Law And More

The Next Downturn - If You're Over-50 & Career Goes to the Dogs

The pet-service enterprise Wag is well-organized. 

For example, it makes it easy for clients - that is, pet parents - and its contract employees to facilitate the common service of the dog walk. A lock box is attached to the door. 

As Recode reports, though, Wag, as it typical of many startups, aimed to grow too quickly. That got it into trouble and now sources say it is in talks to sell itself. Interestingly, just like fast-growth failure WeWork, Wag is backed by SoftBank. You bet, the SoftBank brand is taking a beating.

But, Wag's troubles shouldn't stand in the way of older folks looking for work trying out walking dogs. In my former Youngstown, Ohio neighborhood, several over-50 Wag dog walkers told me that the gig helped them connect the dot about how to start earning some serious money. 

According to them, Wag bills the client about $14. They get around $9, plus a tip. Since pet parents want their four-leggers treated well they are likely to also tip well.

One 56-year-old teacher who anticipated she would be forced out (she was) found dog walking in the evening and weekends showed her how much growth there was in the pet niche. She began developing a portfolio of articles published in third-party media about pet issues. When she is ready she will launch her own pet-care brand. 

The rub on that, of course, is that it requires supreme belief in one's ability to go from point A to Point B, then Point C in struggling to make a living when aging. Here, free to click open, is my book which can get that mindset started Download Outwitting ageism

The reality is the more than one-half of the over-50 will be forced out of their jobs. If they land on their feet and are able to get another job, only one out 10 will make comparable money.

In 2003, after my business collapsed, I did a holiday gig job in Sephora as a security guard. That led to a full-time job in loss prevention, including health benefits, with then Allied Barton Protective Services. Soon enough I regained the confidence to launch another enterprise. Actually that turned into two: both communications and career coaching. 

Takeaway: Working at a paid something, anything, brings more and better paid work.

Coaching, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on aging.

 

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Please contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

NYC Restaurant Owner Pays Damages, Fine for Not Allowing Service Dogs

The law in New York City is this: Service dogs are allowed in restaurants if they are registered with the Department of Health. At the restaurant, the law further states, it is not necessary for the canine's registration papers as a service dog to be shown.

Twice, Judge John Spooner ruled, restaurant owner Besim Kukaj violated that law.

The two restaurants involved had been Limon Jungle and Intermezzo. As a result he will pay $14,000 in damages and a $50,000 fine to the city. This ruling follows a trial in which the Commission on Human Rights went after Kukaj, who owns multiple eateries, for barring service dogs.

At Limon Jungle, Henry Goldstein, who suffers from anxiety, brought his service dog Cookie. Employees told him he had to leave. 

At Intermezzo, there was a kind of sting. A call was made to arrange for a private party and a request was made to bring the service dog. Employees didn't allow that. 

The high fine was to send a message about not messing with the law regarding service dogs. Goldstein felt humiliated to be evicted from the restaurant. Here are more details from The Wall Street Journal.

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

Cyberbullying: Darkness Falling on Veterinary Profession

We love our animals. So we love those who tend to their medical needs, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong. The cyberbullying from the pet parents who are unhappy with the treatment is one factor in the epidemic of suicides among veterinarians.

The other major causes are financial stress, burning out, and access to lethal drugs.

The CDC documents that the rate of suicide among both female and male veterinarians is higher than that of the general population. 

The online attacks motivated the veterinarians at Florida's DeLand Animal Hospital to sue Yelp poster Thomas Lloyd. 

Operating an animal hospital is a business. Those negative reviews can hurt business, in addition to the morale of the doctors.

The financial stress also comes from the reality that veterinarians aren't compensated at the rate of MDs. Meanwhile, their debt from student loans is high. The average can be about $170,000, with 20% of graduates dragging a $200,000 burden. 

The New York Veterinary Society is focused on preventing the suicides. However, other lines of work, ranging from being a cop to manning an aircraft carrier to practicing law, are also experiencing an epidemic of suicides. 

Not getting results from your marketing communications? Complimentary consultation – janegenova374@gmail.com.

Aging As the New Orphans - Lawyers Replace Family

In November 2003, my younger sister Anne Murga-Ring and I became estranged. I was 58, at the time: young old. 

But even then I got it: I was w/o family, at least the nuclear kind. Parents and older sister had died. Relationships with cousins and their children, always frayed, had split their seams. I felt unhinged. After all, the ethnic ethos in America is All in the Family.

