Baby Boomers – The Health Care Blog

Hey, Old Guys!

Jun 7, 2022

BY KIM BELLARD

OK, how many of you had on your women-in-power bingo cards that, in 2022, Sheryl Sandberg would be out at Facebook but Queen Elizabeth II would still be Queen? It’s the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, marking seventy years on the throne. She’s getting a lot of love for that tenure, but it makes me think, geez, some people just don’t know when to step away.

Perhaps what sparked my cynicism about the Queen was an op-ed by Yuval Levin, Why Are We Still Governed by Baby Boomers and the Remarkably Old? Dr. Levin is, of course, referring to the U.S., and he’s spot-on about our governance problem. But I think the problem goes further: we have too many old people running our companies and major institutions as well.

Whether it is, say, healthcare, education, or the military, we’re so busy protecting the past that we’re not really getting ready for the future.

Not Your Father’s Job Market

Sep 21, 2021

By KIM BELLARD

If you, like me, continue to think that TikTok is mostly about dumb stunts (case in point: vandalizing school property in the devious licks challenge; case in point: risking lives and limbs in the milk crate challenge), or, more charitably, as an unexpected platform for social activism (case in point: spamming the Texas abortion reporting site), you probably also missed that TikTok thinks it could take on LinkedIn.

Welcome to #TikTokresumes. Welcome to the Gen Z workplace. If healthcare is having a hard time adapting to Gen Z patients – and it is — then dealing with Gen Z workers is even harder.

TikTok actually announced the program in early July, but, as a baby boomer, I did not get the memo. It was a pilot program, only active from July 7 to July 31, and only for a select number of employers, which included Chipotle and Target. The announcement stated:

TikTok believes there’s an opportunity to bring more value to people’s experience with TikTok by enhancing the utility of the platform as a channel for recruitment. Short, creative videos, combined with TikTok’s easy-to-use, built-in creation tools have organically created new ways to discover talented candidates and career opportunities.

Interested job-seekers were “encouraged to creatively and authentically showcase their skillsets and experiences.” Nick Tran, TikTok’s Global Head of Marketing, noted: “#CareerTok is already a thriving subculture on the platform and we can’t wait to see how the community embraces TikTok Resumes and helps to reimagine recruiting and job discovery.”

Marissa Andrada, chief diversity, inclusion and people officer at Chipotle, told SHRM: “Given the current hiring climate and our strong growth trajectory, it’s essential to find new platforms to directly engage in meaningful career conversations with Gen Z. TikTok has been ingrained into Chipotle’s DNA for some time, and now we’re evolving our presence to help bring in top talent to our restaurants.”

Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba Boom!

Jan 3, 2011• 1

By RICHARD REECE, MD

January 1, 2011 -Yes, yes, it’s true. Today 79 million baby boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, start turning 65.

Yes, yes, it’s true. Boomers begin qualifying for Medicare.

Yes, yes, it’s true. If my math is right, this means some 12,015 boomers each day over the next 18 years will enter the Medicare ranks.

That’s the biggest news this New Year’s Day. The second biggest news is the information technology boom, triggered by IPad, Kindle, and the social media. The third biggest news, connected to the first two, is the health reform law and its impact on our unsustainable entitlement programs.

Let’s take these pieces of news, one by one.

Boomers

Boomers, whether by Botox, cosmetic surgery, exercise, antioxidants, tobacco cessation, or life-style and life-savings medical technologies, plan to maintain their youth, and to cede nothing to generations that precede or follow them. That’s if things do well. Otherwise, aging boomers who become ill, may ask , “Why me? What the hell happened?”