Encore: Work that matters in the second half of life.

Velma Simpson. Photo by Alex Harris.

Marc Freedman, in a column in today’s Washington Post, takes issue with an Allstate ad exhorting Americans to save for 30 years of retirement.

“Millions of boomers are headed not for endless vacation but for a new stage of work, driven both by the desire to remain productive and the need to make ends meet over longer life spans,” Freedman, author of Encore, writes in the piece, “One More Time, With Meaning.”

That makes the central question, both for individuals and society at large, “What work will boomers do?”

Freedman’s answer: encore careers.

He tells the stories of people he has met, “from all income levels and educational backgrounds, (who) have chosen not to phase out in the second half of life but to focus in on what many feel will be their most meaningful work.” Velma Simpson, for example, is a former insurance agent who went back to school to become a social worker and now works to alleviate homelessness as an official for the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“Yet most people don’t know where to look for such opportunities, and most social-sector employers don’t know how to take advantage of the emerging encore workforce,” Freedman says. “When only the supremely determined or plain lucky are able to act on their aspiration for work that we need them to do, it’s a loss for us all.”

Freedman calls for a “new social compact,” that will ease the transition of aging baby boomers to social purpose encore careers, in order to put their wealth of time and talent to work tackling some of society’s biggest challenges. What’s needed are financing mechanisms, educational reforms and, most of all, opportunities to combine purpose and passion with a paycheck, so people can put all their energy into their new life’s work.

“Making the most of this opportunity will require a round of rethinking and reform commensurate with the demographic transformation unfolding before us,” Freedman says.

“Boomers can capitalize on longer working lives to go beyond their own narrow needs, get down to some of their most significant work and leave the world a better place than they found it.”