Now, experts on aging confirm that my distress was appropriate. They warn that navigating aging can be more difficult w/o family. Increasingly, more of us are winding up just that way: flying solo and often flying blind.

What's coming up is the 16th anniversary of that estrangement. In my thinking and in how I conduct my personal and professional affairs plenty has changed since then. 

Let's cut to the chase. What I have discovered is that a satisfying secure life can be put together while getting older w/o any family members. 

This is what I know:

• Actress Betty White, who has become advocate for older Americans, has hammered that aging isn't for sissies. This stage of a life represents as challenging a rite of passage as transitioning from formal education to the world of work. Therefore, I had to and continually still have t0 invest time and attention in figuring out what are the obstacles and opportunities in no longer being young. The number-one problem was denial. The major advantage was breaking open to forms of satisfaction beyond a career.
• Estate planning doesn't mean creating an inheritance for siblings. My beneficiary is an animal cause.
• Lawyers can be contracted to handle every detail. That ranges from whether to pull the plug to closing down all matters after I die. Sure, there's a fee. But there is also always a kind of fee in the complex maze of family relationships. 
• Holidays can represent startups. Mine has been to use them to see the USA in my Chevrolet. That need not be expensive. Discount Motel 6 takes dogs free. LOV, my four-legged son, enjoys the holidays as much as I do.
• Developing a small circle of trusted allies is mandatory. They provide early warning systems of what is going wrong. During the past two years that network has included a millennial. She flagged me that I had to end my preoccupation with money. I had "enough." And enough is enough. In the book "Making Toast," Roger Rosenblatt pointed out how little we really need later in life. 
• For those of us still determined to keep working, an executive coach is useful. From mine I "needed permission" to turn down assignments I didn't sense were a fit. Sure, I have down cold the Pareto Rule (80% of revenue comes for 20% of clients). But the residual insecure parts of me still required permission.

Not that getting older has been a wonderful "growth" experience. However, the process took on the quality of an adventure when I got the hang of transcending my own comfort zones. Here, free to download, is my book on all that. 

As my communications clients were observing how I was mastering aging, w/o family, they asked me to assist them. Where they especially found guidance useful was the professional identity piece. They wondered: How could they play better the cards they still held and how could they manage to get different ones? Yes, it's possible to be a Late Bloomer. Look at Betty White, Clint Eastwood, et al.

I have added over-50 coaching to the menu of services I offer.

Coaching, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on aging.  

 

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Please contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Pierre Cleveland - Owner of Pit Pulls in Fatal Mauling Charged

During the three pit bulls' fatal attack on Emma Hernandez, nine years old, one was shot. The two others have been taken to Detroit Animal Care and Control. The odds are, given that the attack was deadly, they were be euthanized.

Meanwhile, as Law and Crime reports, their owner Pierre Cleveland, 33, faces multiple charges. They include ownership of dangerous animals, causing death, involuntary manslaughter, and second-degree murder. Bail has been set at $2 million. He is to appear in court on August 30th for a probable cause conference.

Law and Crime notes that several times Cleveland had been warned that his dogs should not be roaming the neighborhood. At the time of the fatal attack, Hernandez had been riding her bicycle. Although neighbors and her own brother tried to save her, those efforts were futile.

This is an extreme case of an attacks by dogs. Annually, as I posted in an article on this blog, according to the CDC there are about 4.5 million dog bites annually. Those will increase, given what has been called The Delivery Economy. Some lawyers have created a niche business representing victims of those attacks.

Not getting results from your marketing communications? Complimentary consultation – janegenova374@gmail.com.

Michael Barisone v. Lauren Kanarek - When the 1% Don't Turn to Lawyers

Just like the rest of humanity, the 1% have conflicts. But unlike the rest, they have the resources to hire the best legal minds in the world to duke it out.

That's not what happened, though, on Hawthorne Farm in rural Morris County, New Jersey.

Sources told the New York Post there was some kind of landlord-tenant dispute. Dressage Olympian Michael Berisone owns the farm. Winner of national equestrian medals Lauren Karnarek was a tenant.

Something happened. On Wednesday, Kanarek was carried away to the hospital with two life-threatening bullet wounds. She was not expected to live. However, after surgery she remains stable.

Meanwhile Barisone has been hit with two counts each of attempted murder and weapons possession. 

