Commentary: Living longer? Here’s what working for 60 years should look like

Commentary

Commentary: Living longer? Here's what working for 60 years should look like

As Singaporeans lead longer lives and face an age of disruption, nosotros need a new work paradigm, say 2 observers.

20 Oct 2022 06:22AM (Updated: 03 Jul 2022 03:09PM)

SINGAPORE: Homo capital has become a hot topic with Singapore proudly earning the top spot in the World Bank's Homo Upper-case letter Index (HCI).

Scoring 0.88, this summit ranking means that a child built-in today can exist expected to achieve 88 per cent of her human majuscule potential past the age of 18. This, in turn, is read as an indicator of future prosperity.

Considering that Singapore's journey began only 53 years ago, achieving the top spot is zero short of remarkable.

While at that place is hope for a vivid future, like any statistic, the HCI presents us with only half the story. The other half depends on how we take advantage of the longevity dividend, the significantly longer lifespan due to advances in medicine, public wellness, amend diet and lifestyle.

Singaporeans especially are living longer lives, the third longest in the globe, according to a contempo Earth Wellness Organisation study.

In this context, can information technology be that people might work until their 70s or fifty-fifty 80s?

A 60-year working career is looming big, notwithstanding we are not quite prepare.

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According to authors of The 100-twelvemonth Life, Professors Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, and their research published in MIT Sloan Management Review:

Given the average level of savings in advanced economies, many people currently in their mid-40s are likely to need to piece of work into their early to mid-70s; many currently in their 20s (many of whom could live to be over 100) will be working into their late 70s, and fifty-fifty into their 80s.

Given the rapid progress in genetics, these are just conservative estimates.

Anybody AS AN ENTREPRENEUR

What changes practice we need to make in order to succeed in the radically new career paradigm? Two decisive elements are involved.

Kickoff, our societies must reexamine the prevailing attitude towards ageing, become rid of the dead weight of ageism and related prejudices.

2nd, all of usa will be required to shift our mindsets from beingness an employee or employer and increasingly acting as an entrepreneur. It's non about actually beingness entrepreneurs, but cultivating the entrepreneurial spirit and constant search for self-improvement regardless of what nosotros do and where we work.

Attendees at a job fair line upwards for an interview carrying their resumes in leather bags. (Photograph: REUTERS/Jason Reed)

We will besides need assistance from governments and corporations, every bit the new framework for working life will get refashioned. Meanwhile, permit'south start with ourselves.

In our working life, we will be expected to accept a more than flexible outlook and expectations. Gone are the days of working for ane company for several decades.

Competitive global markets and the onwards rush of scientific discovery will soon – by fashion of artificial intelligence, robotics, microbiology and communication – make information technology close to impossible to predict what work will look similar in 10, 20 or 30 years.

What we know for sure is that it is a mistake to put all our eggs in one basket. There will be shifts and turns, and we demand to exist psychologically set to switch gears and seize new opportunities, even if they weren't in our original all-time laid plans.

We will also have to get in the habit of lifelong learning. In the past, only highly professionalised specialists and top executives follow new trends in their fields and proceed up with the skills and expertise needed every bit their jobs evolve. This attitude renewal will be increasingly mutual in most lines of work – whether you are a new hire, heart manager or business unit head.

Fortunately, the Internet, long distance conferencing, webinars and online courses brand this easier for nearly everyone and function equally cracking levelers of erstwhile structural disadvantages.

A PORTFOLIO CAREER

The learning nosotros will all take to undertake is not learning for its own sake, but to keep as many options open to us for equally long as possible. Kickoff developing in your 30s or 40s a portfolio of skills in different career tracks that can sustain y'all through changes in employment and in periods of industry alter and renewal.

This portfolio tin can besides support you lot if you find new employment but at a lower bacon. Information technology's jump to happen sooner or later, and better to fix now. The options for a portfolio are so many: Coaching, part-fourth dimension instruction and mentoring, running an online concern, being a role-fourth dimension Grab commuter, helping as a re-create editor and many more.

Part-time driver Eugene Ernest, is ane of thousands of drivers in Singapore providing chauffeured services during peak hours. (Photo: Linette Lim) Part-time commuter Eugene Ernest, 46, is among the estimated viii,000 to 10,000 drivers in Singapore providing chauffeured services during elevation hours. (Photo: Linette Lim)

There is no doubt around the age of 40, as natural physical abilities of the body and mind begin their inevitable decline, you lot will too demand to first working towards reversing that decline. Your mental sharpness and cerebral abilities will determine what you tin do and how much you might earn as a result, as yous hit your 60s, 70s and 80s. The rule of thumb hither is, use it or lose it.

Staying mentally good for you and cognitively agile means using your brain a lot, merely also getting in the habit of training it through exercises developed by neuroscientists and other experts in the field. Such training usually goes far beyond the entertaining encephalon apps many of us accept on our mobile devices.

What kinds of skills should we acquire? In a multigenerational workforce, self-awareness and emotional intelligence (EQ) would exist especially prized, leading to success in the working context easily encompassing iv or five generations.

