there is no job security anymore and that no employer will take care of them forever, which is different than what gen-X’ers were told (who are putting in 10+ years at a single company).

I think it’s a great thing that they don’t want to play by the rules. But it also can suck for a young person if they just keep trying out jobs/careers without ever figuring out what they really want.

My intern Katherine, who’s in college, is trying to figure out what she wants. I recently gave her a copy of “What Color Is Your Parachute” to help her on her journey. I know, it’s an old book, but it really helped me. She’s going to review the book in this blog next week so you’ll all be able to find out if it’s worth anything to the Gen Yers.

The reason I bring the book up is it helped me when I got out of college. I didn’t know what direction to take with my career path. I knew I wanted to be a journalist but the rest was a bit murky.

There’s nothing wrong with testing the waters early on in your career. But sometimes I get the feeling people are trying so hard not to be part of the norm that they shoot themselves in the foot. Sort of like, you keep changing your underwear but your butt still stinks.

So do a bit of career homework. It’s a smart idea to take stock of your abilities and interests and figure out what job would best suit you. Look at it like you’re writing a paper and the topic is you. Research you and even talk to friends, family, and people you admire about you to figure out what you wants.

There’s a whole cottage industry that has been spawned around understanding Gen Y. Employers want to know how to hire, manage and deal with you wacky kids. There are endless Gen Y websites and experts blah blahing about what you need. I don’t remember just reading articles about and by people my age when I was in my early twenties. While I loved hanging with my contemporaries and slam dancing together at the local clubs, I looked at the whole world as my learning fields.

It’s time for you all to stop answering surveys and allowing yourselves to be put under microscopes like some sort of new strand of bacteria, and figure out what will make you happy.

There’s nothing wrong with switching jobs. I did it early on. And Schawbel says it can help expand your “knowledge, professional relationships and overall experience.”

But wouldn’t it be nice to bypass one or two jobs along the way that you probably would get little out of and just waste precious time? It’s possible, if you take time to paint even a partial picture of the career you want. It’s no guarantee you’ll end up on a straight path to career nirvana but it will go a long way in mitigating your inner suffering.

I hate this question: How old do you think I am?

No matter what you say you’re screwed. Either you come off as lying because you guessed an age that’s too young, or you hurt the person’s feelings when you guess their real age or older.

I recently met a colleague of mine in Manhattan to network a bit. I’ve talked to this guy many times on the phone but I had never met him in person.

I’m a big believer of meeting face to face whenever you can to help build real networking relationships. The phone and email don’t cut it for solidifying bonds.

We got on the topic of plastic surgery, and I told him I’d been blogging recently on what a stupid idea surgery was for people trying to look younger so they could land a job. He confided in me that he had work done on his face, and stressed that given the TV appearances he does he couldn’t not go under the knife.

That’s when it happened. He asked me the dreaded question. “How old do you think I look?”

URGH! I sat there for a moment, wondering how I could get out of answering his question. But he insisted, with a broad smile, “Come on, go ahead. Tell me what you think?”

If you’ve been reading my blog regularly, or you know me well, you know I’m pretty honest, brutally honest sometimes.

I figured, here we are talking about job opportunities and plastic surgery, so I felt I had to be honest with the guy.

I said, “You look around 51.”

His body sank a bit, and his smile disappeared.

“I am 51,” he said, deflated. “People always think I’m in my early 40s.”

“OK,” I thought. “Those people are lying to you.” (I didn’t share this thought, figuring it was time to stop the honesty train.)

When I got home and told my husband the story, he said, “Oh well, you lost that contact.”

It got me thinking. How honest should we be in business settings when more personal conversations arise? Should an employee be honest when a boss asks how old she or he looks? Is honesty a really good idea when we’re socializing with colleagues or sharing small talk with managers or co workers?

“When we’re growing up we’re told to tell the truth,” says Nancy O’Reilly, a clinical psychologist and author of upcoming book “Timeless Women Speak: Feeling Youthful At Any Age.” But as we grow older, she adds, if you’re too honest you’re considered not very diplomatic.

There’s a fine line between the two and our job is figuring out where that line is, she advises.

