21st-century Worksong: I’ve been workin’ and workin’ but still got so terribly long to go…
“Been workin’ and workin’ but still got so terribly long to go.” So runs the chorus of Worksong written in 1960 by Oscar Brown Jr and Nat Adderley. The context was a man jailed for the crime “of bein’ hungry and poor” who now works on the chain gang serving a sentence for murder. Listening to Paul Jones , once of Manfred Mann and now of the Blues Band, singing this song recently got me thinking about its relevance for us as workers in the 21st-century economy?
In previous blogs, we have addressed the number of people who are choosing, or being chosen for, a life of “freeforming”. There is an issue, or more properly a complex of issues, that affects all of us.
That issue is retirement — or the lack of it. Not so long ago, it was possible to retire - sometimes as young as 50 - and live off an index linked, final salary pension. Retirees in the last decades of the 20th century certainly had that possibility. That is no longer a possibility for many, maybe most of us.
One group of people that still have that possibility as Patience Wheatcroft , business editor of The Times points out in her column ‘Poor Old Public Sector? Give us a break’ (The Times 15th July 2005) is the ever growing public sector (up by 270,000 jobs in 2002-4) most of whom “are still scheduled to retire at 60 on guaranteed salary related pensions”.
More of us than ever now work for ourselves. Self-employment has always been a less dependable way of earning a consistent income and as a result, many self-employed people find it difficult to save for their retirement. As more work is outsourced and offshored and as their members are swelled by the self-unemployed, it will become more difficult for self-employed people to earn and save sufficiently to be able to retire.
Add to that a global pension crisis that is still unravelling and we have a recipe for real problems. In an article – ‘The Demographic Shape of Things to Come’ (Global Agenda Magazine) written in 2004, Adair Turner, Head of the UK Pensions Commission warned that “the world is relentlessly getting older with good and bad consequences.” Traditionally it has been those of working age who pay the pensions of the retired. For twentieth century pensions “the relationship of contribution levels to benefit levels was only sustainable on the assumption that each generation was larger than the one before”. The ratio between those aged 20 – 64 and those 65 or over is falling worldwide – the result of better healthcare and falling birth-rates, he notes and that puts pensions at risk.
Many companies in the UK have already closed their final salary (defined benefit) pension schemes to new members and some have closed down altogether. A report published in October,2004 by the UK Pensions Commission suggests that those that still exist could suffer a major shortfall. A shift to defined contribution schemes that depend on investments to purchase a pension on retirement and a trend to lower employer contributions lead to a potential gap between savings and pension needs of £30 - £60 billion in the UK (Sunday Times – 22/5/05).
Adair Turner at one stage suggested that knowledge workers might need to retire at 70 though this suggestion was quickly withdrawn. For many of us, retirement will not be an option at all. There is no guarantee of, or indeed desire for, state support for those affected by this. So here is where a social support network will come into its own helping people with coping, finding work and earning and balancing their work with other activity.
There is a wealth of experience in the grey heads and the numbers of older people will continue to grow relative to the younger age groups, so older workers should find that their expertise and their labour comes back into demand.
A number of initiatives already exist. The Silver Fox Network , set up by Dr Gerry Lemberg and Ian Coburn, aim to capitalise on the skills and experience of older workers in supporting new enterprise. Mike Burnage is setting up the Wisdom Bank to match ‘wisdom givers’ with ‘wisdom seekers’ after realising that “retiring at 65 without an interest could cut your life short”. Jim Tuffin is encouraging the ‘near retired’ to network with those who can use their skills and experience – perhaps for money and perhaps purely for participation and involvement.
These initiatives are underpinned by the existence of Social Business Networks such as Ecademy . There the development of friendships and support networks is encouraged to handle the important issues of emotional wealth whilst allowing work and available people to find each other to develop business. Since its inception over 7 years ago, Ecademy has lived the principle of people first, trade later – or to put it another way ‘Winning by Sharing’.
