Gold Nugget Coaching

Finally! A name for a largely unacknowledged, but very real, issue that many mid-career workers are currently in the throes of.

In fact, tens of millions of workers are “feeling burned-out, bottle-neck, and bored,” according to a breakthrough article in the March 2006 Harvard Business Review entitled “Managing Middlescence” by Robert Morison, Tamara Erickson, and Ken Dyctwald.  They coined the term middlescence (like “adolescence”) to characterize this newly recognized phenomenon. 

The “syndrome” has been quite familiar to me because, as a coach, I routinely work with people who are experiencing middlescence. But the pervasiveness, the sheer numbers cited in the article, surprised me nonetheless.

In addition to the personal ramifications for mid-career workers, the act of clearly identifying the issue and giving it a name is important because it brings to the attention of business leaders a ticking time bomb in their midst. Not only does middlescence affect productivity today but, as the article points out, over the next 10 years shortages of skilled workers due to retirement will combine with disaffection in the workplace, resulting in critical talent deficits. In fact, the authors go so far as to propose “retiring retirement.” Not in the context of some new form of endless servitude to corporations but, rather, by enabling workers to be “rekindled” so they are served in the process as well as the company. To do this, the authors claim, businesses need to start focusing on how to re-engage their disengaged employees in creative new ways.

So if you believe you’re in middlescence, what can you take away from all of this?

First of all, one very important point: you’re not alone. There are, as noted above, tens of millions of people experiencing what you are.

Second, don’t wait for your company to “get a wakeup call” and begin to take action—that may take awhile, and you have a life to live! Instead, I suggest that you take the initiative. How? By beginning to introduce the concept of middlescence into conversations with coworkers with whom you’re comfortable, and with friends and family members. Not in the form of gripe sessions, but as a sharing of your experiences and feelings, your restlessness and concern. You’ll soon find that these conversations begin to open up possibilities, to clear the way for bottom-up creative ideas of things you and your co-workers, family, and friends can do to re-kindle yourselves.

If you choose the alternative, a “wait, see, and hope it gets better” attitude, you’re the one who’s going to pay the biggest price. However, by simply taking the initiative and beginning to have the conversations I suggest, you may actually begin to rekindle a mood of optimism, and even the ambition that you once had.

So start the ball rolling now! Take the initiative and start talking about your concerns. Instead of just coping, do this for yourself instead of waiting for your company to do it for you: pave your way to the future that you want to have.