Self-Help Group Looks for Jobs : Baby Boomers Join Ranks of 40-Plus
Baby boomers are often characterized as clinging obsessively to youth, but one can hold back the clock only so long.
The oldest boomers--those born during the post-World War II decade--have begun trickling into the ranks of Forty Plus, a self-help organization for out-of-work middle-age executives.
Baby boomers make up about 35% of the nation’s work force of 116.3 million, up substantially over 1976, when they comprised about 27% of a work force of 94.9 million.
The nonprofit Forty Plus organization has 13 chapters in the United States, Canada and England, each operating independently. The first was founded in New York in 1939. The Los Angeles-based Forty Plus of Southern California was founded in 1946, the first year of the baby boom. A chapter in Oakland was formed in 1969.
Younger People Coming
“We are just starting to see younger people coming,” says Rod Ream, a 44-year-old management consultant who is president of the Los Angeles chapter.
So far, he says, about a dozen have joined the organization’s 200 members, who swap contacts, tips on presenting themselves to potential employers and advice on how to write resumes. The average age of Forty Plus members is the mid- to upper-40s.
Their backgrounds are as diverse as those who preceded them: A maintenance supervisor for an idled steel plant, a hospital administrator who lost his job in a corporate takeover, an oil company lawyer left jobless by the slump in that industry.
Never Looked for Work
“By and large, these are people who have never had to look for work,” Ream says. “They’ve always been the ones interviewing applicants.”
Sandy Mills, 42, is one such case.
“Everything’s changing so much I have to look at other alternatives if I expect to have a positive future,” says Mills, a former marketing manager in the airline industry, which has been beset by financial problems.
“I’ve changed jobs before, but now it’s different,” Mills said Wednesday. “It’s not just a matter of picking up the phone, calling a few friends and finding out what slots are available.”
He is finding he must search and sell himself more aggressively to employers as he explores fields where he’s not known. One of those areas is the fast-growing health-maintenance-organization business.
Better Than Staying Home
He has been with Forty Plus since April and is enthusiastic about the guidance and moral support he’s received. “It’s a lot better than sitting at home, twiddling my thumbs and being scared.”
Ann Ransford, 44, director of Los Angeles-based Careers for Older Americans, which specializes in helping workers over 55, agrees with Mills.
“It’s an interesting situation,” she says. “I’ve seen it a lot in my peers. We were very success-oriented and had always been promised these years would be really wonderful.”
But they’re not wonderful for everyone.
“My husband was in the oil business. Need I say more? His company went bankrupt,” she says.
Turnover of members in Forty Plus is heavy.
But that is the whole idea of the group, officials say.
“Our secret desire,” says Ream, “is to place everybody and go out of business tomorrow. But we know that’s never going to happen.”
