Men Still at Work: Professionals Over Sixty and on the Job (16 page)

Thanks to the flexibility of his work schedule, Steve can devote time to his family—his wife, Sylvia, their two children, and grandchildren—and to music, which has always been paramount for him. His forté is piano. The day after we spoke Steve was leaving for Hartford, Connecticut, to rehearse a Brahms piano quartet with three string players—a violinist, a violist, and a cellist. The rehearsal was in preparation for an upcoming weekend of intensive coaching. “We have to rehearse in order to get the most out of the coaching opportunity. This way we take care of the basics ourselves, and, during the coaching, we can work on the subtleties.”

The author or coauthor of more than 150 professional publications, Steve would like to write a book on ways to make the health-care system more patient-centered. In his view, “For all the talk about
patient
-centeredness, the health system remains
provider
-centered.” He is planning a talk for hospital CFOs that will address the question: “How can your organization be more efficient
and
focus on the populations you serve?” Or: “Does the patient benefit enough from the ways your organization functions now?” Among other things, he will tell them about an enterprising Johns Hopkins doctor who introduced a “daily goals” clipboard sheet for individual patients being treated in the intensive care unit. At first, only 5 percent of Hopkins’ ICU doctors and nurses could honestly say they knew exactly what the next twenty-four-hour goals were for an individual patient. After using the clipboard sheet for some time, 95 percent knew the goals and, owing to closer attention to individual patient needs, the average length of stay in the ICU dropped by 50 percent. This not only also meant better outcomes for patients who were able to leave the ICU sooner, it also represented huge cost savings for the hospital and for insurers.

Steve remains intensely interested in what has come to be called “accountability” in health-care circles. The previously mentioned Institute of Medicine report on waste in health care today reinforces what he has been arguing for years. Not surprisingly, he says he is ecstatic about the Affordable Care Act, and he hopes it will be implemented fully by 2014 as intended. “Universal coverage is a baseline step. Every other developed country has it. Why not the United States? We’re the richest country. It’s obvious that you have a stronger society when your people enjoy good health. You need a good health-care
system
to meet the needs. It starts with everyone having coverage and access to health care. It seems obvious. I can’t understand the objections!”

It is hardly news that women’s earnings lag behind men’s: the personal incomes of senior women are fairly evenly spread across the three survey categories. Just 36 percent of the women enjoy higher incomes, compared to nearly twice that percentage of the men. Men are earning in the higher category regardless of age; women’s earnings often tail off as they age (women between sixty and sixty-nine tend to earn in the middle and higher ranges, women seventy and older tend to earn in the modest and middle ranges). Nearly two-thirds of the men I studied (63 percent of the total) are working full time compared to 53 percent of the women. Yet, even the men working part time seem to prosper financially more than the women. These differences can be partially explained by women taking time out for raising a family, men choosing higher-paying occupational fields, men working more hours (on average), and pay practices blatantly unfair to women that persist in spite of pay equity legislation.
9
According to the American Association of University Women (AAUW), inequity persists from the first paycheck through to retirement: “college-educated women working full time are paid more than a half million dollars less than male peers over the course of a lifetime . . . women continue to be paid less than men,
even when they make the same educational choices, earn the same grades, and work in the same jobs
.”
10

A controversial book by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg,
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
, focuses on the disparity between the number of men and women in leadership positions in major businesses (just twenty-one of Fortune 500 CEOs are female) and what women can do about it. If they want to get ahead and build a satisfying work life, Sandberg advises them not to shrink from challenges and to be more confident and ambitious. Reviewing
Lean In
for the
New York Times
, Princeton professor Anne-Marie Slaughter explains:

Her [Sandberg’s] point, in a nutshell, is that notwithstanding the many gender biases that still operate all over the workplace, excuses and justifications won’t get women anywhere. Instead, believe in yourself, give it your all, “lean in” and “don’t leave before you leave”—which is to say, don’t doubt your ability to combine work and family and thus edge yourself out of plum assignments before you even have a baby. Leaning in can promote a virtuous circle: you assume you can juggle work and family, you step forward, you succeed professionally, and then you’re in a better position to ask for what you need and to make changes that could benefit others.
11

