European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 12, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Plateau Ingaby Boomers face a lid on Success by Karen Tumulty los Angeles times As far As Sandy Wales was concerned up was the Only direction to go in a life that consisted almost entirely of work her goal was to become a vice president of a Large company. She was a Market research supervisor at Quaker Oats when her Boss the director got sick. Wales filled in and was confident that she had demonstrated How Well she could do the work. But when the director s Job became open it went to someone the company brought in from outside. Wales quit Quot i was so angry that i did no to want to be there. I Felt i had done a Good Job and i received no recognition Quot she recalls. She switched Fields but the same thing happened again. She Rose rapidly then lost out to another candidate for a management Post again she quit. When a third company passed her Over for promotion a this time for someone younger a Wales started thinking. Maybe she did not have the rules of the game figured right. Or maybe the rules had changed. Being Good it appeared was no longer Good enough. Quot i always thought that if i proved myself competent there would be no stopping me Quot she says. Quot its a rude and Nasty thing to discover that there a a lid on psychologists describe what is going on Here As plateau ing is when you find out that the Boss is younger than you Are a and for that matter so is the Bossy a Boss. Plateau ing is the third time you get passed Over for the same promotion. Often plateau ing has nothing to do with moving up a you just want to move somewhere. Your Job is getting tedious and you Are ready for a change but when you reach for the next rung you discover that someone took away the ladder. A mental alarm goes off. Deadwood failure. Over the Hill on the shelf. Burned out used up. Me but look around the department especially at those stars who used to be promoted every year or so. For the most part no one else seems to be going anywhere either though they All seem to be working just As hard As Ever. Plateau ing happens to just about everyone and always has. But the hard truth is that for baby Boomers in the United states it is occurring earlier and earlier. With the first of these aging american wunderkinder Well into their Middle years the fast track is starting to look like a Busy freeway at Rush hour. And it is going to get worse. Notice that Cloud of dust behind you that s the second half of the Boom the group whose values were hardened in the get out of my Way 1980s. By the turn of the Century baby Boomers a whose Ages will Span 35 to 54 a will make up 49 percent of the work Force and will be at stages in their careers where they have the greatest expectations of moving up. Fewer and fewer will realize that goal. Barry d. Leskin chairman of the University of Southern California business school s management and organization department throws out this grim forecast while there were about 10 potential candidates for every Middle management opening in 1975, the number will Rise to 30 in 1995 and 50 by the year 2000. So where does that leave the vast majority who do not make it actually most plateaued people have not even figured out what the problem is much less How to solve it. Quot i see the full spectrum of people who can t put labels on it who Don t know what a wrong. All they know is they Are unhappy Quot says Eileen l. Brabender a los Angeles career Counselor. Quot they Call it being burned out. They complain about the repetition the frustration the this is the generation after All that thought that intelligence drive and the right education could guarantee anyone a spot near the top. And few doubted that was where they wanted to be. Unless you Are the Lead dog in the pack they used to joke the scenery never changes. Many do not find that crack so funny anymore. Quot when i started Here i was one of nine Mas who had Pago 14 a a a the stars and stripes been hired in my division Quot says one Oll company executive in his mid-30s. He joined the company in the Early 1980s, when the Energy business seemed boundless As did the ambitions of those drawn to it now he and his co workers Are grateful just to have survived successive Waves of layoffs. Those who remain Are making lateral moves which a few years ago would have been considered Black Marks on their resumes. But some reject a definition of Success that does not include regular movement up the ladder. In Culver City calif., digital equipment growth started slacking off a few years ago and marketing manager Steve Sommer noticed something disturbing Quot All the restructuring was causing career gridlock a lot of lateral moves but not a lot of upward moves Quot says Sommer who holds a masters degree in business from Harvard. Quot i also looked at How Long people were resident in their positions. It seemed to be stretching out eight months to 2v& years to five when a headhunter approached him with an offer of a much higher position with a struggling software company that was 120 times smaller than digital he took it Quot it was the toughest career move i Ever made Quot he says. Quot but i had the Harvard mba paranoia wondering a gee will i be off the fast track if i stick around a i was very conscious of How Many Levels there were Between me and the senior a a when people gauge their accomplishments this Way plateau ing inevitably feels like failure a a truth so painful that they often have difficulty facing or admitting it. Many of those interviewed for this article agreed to discuss their experiences Only on the condition that their names not be used however plateau ing generally has Little to do with How smart you Are or How valuable career development experts say. For most people it is a matter of simple arithmetic an equation in which demographics and economics add up to a lot of frustration. Quot for a Long time history was on the Side of the ambitious Quot writes Judith m. Bardwick a la Jolla calif., psychologist whose Book the plateau ing trap is considered the definitive treatise on the subject of career gridlock. From 1950 to 1975, America dominated the world Market and its businesses and institutions were expanding so rapidly that their major problem was finding enough qualified managers she says. The available Pool of candidates had been born around the time of the depression when the United states saw its lowest birthrate Ever. What is More Only White males were allowed into the executive fold. People began to talk about the Peter principle a the idea that they could Rise to a level exceeding their abilities. Then into the workforce came the nearly 80 million people bom Between 1946 and 1965, among them were Large numbers of women and minorities allowed to enter the Competition for the first time. Never had so Many positioned themselves on the management ladder this year for example an estimated 70,000 people will receive Mas a More than 10 times the number who did in 1960. But before the oldest troops in the Boomer army reached the Halfway Point in their careers big companies started cutting the ranks by hundreds of thousands a at least 3 million jobs vanished from the Fortune 500 during the past decade by some estimates. Mid level management positions a the bureaucracy of most organizations often were the first to go. So you can forget the Peter principle Bardwick says far from rising above their capabilities most people will never even get the Chance to perform up to their potential especially in big organizations. Women and minorities Are Likely to plateau sooner increasingly by the time they Are in their mid to late-30s, Bardwick says partly because of lingering discrimination separate studies this year by opinion research and Wick amp co. Consultants showed that american women Are More Likely than men to leave big corporations not because of difficulties in juggling career and family demands but because of Lack of Opportunity a the infamous Glass ceiling. Monday no
