aging

Wednesday Bubble: Reinventing Women Open Call

Posted by Liz on Jan 9, 2013 in aging, Work/occupation | 3 comments

Did you catch Monday’s post about Hessie Jones and the path she’s taking to reinvention? If not, you don’t want to miss it!

I’m introducing a new series on Flashfree — Reinventing Women — and I want to talk to you! I want to hear about the career changes you’ve made in midlife, the ‘why,’ ‘what,’ and ‘how’ as well as any other nugget of wisdom that you might impart to others considering a similar reawakening.

Consider this Wednesday Bubble yours’ to burst; this is an open call.

If you are a woman, age 44 or older and want to share your story of your work transition (or transitions), drop me an email at flashfree111@gmail.com. Tell me a little about you, your age and what you used to do (and what you are doing now). I am hoping to find at least 10 more women willing to share their stories, their triumphs, their failures and their lessons.

Reinventing Women. It’s a new movement and it’s all about you!

Reinventing Women: One Part Courage, Two Parts Happy. Meet Hessie Jones…

Posted by Liz on Jan 7, 2013 in aging, Work/occupation | 14 comments

According to a recent article written by an economist in the Bureau of Labor Statistics, today’s workforce is increasingly comprised of individuals who are older and more ethnically and racially diverse. There are also more women in the workforce than ever before, and by the year 2020, roughly 77 million women in the U.S. are expected to be actively working.

Yet, while the Pew Research Organization reports that having a family and children, and being a good parent still trumps career, women are not leaving their careers to marry or have children. Rather, most choose to balance career and family. However, what happens to that career as women start to age, children start to grow up or leave the home, marriages and partnerships break up and work that once fueled souls and passions no longer appears to do so? What drives the urge to change careers during midlife? What exactly is ‘reinvention?’

When I posed this question a few months back, one of the first women I heard from was Hessie Jones.  Hessie defines reinvention as “rethinking about your life, where you were, where you are and where you’re gonna go, i.e. having the courage to follow the path you were meant to lead regardless of your present state.”

A former VP of Marketing at Jugnoo and now in the process of yet another change, Hessie says that the first time she reinvented herself, she was only 39. That was 6 years ago, and since that time, she has used her drive and instincts to transform how companies view social media from simply another marketing or PR channel to an essential medium that can fuel organizational transformation and evolution. The key to successful reinvention, she notes, is being in the right frame of mind and possessing the vision to recognize when the timing is ripe for change. Yet, for Hessie, reinvention did not come without a price. “The hours away from home, my passion to meeting people with the same mindset, the need to network and experiment with different technologies/companies caused many disagreements at home. It also left my kids without an ‘attentive’ parent for a time. I received a lot of criticism from both sides of my family, especially when it was apparent that I was not fulfilling my responsibilities as a parent and spouse.” Still, her husband never asked her to step back, believing that her attempts at change are important to her personal progress.

All this disruption appears to have also yielded a deeper sense of self awarenesss. Hessie says that it’s most important to follow one’s heart but not at the expense of the rest of one’s life. “Don’t fight it. Let it guide you to making the right decision for yourself. But do not forsake your family in the meantime.” She shares a pearl of knowledge that was once shared with her; while passion may fuel change, it is important not to let the job take over; having no one to share one’s successes with is a lonely avenue.

Hessie’s courage to forge a new path several times over has yielded a few pearls of its own, including the fact that courage should be wrapped in a whole lot of happy. She says that it’s important to figure out what ‘happiness’ is and conduct a sanity check to see if your present situation is making you happy, adding that when her daughter asked what she should be when she grew up, she told her the following:

Do what you love to do not because of money, but because it makes you smile. Do not stay in a job because it’s safe. Move towards a job that challenges you. And never stop learning.

Is happy the mother of reinvention? Hessie Jones appears to be following her bliss.

What about you?

Who’s your advocate?

Posted by Liz on Dec 14, 2012 in aging, women's health, Work/occupation | 2 comments

Do you have an advocate? Someone who understands you, knows  you well enough to read between the lines, trusts you and actually likes you?

If you do, luck is your lady. And if you have an advocate in your professional life? Boy, that’s the lottery, the gold ring, Nirvana.

So let’s talk about that, shall we?

I’ve written previously about becoming invisible in the work world as we age. I have written about friendships and the health benefits that can be gleaned. And I have written about how the transition can change our outlook on work and life. But what happens when all of these things converge? Is it the perfect storm? Or just perfect?

