The Wendy Project. Design A Position Structured For Us.
By Karen and Erica
What is the Wendy Project? It is a concept we got, surprisingly, from the slightly manic show Billions. Billions embraces a few forward-thinking ideas, and we have decided to adopt this one.
Wendy Rhoades is a psychiatrist whose job to optimize the performance of the hedge fund employees featured in Billions. She is a smart, educated and experienced sounding board who is above the fray (of work, anyway) which allows her to advise those who are in the scrum. She offers expert behavioral insights, new perspectives on knotty problems, and dispassionate judgment about tense situations. She is embedded in the business, but not exactly of the business. Her office is on site, and any employee who needs help can wander in.
Doesn’t this sound exactly like a structure that would suit many of us? Retired career folks who have seen many things over the years, and can help those still engaged in career battles to detect patterns in the chaos and identify effective solutions?
A job structured like Wendy’s would be perfect for our new status. Most of us do not want have our noses to the grindstone the way we did when we were on the way up, and there is no reason why we should—by now we know what we are doing. Nor do we want to be the boss. Been there, done that!
What many of us do want is to give those who are still in the trenches the benefit of what we have learned. We don’t want to step up, but we don’t want to step out, either. We want to step to the side but stay in the mix, so our experience is available be as needed. We don’t need to be part of the line management or compensation structure, and we aren’t really looking for a Maserati. (Other forms of recompense would be welcome. Let’s talk.)
We offer to those still at battle stations the benefit of our experience—distilled.
Ten thousand Boomers retire every day. They take with them experience that would be valuable to any enterprise: experience that takes years to acquire, experience that by definition is not possessed by people with fewer years of work. That experience can be yours.
If we were on site, embedded and available, our years of working, our tested judgment and honed insight, would surely be valuable to those facing daily challenges like the ones we faced. Our experience runs to professional issues, but also to workplace issues, like how to ask for advancement or deal with harassment or communicate with the press. We know how to keep a confidence. And the position could be designed to terminate after an agreed period unless both sides decided to renew for another agreed period. We know you worry we might get loopy.
So that is the Wendy Project. For for those who choose to accept it, your challenge is to create a position like Wendy’s for a seasoned retiree who can help your organization thrive and make you a star. For a CEO or ED or CFO, this should be an offer you can’t refuse. Figure out a way to harness the power of these resources, and profit from them. Your vision—and your Wendy—will pay huge dividends.