Posted by Andy Coote
Useful Reference Sources:
www.oscarbrownjr.com/WebPagesUS/poems.htm
www.thetimes.co.uk
www.globalagendamagazine.com/2004/adairturner.asp
www.pensionscommission.org.uk/publications/2004/annrep/index.asp
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1622625,00.html
www.silverfoxnetwork.com/
www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=47330
www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=44055
www.ecademy.com
Technorati - ecademy - blackstar - marketstar
In previous blogs, we have addressed the number of people who are choosing, or being chosen for, a life of “freeforming”. There is an issue, or more properly a complex of issues, that affects all of us.
That issue is retirement — or the lack of it. Not so long ago, it was possible to retire - sometimes as young as 50 - and live off an index linked, final salary pension. Retirees in the last decades of the 20th century certainly had that possibility. That is no longer a possibility for many, maybe most of us.
One group of people that still have that possibility as Patience Wheatcroft , business editor of The Times points out in her column ‘Poor Old Public Sector? Give us a break’ (The Times 15th July 2005) is the ever growing public sector (up by 270,000 jobs in 2002-4) most of whom “are still scheduled to retire at 60 on guaranteed salary related pensions”.
More of us than ever now work for ourselves. Self-employment has always been a less dependable way of earning a consistent income and as a result, many self-employed people find it difficult to save for their retirement. As more work is outsourced and offshored and as their members are swelled by the self-unemployed, it will become more difficult for self-employed people to earn and save sufficiently to be able to retire.
Add to that a global pension crisis that is still unravelling and we have a recipe for real problems. In an article – ‘The Demographic Shape of Things to Come’ (Global Agenda Magazine) written in 2004, Adair Turner, Head of the UK Pensions Commission warned that “the world is relentlessly getting older with good and bad consequences.” Traditionally it has been those of working age who pay the pensions of the retired. For twentieth century pensions “the relationship of contribution levels to benefit levels was only sustainable on the assumption that each generation was larger than the one before”. The ratio between those aged 20 – 64 and those 65 or over is falling worldwide – the result of better healthcare and falling birth-rates, he notes and that puts pensions at risk.
Many companies in the UK have already closed their final salary (defined benefit) pension schemes to new members and some have closed down altogether. A report published in October,2004 by the UK Pensions Commission suggests that those that still exist could suffer a major shortfall. A shift to defined contribution schemes that depend on investments to purchase a pension on retirement and a trend to lower employer contributions lead to a potential gap between savings and pension needs of £30 - £60 billion in the UK (Sunday Times – 22/5/05).
Adair Turner at one stage suggested that knowledge workers might need to retire at 70 though this suggestion was quickly withdrawn. For many of us, retirement will not be an option at all. There is no guarantee of, or indeed desire for, state support for those affected by this. So here is where a social support network will come into its own helping people with coping, finding work and earning and balancing their work with other activity.
There is a wealth of experience in the grey heads and the numbers of older people will continue to grow relative to the younger age groups, so older workers should find that their expertise and their labour comes back into demand.
A number of initiatives already exist. The Silver Fox Network , set up by Dr Gerry Lemberg and Ian Coburn, aim to capitalise on the skills and experience of older workers in supporting new enterprise. Mike Burnage is setting up the Wisdom Bank to match ‘wisdom givers’ with ‘wisdom seekers’ after realising that “retiring at 65 without an interest could cut your life short”. Jim Tuffin is encouraging the ‘near retired’ to network with those who can use their skills and experience – perhaps for money and perhaps purely for participation and involvement.
These initiatives are underpinned by the existence of Social Business Networks such as Ecademy . There the development of friendships and support networks is encouraged to handle the important issues of emotional wealth whilst allowing work and available people to find each other to develop business. Since its inception over 7 years ago, Ecademy has lived the principle of people first, trade later – or to put it another way ‘Winning by Sharing’.
Posted by Andy Coote
Useful Reference Sources:
www.oscarbrownjr.com/WebPagesUS/poems.htm
www.thetimes.co.uk
www.globalagendamagazine.com/2004/adairturner.asp
www.pensionscommission.org.uk/publications/2004/annrep/index.asp
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1622625,00.html
www.silverfoxnetwork.com/
www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=47330
www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=44055
www.ecademy.com
Technorati - ecademy - blackstar - marketstar
posted by Ste Andreassen at 1:53 PM
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