Slaughter, apparently more realistic than Sandberg about what is needed for getting ahead, then asks, “Is the dearth of women in top jobs due to a lack of ambition or a lack of support?” Adding to the debate,
Harvard Business Review
blogger James Allworth asks whether advising women to behave more like men to get ahead in the workplace and in their careers is the right approach. Perhaps, he suggests, men have been leaning in
too much
, spending too much time on the treadmill. Put another way, men who
build a life
in the context of a career
rather than the reverse often pay a serious price. And, Allworth concludes, men might be better served by emulating women, thereby making workplaces, families, and society better in the process.
12
Implausible? Improbable? It seems to me that this analysis, while appealing at first glance, raises a thorny question: who would keep the treadmill going if men should decide to step off and women do not opt to step on?

On the whole, professional men (like those I surveyed) evidently
do
lean in, snagging the majority of leadership positions in various fields and garnering the rewards that correspond with success. Their economic status is far above the American norm. Whether they are continuing in a career job or working at something else, my survey respondents have been working for a very long time. On average, they have been working for forty-eight years. The number of years worked overall ranges from thirty-three to seventy-three. The men who are eighty or older have worked for an average of sixty years. By comparison, the professional women I studied have been working for fewer years, ranging from a low of ten to a high of sixty-three. The average number of working years for the women is forty.

Of course, as most everyone discovers sooner or later, money and seniority cannot guarantee happiness. As mentioned in chapter 2, psychiatrist George Vaillant thinks he knows what is essential. In his
Aging Well
, the seven major factors that predict healthy aging (from retirement to past eighty) are based on physical and psychological evidence collected over many years for the Harvard Study of Adult Development. He uses numerous statistics to compare the Harvard men, the Gluek inner-city men, and the Terman women, for example,

■
Race (Caucasian: 100 percent, 99 percent, and 99 percent, respectively)

■
IQ (130–135, 95, and 151, respectively)

■
Social class of most parents (upper class/upper middle class/middle class for the Harvard men; middle class/skilled labor/unskilled labor/welfare for the inner-city men; and upper middle class/middle class/skilled labor for the Terman women)

■
Graduate school degree attainment (76 percent, 2 percent, and 23 percent, respectively)

■
Mean income at age fifty in current dollars
13
($105,000 as of 1999, $35,000 as of 2000, and $35,000 as of 1988, respectively)
14

The gender pay gap was even more exaggerated twenty-five years ago: the average income of Harvard men, three-quarters of whom held graduate school degrees, was
triple
the average income of the Terman women, and the Terman women’s income was on a par with the Gluek inner-city men’s income, regardless of a woman’s graduate school degree attainment.

Like the Harvard men in
Aging Well
who were still working at seventy-five (and some of my respondents
are
Harvard men), the men in my study are not only still working, they also possess in some combination the protective factors or “guideposts to a happier life” (listed in chapter 2) that help men respond to difficulties and hardships in their lives, as well as beneficial personal qualities, such as having a future orientation (an ability to anticipate, to plan, and to hope); a capacity for gratitude and forgiveness; empathy; cultivating a social network; and doing things
with
people, not
to
them.
15
Although Vaillant does not rank the guideposts in order of importance, he clearly sees marriage as a significant organizing principle when he says, “For marriage is not only important to healthy aging, it is often the cornerstone of adult resilience.”
16
To age successfully, Vaillant concludes, men should enjoy their loved ones, work, and learn something they didn’t know yesterday.

By those lights, I think it is safe to say the professional men I studied are aging quite well. Of course, there is a great deal more to know about them, since their average age, residence, marital and family status, educational achievement, earnings, and length of time in the workforce are only part of the picture. We will turn next to their career choices and job status.

6

Where Older Men Work

It’s important to do something that pushes your buttons. When I wake up in the morning, I can’t wait to get to work.—Bart Guerreri, founder, chairman, and CEO of DSD Laboratories, Inc.

While the older men in my study are working in a great variety of career fields, business is far and away the preferred field for nearly one-third of the men. Their specialties include the following: accounting, affordable housing, automotive, banking, communications, customer satisfaction, dairy processing and distribution, dry cleaning, entrepreneurship, film distribution, finance, fire protection, health care, high tech, historic preservation, house painting, insurance, long-term care, management, marketing, musical instruments, process control, real estate, sales, sports, sports camps, training, travel, waste management, and wine retailing.