Emotional intelligence is often mistaken for softness or automated agreeableness at whatsoever cost, but that is a articulate misconception. Employees and leaders with high EQ above all know how they are perceived by their beau workers and can easily accommodate to a way required by their predilections and address varied situations.

The lx-year career volition put tremendous demands on our psyche. It is therefore doubly important to stay as fit and healthy as possible and permit ample time to refuel as well as build the intangible assets discussed by Gratton, such as the circumvolve of friends, family, hobbies and leisure activities.

Physical exercise, sleep and a salubrious nutrition will be the three pillars undergirding the edifice of productivity, especially in the terminal decades of our job exertion.

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An elderly man exercising at a park near the Forbidden City in Beijing. (File photo: AFP/Wang Zhao) An elderly human does physical do at a park near the Forbidden Metropolis in Beijing on May 3, 2015. (Photo: AFP/Wang Zhao)

STAY TUNED-IN, DON'T Disengage

One boosted trick to ignite the spark in subsequently years is about being present not just physically, just likewise mentally. The key that unlocks the door is openness to outside influences.

Senior employees should resist a temptation to "give upward on the world". Staying tuned-in will aid the states eventually to go on and foster our creative impulses into older age.

Stay tuned-in and follow central trends in sports, arts, music, politics, engineering science – and you might just be surprised at what might lead you lot to a next career or hobby that keeps y'all engaged. Only those fully in-synch tin can stay at the same time productive and happy.

Naturally we volition not be able to exercise all of this on our own. Governments play a part also. They must pay close attention to demands of the task market in order to reform and fine-tune educational systems.

READ: Time for Singapore universities to switch gears, a commentary

Changes must emphasise lifelong learning, developing self-awareness and emotional intelligence, fostering adjustability, and developing a sense of mastery, creativity and entrepreneurship.

While specific preparation offered through SkillsFuture will most certainly help and play a critical role, these broader life capabilities will likely prove to exist the more of import tools that ageing workers will demand.

In parallel, governments can also aid corporations with incentives and structures for mental and cognitive agility diagnostics and training, for improving physical fitness, and promoting healthy nutrition.

In many markets authorities should accommodate their policies to nudge companies in the management of job flexibility, enabling a better use of role-time employment, sub-contracting and employee sabbaticals for refuel. Gap years for adults, for instance, tin can go a powerful tool for renewal and connected productivity.

A man reading during his gap year. (Photograph: Pixabay)

Smart governments will also play a role in helping corporations promote physical practice, good for you diet, cognitive diagnostics as well as brain training. Every bit societal leaders, politicians can be important voices for combatting ageism and outdated narratives most older workers.

Terminal but not to the lowest degree, public policies volition be needed to combat job market ageism, foster a multigenerational workforce, ameliorate emotional intelligence, and offer developed development that exchanges insights betwixt generations.

Older workers can bring their wisdom to decision making, for example, while younger workers tin can become impactful allies through reverse mentoring.

Simply for the older generation to contribute meaningful to such an substitution, they probable need support for evolving to a higher level of cognitive complication that offers employers a perspective that typically becomes bachelor only during life's later years.

READ: People ready to retire later but preparing older workers will require more than than reskilling, a commentary

CUSTOM-MADE LIFE, CUSTOM-Fabricated WORLD OF WORK

Employers need not look for the Government. They are in many ways best positioned to immediately lead and demonstrate a shifting mindset.

A practiced get-go might exist refitting workplaces to the needs of ageing workers – and there are already salutary examples to follow, such as the ergonomic adjustments BMW has implemented in its plant in the High german country of Bavaria.

By redesigning workspaces, in cooperation with ageing workers, BMW aims to conform ageing workers and increase productivity.

Additionally, Chief Human Resources Officers should pay attention to the new trend in which ageing workers might be part time employees, projection workers, gig workers, or even full-fourth dimension workers into their 70s or even 80s.

No one-size-fits-all would use and HR policies must exist redesigned accordingly. The strict clauses that say you can simply work for one employer are painfully outdated and become against the very grain of what an ageing society will demand, which is a portfolio career that grows out of various side projects and jobs that nosotros test and develop throughout the years.

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With the ascent of digital technology, our lives have increasingly abased in one case proven templates and taken on a more custom-made mode, reflecting our unique needs, desires and abilities.

The globe of work volition accept to take hold of up to this nimbleness and flexibility. These changes are on such a big calibration that no one societal pillar will be able to entirely solve the problem.

Citizens, governments, and employers will need to piece of work together. Starting from a foundation of being ranked best in the earth for human majuscule, Singapore is superbly positioned to lead the way with our entrepreneurial mindset, first-class pedagogy and ageing population.

Exciting times are around the corner.

Dr Tomas Klvana and Dr Michael Netzley are founding partners of Extend My Runway, a consultancy start-upwardly that focuses on extending successful careers through practical science.

Commentary: Living longer? Here’s what working for 60 years should look like

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