This is the kind of saga that makes it into the investigative reporting of Vanity Fair. The world yearns to have access to the ugly underbelly of the business and social dynamics among the 1%

Not getting results from your marketing communications? Complimentary consultation – janegenova374@gmail.com.

Lawyers More Lonely Than Other Professionals - 5 Tactics Back into Friendship Loop (but all slow)

The lack of common ground isn't just in politics in America.

In more and more aspects of life there also is less and less common space.

That's what Matthew Walther observes in his article on loneliness in The Week. That puts the odds against finding other human beings we can become friends with. The crisis of loneliness deepens.

The ABA reports that 61% of lawyers placed higher than average on the loneliness scale. And, lawyers are more lonely than those in other professions.

But, that can't all be accounted for by the emotional hardening that goes along with practicing law and pushing to develop new business. Those just starting on in their lives are also caught in the loneliness web. According to YouGov, 30% of U.S. millennials say they are lonely and 20% contend they have no friends.

What it's come to, notes Walther, is that we "pretend pets are people." (Should law firms have dogs roaming the corridors and assign who will walk the canines on what days and what hours?)

So, let's look at what used to be common space and is no more. Here are 5 examples I find useful to focus on and why they have disappeared:

•  Home. Walther hammers that raising a family is no longer affordable. Those connections have gone the way of the low-IQ phone. More of us live alone. But, sure, it had been possible to make friends even when single. Remember how Mary Richards and Rhoda, both in their own apartments, developed a deep relationship. Now, after all the stress from the whatever, we singles are not reaching out. Meanwhile, we are trapped in an i-world of messaging, movies, and games. 
• College. Forget it. As Yale professor Deresiewicz captures in "Excellent Sheep," higher education, especially at the top of the food chain, has become a competitive arena for high grades. Chasing after them makes the time-consuming process of developing friendships unlikely. Also, the postings of all the other students on Instagram are a source of feeling less-than. Best to steer clear of the whole people thing. 
•  Work. Who isn't after our job? And there are simply many more rats eager to gain favor with superiors by carrying tales about us. Maybe this saga is true, maybe it isn't. In northeast Ohio a millennial claims the reason she was fired was because she confided in a co-worker her battle with clinical depression and anxiety.
•  The store. No one goes there any more, not even for groceries, which are delivered.
•  Church. Gallup documents that membership in a religious organization is down to 50%. From 1937 through the late 1970s it was at 70+%.  

However, if we are determined not to be so so lonely, we can explore where common space can be. Here is what I have discovered is promising during the 63 months I have struggled to find companionship since I uprooted from the New York Metro area:

•  Gyms. Both those stand-alone ones and the in-house fitness centers in residential complexes are wide open to socializing. If we are cautious and don't push too hard too soon to move the gymbuddyness to the next level we could wind up with a few people to talk with. 
•  Recovery meetings. The friendship, or as it is called the "fellowship," is the key driver in attending regularly.  It's like the good old days, with folks inviting us to go out for coffee or have fun at pig roasts by the lake.
•  Wellness groups, ranging from yoga to meditation. People feel they are doing the right thing and are more receptive to welcome those also pursuing healthy goals.
• Pet parks. I have witnessed romances blossom as the canines tend to bring people together. Here a tail wags, there a tail wags. Soon we are not alone. 
•  Goodwill and consignment stores. Traditional retail is out. But hunting in-person for steep bargains has become a national hobby. In that space it's easy to get conversations going which often move on to human beings sharing their stories. This is suitable for law students and seniors in college waiting to hear back from the law schools they applied to. 

However, even with these tactics, expect a slow journey to being back in a friendship loop. Interacting is, well, counter-trend. The trend is i-immersion., along with extreme work. Name one very successful lawyer you know who emerges from the I-world and legal tasks and opens himself or herself to in-person human interaction with peers. The client/prospect stuff is a whole different matter, of course.

Reflection: Friendship requires effort. Being a lawyer might just leave no energy over for that sort of thing. 

Not getting results from your marketing communications? Complimentary consultation – janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

"Ma"- Pain, Pre-Digital, Then a Crime Spree

Back in an Ohio high school, Sue Ann - who goes by nickname Ma - had been withdrawn and naive. She was also one of the few blacks. Of course, she craved to belong.

The mean kids set her up to give oral sex to popular Ben. Then, as a group almost like a Greek Chorus, they laughed about it. That was in person, in the high school corridor. Today it would be through Instagram. 

