TransformingYourCareerTransformingYourself

To get work. To get ahead at work. To start a business. To keep that enterprise rolling. All require networking - that is, the effective kind in which you can motivate other human beings to help you.  But, obviously networking isn't going so hot. Just read Reddit about chronic joblessness and not enough business for small businesses. Either those needing that connection are backing away from even trying to engage or are screwing it up (worsening their situation by presenting themselves as pests). This year, two bits of provocative insight have come our way about this. One is the recent study conducted by Talkspace.  Essentially when relationships feel difficult, Talkspace found, folks are cutting them off and rarely going back. No talking it through.  The result is the loss of what we might think of as our "interaction muscle." It withers from the lack of practice. For instance, gone is the skill in how to assert boundaries in a conversation. So-and-so says something you...

 We stopped the close reading of what the financial gurus are saying. We get it: No one really knows where the US whatevers, especially the stock market, are going. As for the financial projections, including another great depression, they are jaw-jawing about on Main Street, we tune out. We know that they don't know. Last night before we went to sleep we checked Dow futures. They were up. This morning the actual Dow is up.  Dow Jones Industrial Average Index Index: DJI Compare 49,655.58 USD ▲  +213.02 (+0.43%) today April 21, 9:31 AM EDT  ·  Market Open But it would be naive to connect any dots in an upbeat way. Those I care about have been shuttering their small businesses. Too many of those I coach have to do a memory-erase: letting go of how it had been to have a very good job with tons of perks.  What I bear witness to is so much pain.

  Pre-2026: The Haves are the wealthy.  The brutal factors in the current labor market -AI, cost-efficiency, offshoring, plus inflation - have blown that up. Emerging now is a new version of the Haves. They're the ones who can pay their bills on-time and have a reserve of funds in their checking account.  In contrast, are the Have-Nots. Essentially they consist of the 72% of adults in America who are living in financial anxiety and 48% of those have been paying their bills late.  Among the Have-Nots, recently personal bankruptcies have increased 11% . This new category in socioeconomics makes the concept of "middle class" irrelevant.  Smirk. Remember it used to be considered an attribute of being middle class to purchase only brands, own a house and speak standard English.  Well, store private labels are being purchased and served to guests without shame. Don't expect Lay's and Doritos at my Super Bowl party. The chips will be Walmart's Great Value. In more...

  "Wow. You're getting 30 hours a week." I assumed I was congratulating this 72-year-old woman on having the ability to land so much work.  She was having none of it. "I get $13 an hour. And am on my feet." Her regret was not investing. Instead she had paid for the children's education and weddings. Well, even if she had invested she might not have been better off. At least not emotionally. Look what we Boomers knew would happen with the Strait of Hormuz closed again and which did: FUTURES IND Close Future Change 49,447.43 49,165 -476 FAIR VALUE FUTURES (-7.57) FV Close Future Impl Open 49,633.43 49,165 -468.43 Last updated: Sun Apr 19 2026 | 7:43 PM EDT

There used to be so much stigma about losing a job, even because of a layoff, that the unemployed: Created rosy spins about how well the job search was going Maintained an overall low profile, taking survival jobs off-the-radar, and Knew that media was not their friend.  Not so much anymore.  A common MO has been to loop into doom-and-gloom, sharing (oversharing) the story of chronic unemployment with the media. That strategy is high-risk, both for the jobless and for the media outlet publishing what is turning out in this AI, cost-efficiency, offshoring low-hire era the "same old." Typical in BusinessInsider is the sharing by former UX designer Christopher Santoso who has been without a full-time job since May 2025. What's most soul-wearing to him is being ghosted when applying. So? Sure, presenting himself in the media can get the attention of employers. That means that such a strategy can be high-reward. I wish that be the outcome for Santoso. However, more probable i...

At 6 PM ET we can start checking the Dow futures. Unless there is a fix for the now-closed-again Strait of Hormuz  the gains we've made in our nest eggs in the past few days could go poof. And worse.  Sure, we Boomers are a fragmented lot. Who we are depends on how we experienced the economy. The oldest like myself entered into an era of abundance. Younger Boomers not so much so. But one thing we currently have in common is our necessary preoccupation with money. We could make it into our 90s. Through Facebook I'm encountering members of my class of 1967. So far only one who I know of has passed on. What we didn't expect is that here we still would be at age 80. The angst is if we will be able to keep paying the bills for this peculiar expansion of longevity. Policymakers, please fix the Hormuz issues.