I want to share a story. When I was in my Twenties, just starting out in my career, I worked for a NYC PR agency. After the head of our department sadly passed away from AIDS, he was replaced by someone from our parent company who was very competent but very insecure. I was already a fixture so she had to deal with me and reluctantly she did. And then she brought in a woman who I was supposed to hate. Seriously, those were her words. And that person? She was told she would hate me.

Guess what? Not only did we not realize pretty quickly that we did not hate one another but it turned out to be one of the most productive and functioning professional relationships I have ever experienced. More importantly, I gained a friend.

And, after many decades, while the friendship has remained, fate has brought our professional relationship back into being. Who would have thunk it when both of us were in our twenties and living in NYC and two women who were theoretically not destined to get along?

I’m tough to work with at times. No, I am downright difficult and impatient. But I have a birdseye view of things and can see waaaay into the future of a project, which is an important asset. And her? She’s really smart and patient and has really good instincts. And is really strategic, like me. Together, we make a pretty fine couple. And a fantabulous team and probably should have always been merged into one. A professional one.

What a concept!

So, I digress. Because I want to share that advocates are SO important as we grow into our professional roles. I have been fortunate to have several in my life. Really fortunate. But more importantly, when you find that special advocate (or advocates), don’t let them go. Let them know how much you appreciate them. And nurture them as they nurture you.

Hey Melon. You are da bomb. No really!

Thank you. I love you through and through.

We ain’t 26 or 27 anymore sister, but we still are. Wow! How lucky am I?

Midlife mishap: blurring the boundaries between work and home

Posted by Liz on Dec 7, 2012 in aging, work, Work/occupation | 3 comments

Telecommuting is the new black, right?

Not so fast.

Researchers say that while telecommuting (i.e. working regularly but not exclusively at home) has gained traction in the American workplace, the foothold remains elusive and the proportion of workers with flexible work options has been essentially flat over the past decade and a half. Additionally, the number of hours that workers actually telecommute on a weekly basis is less than one full day, a mere six hours. Although the reasons for this are numerous, it appears that managers remain reluctant to relinquish supervisory control, even though on average, telecommuters work harder and longer than their colleagues who are tied to their office chairs.

Do the math: Fewer telecommuting hours still equates to longer working hours.

What this brings to mind is the potential impact that telecommuting has on our lives outside of work, especially when work takes place at home? And how does this impact in turn, affect stress, which of course, has been linked to worsening of menopausal symptoms such as weight gain, hot flashes and depression?

I have been working at home for 20 years now, having started a business in 1992. While I am not a telecommuter, I am very aware of the black hole that one can fall into and how that has affected my ability to shut it down after a certain time of day. This ability has grown more difficult the more connected the world is and I find that I am consistently interrupted by clients during gym workouts, breaks, early morning coffee reentries and late day ratchet down.

Data demonstrate that my experience is often the norm and not the exception.

Let’s take a look at what the research shows. Analyzing trends from two national data sources — the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Panel and the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Study — Sociology Professors Mary Noonen and Jennifer Glass from the University of Texas at Austin learned that while the number of weekly telecommuting hours is relatively modest (just 6 hours, per above), most of the 30% of respondents who work from home add at least five to seven hours to their work week. In fact, 50% to 67% of telecommuting hours reported in these surveys push work hours past the 40 hour workweek model and are essentially overtime work. Just think: if you feel that you are already pushed to the brim in the office and volley for work at home hours, you may actually be relocating hours but not eliminating them. Moreover, your employer may be raising his or her expectations not only of what you deliver but when, including evenings and weekends.

Study findings also show that there is a misconception that telecommuting is more prevalent among parents with dependent children. In fact, parents are not likelier than the general population to work from home; rather authority and status in the workplace appear to drive telecommuting hours.

The researchers note that “telecommuting is intrinsically linked to information technologies that facilitate 24/7 communication between clients, coworkers and supervisors [thereby] potentially increasing the penetration of work tasks into home time.” A 2008 Pew Study supports this contention, demonstrating that the majority of ‘wired workers’ use technology to perform work tasks, even while sick or on vacation.

The perils run deep when the boundaries become blurry between work and home. Moreover, over wired means overload, and the ability to shut off our brains becomes increasingly difficult. Adrenal fatigue may set in, where after prolonged periods of cortisol production overdrive, the adrenal glands can no longer keep up with outside stressors and the body’s demand to handle stress and protect the immune system. In turn, the ability to handle life stressors declines.

