Age is only relevant in the number of years you have been on the planet, it has nothing to do with your qualifications or abilities. Look at most of our great scientist, artist and architects. Their best work is achieved in their later years.

Most of us baby boomers are former military, and were managed in our early carreers by former World War 2 combat Officers where we acquired skills that todays managers can not even come close to. Some will say we are outdated, dinosaurs, out-of-touch. I can assure you that is very far from the truth.

Ask how many people want to see a gray haired pilot flying their 767. Sulley wasn’t some inexperienced entry level kid behind the stick when he landed on the Hudson River. How many 30 year old surgeons do you want putting you under the knife? How many great Professors or Teachers do you know of that peaked at 25?

The contributions from senior level staff could be significant if only the culture in the United States would not perpetuate the myth that you are washed up over 50. Corporate America has alienated a segment of society that could be one of its greatest assets, and in the process it has caused more grief than happiness. In doing so they have created and alienated a generation that no longer trusts, believes, or has confidence in American corporations. And that is not only in the Boomer generation, it is in the ones right behind them.

Secondly, continuing work beyond a particular age is not necessarily un-retirement. I retired (on paper) from one segment of my life and simply transitioned into a parallel segment. When I think of people my current age, back when I was a few years out of Animal House College, it becomes all-too-apparent that the very idea of retirement has taken on a completely new meaning. Some of the people with whom I work, themselves of recent collegiate vintage, as well-meaning and eager as they are still require a little “organizational straightening out”. Some day, when my cohorts of the 60s finally decide to tell the world to go to hell, those younger guys/gals will, hopefully, be able to, rhetoricaly speaking, “keep the aircraft on center”.