Business is the second most popular career field for the older women I studied, but they do not often sit at the helm. One businessman who does is John Kaneb, the seventy-seven-year-old chairman and CEO of HP Hood LLC and part owner of the Boston Red Sox. John previously owned a controlling interest in Gulf Oil. Retirement holds no interest for him.

Profile: John A. Kaneb

Milk, ice cream, baseball, and family. These top John Kaneb’s list of favorites. He is the seventy-seven-year-old chairman and CEO of HP Hood LLC, the iconic New England dairy processing and distribution company. He is a part owner of the Boston Red Sox. And he and his wife, Virginia, have six children and eighteen grandchildren.

First,
the Hood story
. You may or may not have seen the colorful Hood blimp flying over sports and cultural events or visited the outdoor ice cream stand inside a giant Hood milk bottle at Boston Children’s Museum, but you likely have encountered the Hood brand name in a supermarket, independent retail operation, convenience store, or other food-service channel. With headquarters in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, research and development operations, and fourteen plants throughout the country, Hood employs some three thousand men and women. The company makes and distributes a variety of branded, private label, licensed, and franchise products, including milk, cultured foods, extended-shelf-life dairy, frozen desserts, and nondairy, specialty, and high-protein drinks. It has seen tremendous growth and change since Harvey Perley Hood founded the dairy business in 1846 in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

Second,
John’s career
. John’s father was his hero and role model. One distinctive aspect of his management style that John remembers and tries to practice to this day is the respectful way his father treated every employee no matter his status. In 1959, Mike Kaneb had just expanded his petroleum business when he died tragically and suddenly. Son John was then a twenty-four-year-old naval officer and recently married. He was needed in the business. The Navy was sympathetic to his plight and released him. “I had to step into my father’s shoes, convince our creditors that I was capable of running the business, and then prove it.”

It helped that John had developed essential skills during his undergraduate years at Harvard College that stood him in good stead. “I learned to read or listen and then analyze fairly quickly what was most important. I brought this kind of thinking to bear on business opportunities and problems, asking, for example, Who are the key players? What do we want to be or do? What steps do we need to take?”

The experience of taking over his father’s petroleum company showed John that he was good at growing businesses and turning businesses around. In 1994, he and his son Gary purchased a controlling interest in Gulf Oil for the family. Its annual sales tripled before its sale in 2005. Meanwhile, the Kaneb family purchased HP Hood in 1995. “Although the public was unaware of it, the company was in serious financial straits,” John explains. “The challenges at Hood were interesting, and we enjoyed the process of making the business successful. We knew we had to protect the trusted brand. There were actually some similarities to the petroleum distribution business in that the solution wasn’t high-tech. It was simply about a healthy infusion of money and a lot of common sense.” Even the recent recession and the slowed economy did not affect the business, which has remained “pretty steady.” Annual Hood sales now surpass $2 billion.

At the corporate level, Hood takes social responsibility seriously, supporting organizations that assist children and their families to achieve better health and nutrition. The company also awards $5,000 Hood Sportsmanship Scholarships each year to eighteen high school athletes attending two- or four-year accredited colleges or universities. On the personal level, John makes time to be active in the nonprofit world. He serves as an Emeritus Fellow of Harvard Medical School, former Chairman of Partners Healthcare Finance Committee, Chairman Emeritus of McLean Hospital Board of Trustees, Trustee Emeritus of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Emeritus Trustee of the University of Notre Dame.

John is particularly proud of the work he did as vice chairman of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, which was established in 2003 by President George W. Bush. “I have a hatred of bullying,” he explains. “Intimidation is rife in prisons, and I simply felt something should be done about it.” In 1999 John learned about a very small group of abuse survivors calling their organization Stop Prisoner Rape. To advance their cause, he came to realize that federal legislation would be needed. For this, he turned to his college friend, Senator Ted Kennedy. “Kennedy, although a liberal Democrat, was able to work well with Republicans. He persuaded Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois) to work with him. Together they got legislation passed establishing a commission to evaluate the problem of prisoner abuse and draw up a set of standards for its control. Although the prison industry and the Department of Justice were resistant initially, today the federal prison system is operating under the new standards and state and local systems have been incented to follow suit.”

