Tonight it was my turn to host my small church group. It had been a few months since we gathered. I tend to offer my place in the summers because I’m off work a few weeks in June and a few weeks in July. It makes it easier when I’m already home. So, it was great to see everyone. The best part is we have a new member to our group who is my age who joined about 4 months ago. I mention to Natalie, I can organize the group and she could organize the reading. Let’s just say, the holy spirit rocks for bringing Natalie to our group. Natalie picked the Holy Spirit as our focus tonight. She incorporated scripture, a history lesson and lead a great discussion. As we were closing, she shared the following list with us and asked us to share which one really stood out for us. I really liked it and wanted to share with you. For me, understanding and love was calling out to me.
Gifts of Holy Spirit
Wisdom
Understanding
Counsel
Fortitude
Knowledge
Piety
Fear of the Lord
Fruits of the Holy Spirit
Love
Peace
Joy
Patience
Kindness
Gererosity
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self Control
Reading: Today I finished Parker Palmer’s “Let your life speak”
Listening to: Keith Urban’s latest CD “Defying Gravity“
Watching: “So you think you can dance” and “Army wives”
Looking forward to: This coming Saturday. My sister Missy, her bo Rob, Matthias and I are seeing the broadway show “Spamalot”…always look on the bright side of life
A few weeks ago, Time Magazine printed a great cover story about the future of work. They pretty much shared the hard truths generation x will be facing now that the baby boomers are retiring. I’ve started to look at it as this huge amount of people, (my parents and their friends), leaving the workforce for my generation (a small but very educated and smart group of people) to step up. Think about it, the one postive thing to the baby boomers retiring is there will be jobs to fill but there also will be jobs not filled and that is okay. We have to remember, the baby boomers were a huge generation! Many came from large families. When I was in high school, there were very few families who had more then 2 kids. For now, we might be okay.
Now, imagine 10 years down the road (I will be 42). Here are highlights from Time’s cover story and what they predict work will be like:
1. Job growth will happen in places like Texas, New Mexico, Georgia.
2. The top jobs predicted to grow the most by 2016 will be retail salespersons, registered nurses, post secondary teachers (yeah for me!) and personal-home care aides.
3. MBA graduates will be more honest and have integrity in business.
4. Benefits, what benefits? Time reported that “57% employers who say they have stopped offering a traditional pension plan-or are considering it.” Colleges might want to seriously looking to add Personal Financial Management courses as part of their General Education.
5. Flexible work schedules! Time reported that “80% segment of employees who would want to work flexibility if it didn’t harm their careers.”
6. Some baby boomers might still be working. Time addressed the fact that large amounts of retirement money was in U.S. Savings (which are down), and many thought they saved enough, but they didn’t. So, for those us ready to move up the career later..we will have to wait a few more years.
7. Women will be leading. Time reported that in 10 years, there will be an 8% of growth of women in the workforce.
8. Going green will save the planet and for many us, save our careers. Time found that 2.5 million estimated jobs will be green jobs.
9. Are you ready to work for yourself? Time preditcts 40% of the workforce will be Indendant Contractors. Wow, that is a large number.
10. Ohh, while you are working for yourself, you will most likely be telecommunting.
-Time Magazine, May 25, 2009. Cover Story, The Future of Work. Click here to read the complete article.