Do blurred boundaries yield diminishing returns, midlife mishaps, a mishmash of expectations?

What do you think?

Wednesday Bubble: It’s in the DNA, right?

Posted by Liz on Oct 3, 2012 in aging | 0 comments

Aging, it’s in the DNA, right?

Actually, it’s a bit more complicated than that, but it appears that the length of your telomeres may be an important key.

Telo what?

Telomeres are little caps at the end of chromosomes that keep your genetic information intact and stable. In a sense, the body created telomeres to protect our genetic information and insure that it’s passed down to the next generation. Their gatekeepers are an enzyme called telemorase, and it insures telemere health. And while the length of our telemeres tend to shorten as we age, factors like health behavior, disease and exposure to internal inflammation and oxygen free radicals in the blood can also affect their length and stability, and promote illness that give aging a bad name in the first place.

Fortunately, it’s not all about genes. In fact, researchers now say that taking adequate amounts of omega-3 fatty acids may actually improve the odds.

Indeed, when researchers provided different doses of omega-3s  (or placebo pills) to 106 healthy but sedentary middle aged men and women and asked them to take them daily for four months, they found that significant and beneficial changes in telomere length. The low down:

• Participants took 2.5 g daily or 1.25 gram daily of omega-3 fatty acids (in a ratio of 7:1 EPA/DHA since EPA has shown to have stronger anti-inflammatory effects than DHA) or placebo. The placebo contained a mixture of oils designed to mimic the amount of fats that US adults typically consume in a day.
• Both groups of people taking omega-3s showed significant declines in the amount of inflammation in their body.
• The ratio of omega 3 and omega 6 were important: in fact, the lower the ratio, the longer the telomeres.

The researchers say that on average, most Americans consume a diet of omega-3s in a ratio that’s skewed towards omega-6, which comes in the form of vegetable oils im most people’s diets. The average diet tends to be low in omega-3s, the fatty acids typically found in cold-water fish like salmon or mackerel. But when the average ratio of omega-6/omega-3s is lowered from about 15:1 to 4:1 or 2:1, there are benefits to be had. In this case, the benefits are in the form of longer telomeres and in turn, the potential to reduce the risk for age-related diseases.

In a related press release, study co-author Ron Glaser makes an analogy to shoelaces, explaining that short fragments of DNA, telomeres, act as caps at the end of chromosomes,much like the protective plastic at the end of a shoelace. “If that plastic comes off, the shoelace unravels and it doesn’t work anymore. In the same way, every time a cell divides, it loses a bit of its DNA at the ends and over time, can cause significant problems.”

The bottom line is pretty clear: change your omega-3 ratio and you may change your aging odds. Sounds like a win-win.

(This study appears in the advanced online edition of Brain, Behavior and Immunology).

Wednesday Bubble: Second Talk?

Posted by Liz on Sep 26, 2012 in aging, humour | 0 comments

Wait! What’s the first talk? Oh, right, the one about menstruation…at least according to the marketers of Poise. In fact, those very same marketers – the ones behind a line of absorbent products for bladder leakage and now creators of an entire line of products for the menopausal set are putting their money where their mouths are, or at least in the pocket of the first lady of menopause, Cloris Leachman. (Cloris – #respect. I say ‘first’ in jest, only because Cloris is 86 and I imagine that her menopausal days are well behind her.)

Admittedly, I am confused.

I was aware that Poise had launched a new campaign around menopause with a line extension that includes lubricants, panty fresheners and cooling gel. However, I was unaware that that survey data demonstrate that not only do women want to talk about menopause (hurrah), but they also want to LAUGH about it, so much so that tickets are evidently selling out for the Hot Flash Road Show Comedy Tour.

Is Hot Flash Road Show the follow up to ‘Menopause, the Musical,’ which, btw, was the first act taken on the road to celebrate the hilarity of the change.

Let me see if I can get this straight. As women, we have the first talk, the second talk, the musical and now the comedy road show? And that is going to prompt us to laugh off the flashes, cool ourselves with personal gel, help our lady parts smell better and make sure that we are properly lubricated down there when our libido gets off its rocker? And then, we have a pad to catch a few urine drops in between while we talk about what got us here in the first place?

Damn that first talk.

Damn.

Ironically, Cloris Leachman is quoted as once saying that “if something is really funny, it’s funny all the time.”

Get the punch line?

HT to my pal Adam Zand for the heads up that it’s time for the second talk. Don’t know about you but I think I’ll wait for the third act.