Currently, John’s major pro bono contribution is chairing the board of the Archdiocese of Boston’s Clergy Fund. The fund provides the financial resources for priests’ health-care coverage and retirement benefits. Unfortunately, some years ago, sound fiscal management practices eluded the archdiocesan staff; payouts far exceeded income. When John became chair of the Clergy Fund board, he worked with the new CEO and together he and the board achieved a surplus in just four years. It was another successful turnaround.

Third,
baseball
. Ah, the Red Sox, another Boston icon. When they have a tough year, fans, talk show hosts, and sportswriters buzz with speculation, commentary, and criticism. When they are in first place, fans, talk show hosts, and sportswriters buzz just as much. All John would say about his team’s ups and downs is, “Amazing!”

Last, but not least,
family
. Among John’s considerable achievements, the highest for him is being a successful father and husband. Two of John’s sons are in the dairy business with him, one is Hood’s CFO and the other is executive vice president. When I asked John whether he mentors his sons, he summed up his approach this way: “I don’t mentor them or tell them what to do. I hope to teach by example.”

John says he has no problem telling people he’s seventy-seven and “an old guy” by some measures. For example, he depends on his assistant, Camille DiCocco, for most things high-tech. His wife, Virginia, is concerned about his workload, but she knows he loves the business and wouldn’t dream of retiring. Retirement, or what John describes as “crossing to the other side,” is “a desert” that holds no interest for him. Only what he refers to as “a sudden major event” could force a decision to retire. But his health is good—he jogs a mile almost every day and does some weight work to keep in shape. He readily admits that the real reason he continues working, aside from the satisfaction he gets, is that he’s not just afraid of retiring, he is “absolutely petrified!” If he stepped down, the decision would be irrevocable; he could not change his mind and come back. He offers cautionary advice to other men in similar circumstances: “Have a healthy respect for the consequences of retiring. Don’t go there casually or unprepared, or you may regret it.”

Another high-powered businessman is Bart Guerreri, founder, chairman, and CEO of DSD Laboratories, Inc. (DSD Labs), an industry leader in information technology. Bart is an entrepreneur, inventor, design engineer, and business troubleshooter. Work is a passion for this sixty-nine-year-old.

Profile: Bart G. Guerreri

“We’re back!” says the upbeat greeting on the Guerreris’ answering machine, and I don’t know whether that means Bart and Andrea are back in Massachusetts from Florida or they are back in good shape after Bart successfully recovered from three bouts with cancer. When I went to interview Bart in his office, I changed out of my usual outfit of running shoes and jeans. As it turned out, he was wearing running shoes and sporting an RIT baseball cap.

Bart, now age sixty-nine, is an entrepreneur, inventor (he holds thirty patents), design engineer, and business troubleshooter. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of DSD Labs, a registered, privately owned small business whose focus is to provide high-end engineering, Lean Six Sigma, and related technical services to federal, state, and commercial customers. DSD Labs is headquartered in Miami Beach, Florida, with multiple offices located throughout the United States. The company is an industry leader in information technology, including cyber security (in conjunction with its affiliate company, Backbone Security), programmatic support, system engineering, system operations, maintenance, and service-oriented architecture.

A few years ago, his alma mater, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), honored Bart with the Distinguished Alumni Award and invited him to give the commencement address. Bart won over the audience by declaring, “I am not qualified to give you advice. What I can tell you is a bit about my history.”

He was raised by Italian immigrant parents in a farm town in upstate Ulster County, New York, called Tillson. The hamlet had a population of 835. It took him five years to graduate from high school because he couldn’t spell (and says that he still can’t). RIT accepted him as a freshman on probation. He made it through with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1967.

In a self-deprecating manner that endears him to the graduating students, Bart says that he knows many CEOs, some are RIT graduates, who are all “well-groomed thoroughbreds. I am a plow horse. We talk about business and about the Red Sox.” Next he shares two common denominators of success:
passion
and
persistence
.

Work is a passion for Bart. “It’s
fun
! It’s important to do something that pushes your buttons. When I wake up in the morning, I can’t wait to get to work.” His other passion is his family, wife Andrea and their three grown children. When Bart announces, “I make all the big decisions, Andrea makes all the little decisions,” I wince, until he adds the punch line, “
She
decides what is big and what is little!”