Which of the above motto’s would be yours? Baby boomers have ‘lived to work’ so that we could provide our kids with everything we lacked in our childhood. With both parents working hard to increase opportunities for their children as well as to enjoy the material things in life we boomers have created the following belief, ‘work, work, work and then you die’.

We have raised Generations X and Y who definitely ‘work to live’. They have watched their baby boomer parents kill themselves working and they refust to do the same thing. Just like us we rebelled against our upbringing they too are rebelling against theirs.

The ‘work to live’ motto means more and more employers are creating flexible working options that suit the personal lives of their employees. Some workers want to start at 6:00 am so that they can leave early afternoon or because their partner works a 9 to 5 job. Others want to start later and work later because they have a sport or hobby that they want to participate in at a regular time each day.

Requests for telecommuting has become a standard asked by interviewees to their interviewers when applying for a job. I predict the future of job negotiations will be more focused on the negotiable hours, flexibility and family perks than it will be about money.

We have been ‘talking’ about work-life balance now it’s time to do some ‘doing’ about the talking.

Ref: Vancouver Sun April 28, 2007

Many boomers turned or are turning 60 this year. This is the generation who didn’t want to be called Mr. or Mrs. and the baby boomers see themselves as forever young.

If you want to sell anything to a boomer don’t call them a senior. I promise you we won’t be calling them ’senior’ discounts for much longer.

Baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964 hate being called seniors and the advances being maid in medical and general health boomers at age 50 have another 50 years to live.

If youdo call a baby boomer a senior they would say that that applies to ‘their’ mother or father but not to them.

A survey of 1000 Americans found 63 percent thought that ‘boomers’ should be referred to as ‘zoomers’ for the rest of their lives.

The refusal to be a senior also means a shift in ’senior housing’ as boomers age. Boomers view a senior’s centre as being a place for old people. I predict we will have ‘zoomer’ communities with differing levels of interactivity. I picture a choice of living in a like-age community or the choice to live more privately but know this- don’t be calling us boomers a ’senior’.