The End of the ‘One Last Move’ Mindset
Six in ten boomers don’t plan to change roles anytime soon—a fivefold spike from just a year ago. Are they giving up on their final work goals?
It’s among the last surviving work traditions, and it’s slipping away from boomers: For decades, many senior leaders approaching their sixties have plotted one more great career—one final chance to make an impact. But today, the possibilities for this kind of work appear to be fading.
According to a new survey, six in ten boomer leaders say they have no intention of retiring or even of leaving their current position anytime soon. It’s a dramatic shift from just a year ago, when one in ten gave this answer. And experts say it could be just the beginning. “We may be seeing the end of the ‘one last big move’ mindset for a lot of late-career leaders,” says Roger Philby, global leader of the People Strategy and Performance practice at Korn Ferry
It’s an old problem with a new, AI-driven twist, say experts. Historically, economic uncertainty and rising living costs have kept older people in the workforce. But David Farris, sector leader of the Professional Services practice at Korn Ferry, says AI’s rise has fundamentally changed how older workers think about retirement. Today, their standing at their firms tends to be binary, he says: They’re either valued internally because AI is reducing entry-level hiring, or they’re biding their time until layoffs to finance AI occur. “The best career move a baby-boomer leader can make is to wait and see what happens over the next few years,” says Farris.
But this may mean setting aside—for good—the late-career goals that their predecessors have traditionally considered. “A year or two ago, late-career leaders may have been thinking about one more role, one more transformation, one more chapter,” says Philby. “But the pace of change has altered that calculation.”
From a leadership standpoint, Philby says, senior people who stay longer than expected can quietly jam up the succession pipeline, creating the risk that high-potential internal talent will defect. “Succession is like a relay race,” he says. “If the runner with the baton keeps going longer than expected, the next runner does not just wait patiently forever.” Farris agrees, adding that firms need to create new career pathways for younger leaders by facilitating lateral moves and job sharing and by leveraging the skills of older workers to help them grow.
Indeed, the boomer logjam at the top is yet another blow to the career aspirations of younger workers—who’ve been hit hardest by layoffs and job reductions, who are facing promotion rates of one out of every 10 workers, and who lack training and development opportunities for leadership positions. Conversely, the share of workers age 65 or older, which has been rising steadily for years, now makes up the fastest-growing segment of the workforce. On the leadership side, the average age of CEOs is now 61, and nearly one-quarter of board members in the Russell 3000 are 70 or older. “I have CHROs who feel like they have to stay on for another three to five years to develop a new cycle of leaders,” says Lucy Bosworth, a Korn Ferry senior client partner.
Philby agrees, adding that the issue isn’t going to go away anytime soon. Until firms figure out workforce architecture, role design, and other job models to fit their AI strategies, older leaders are likely to believe that no change is the best of all alternatives. “For some late-career leaders, their last job move may already have happened, and they are probably fine with that,” says Philby.
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