When it comes to your job, your job performance, and touting your credentials in an interview or resume, she notes, you have to be extremely honest. But when someone asks you if you like their new hat, it’s wisest to fudge a bit.

“I would say something like, ‘hats are great for some people. I know so and so who has lots of hats,’” she recommends.

UPDATE: My good buddy who’s a high powered attorney had a great tip — “I would say, ‘oh is that new? Where did you get it from?’”

If a boss or colleague keeps pushing you for a more direct answer, the best thing to do is find a way to change the topic and walk away.

On the flip side, people who pressure colleagues or ask personal questions in business settings are being inappropriate, O’Reilly points out, and they shouldn’t be upset if they get an honest and direct answer.

But human nature is human nature, she adds, and you could end up pissing off a boss or a colleague if you’re too honest.

How true. My friend with the face lift hasn’t returned my email.

No matter what you think about John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin for vice president, we all have to admit, it was inspiring to see a woman given props by a male-dominated political establishment.

I got goosebumps for a moment when I was sitting with my husband and children at a local diner listening to McCain’s announcement about Palin.

A woman as a vice presidential nominee. A black man running for the top spot. Who wouldn’t think for a moment that the world is finally changing.

Alas, reality hit hard just a few hours later when I pondered whether a woman in such a high-ranking position in the United States would really do much to shrink the wage gap between men and women, or garner more respect for female-dominated professions like teaching and nursing.

During her speech after McCain announced his pick, Palin talked about finally giving women what they deserve.

“Maybe we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all,” she said, and the crowd roared.

Having a woman vice president would be a great touchstone for woman, especially young woman who too often don’t think they can attain their career dreams. But women as political figure heads don’t just translate into gains for woman at large.

Look at Germany.

Angela Merkel is the Chancellor of Germany but the country has one of the largest wage gaps between men and women in all of Europe.

This from a New York Times story today:

It is just one of the disparities between working men and women, especially mothers, that government and union leaders say is creating a drag on female participation in the work force and, consequently, on economic growth, at a time when Germany may be teetering on the edge of recession. And they point to a range of societal and governmental barriers that are hindering change.

Ingrid Sehrbrock, deputy chairwoman of the German Federation of Trade Unions, calls German pay inequity a “scandal.” Europe’s commissioner for employment and social affairs, Vladimir Spidla, recently called on German employers “to really apply the principle of equal pay for equal work.”

A clutch of new data suggests that Germany is going in the opposite direction. While the wage gap between women and men is narrowing across the European Union and in the United States, it is stagnant in Germany.

Since 2000, German working women on average have gone from earning 26 percent less than men to making 24 percent less than men in 2006, the last year for which statistics are available, according to data provided by the government statistics bureau, Destatis.

The article talks about the different reasons for the disparity, everything from outright bias to the need for better child care options. The government there has announced plans to help finance child care programs and paid benefits for parents who take time off.

But there’s a bigger problem in Germany, and one that has been swelling in our country as well. There’s been a growth in negativism against woman who have children and choose to continue their careers.

The Germans can be cruel in this regard. This again from the Times:

Mothers who work are sometimes derided as Rabenmutter, or “raven mothers.” The phrase — based on the erroneous belief that ravens fly away, leaving their nests behind — refers to women who pursue careers instead of being homemakers.

While American’s don’t have a catchy name to deride working mothers, we’ve all heard similar sentiments before. Many conservative pundits who are also mothers but have the luxury of working and enjoying their careers, while they tell others they should be staying home with their children, have filled the airwaves for too long.

Unfortunately, Palin herself has come under fire by conservatives who believe she should be staying home and getting her family in order before she tries to take on the job of vice president.

It’s an interesting twist. A devoutly conservative candidate now having to answer to the very group she panders to. But it says something about how far we still have to go before women can be treated as equals. Few have raised the issue of whether her husband could handle those responsibilities at home while she deals with matters of the nation.

Laura Bush seemed to do OK on her own while President Bush was busy running the country.

So don’t expect too much to come from a woman leader. There’s just so much one woman in a sea of men can do. The rest of us will also have to get off our butts and demand what we want, and not feel pressured by people who don’t understand our personal dreams, what ever they may be.

What’s your take? Am I not giving enough credit to a potential female vice president?