The film "Ma" chronicles how Sue Ann enacts revenge on those former classmates. That plot starts out with their children, whom she allows to party in her basement.

Bit by bit she becomes increasingly unstable and hostile. That ranges from murdering Ben and his girlfriend Mercedes to drugging and sewing the lips of a smart-mouthed teenager who told her she needed a man. 

Critics note that "Ma" could have been a great film. The plot line and acting don't take advantage of possibilities. But what resonates is the message that those years between childhood and becoming an actual adult are difficult. There are those, like Ma, who never shake off the pain. 

Some entrepreneur with a deep understanding of human nature can invent an app that allows teenagers to sort out in real time and all the time what's happening in their little lives. It would be voice-activated like Alexa, be a damn good listener, and provide sophisticated forms of compassion and guidance. In addition, it would be guaranteed for confidentiality. 

Another kind of help would be allowing students to bring their dogs to school. 

My own descent into hell began not in high school. It was in an all-woman's small Roman Catholic College, not far from where "Ma" is set. Here is that dark psychological drama.

Three years ago, I returned to the scene of the crime to try to sort out all that. I didn't expect it to work. But it did. Unfortunately, too many real-life therapists are unimaginative about what could and does heal. Apps could be lots more creative. 

Not getting results from your marketing communications? Complimentary consultation – janegenova374@gmail.com.

New Form of Domestic Violence & BigDrama: Serina Wolfe's Revenge Tip

Given the media coverage Serina Wolfe's $5,000 "revenge tip" has received, this new form of domestic violence is bound to have plenty of copy cats. Who hasn't become enraged with a soulmate at some time? And this whacks that man or woman right in the wallet. 

Everywhere, service personnel will have to review unusually large tips on small credit-card purchases. The whole transaction could be delayed as the security folks at the credit card company verify the amount of the tip with the person whose name is on the credit card.

Obviously, arrests could be made right on the spot. Look forward to BigDrama at public facilities. 

As the world knows, Wolfe and her boyfriend Michael Crane had a verbal altercation. The issue was if he would allow her to put the flight from Florida back to her hometown Buffalo, New York on his credit card. 

That could have resulted in a physical assault or even death. Matters of the heart are wild cards.

Instead, the rage seemed to motivate Wolfe to push back in a monetary way. A punch right to the budget - and FICA score - of the man she (supposedly) cared about in a romantic way.

Unfortunately, that didn't turn out to be an effective way to channel her anger. Crane reported that $5,000 on his credit card to law enforcement. Wolfe now faces charges of grand larceny.

Caught in the middle is Clear Sky Beachside Cafe.

It had paid out the tip to the server. She had been despondent about the death of her dog.

Now, the burden is on the dining facility to resolve this financial matter.

Will it ask the waitress to return the tip?

Will it swallow the payout?

Will it crowdfund for strangers to help both the business and the waitress out. Those pitching in funds can receive, for instance, a 15% discount on all meals at Clear Sky. Doesn't everyone go to FL at one time or another?

Reflection: Should romantic relationships, like the privilege of driving a car, require licenses? Part of the licensing process would be mandatory training in anger management.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Law Firms - Listen to Wag, Not Stress Experts

There had been that old joke.

A newbie lawyer lobbyist walks into a bar in Washington D.C.

He grouses about how unfriendly and even hostile the folks inside the beltway are.

The guy bellying up to the bar next to him smirks and says, "Get a dog." Yeah, in searching for support from two-leggers, the lawyer was, to use the cliché, barking up the wrong tree. 

That anecdote  is supposed to showcase how dogs, the four-leggers, are mankind's best friend. And it does.

But in this era when capitalism has run wild and narcissism has overtaken relationships, the dog might turn out to be mankind's only friend. And that's exactly why law firms should allow several dogs in the office. The logistics can be worked out easily. Already, more and more offices in trophy buildings in major metro areas have dogs. Otherwise there might have been more suicides.

A Wag survey found that in terms of looking for emotional support, 44% of those who responded answered that they turn to their dogs versus confiding in humans. Imagine how much stress could be prevented or released if the overwhelmed lawyer or staff member simply took the dog for a walk and shared woes along the way. 

Also Wag reported that of those interviewed, 38% admitted that their affection is showered on the dog, not others in their life. The surprise is that the percentage isn't higher. Paid parental leave should be extended to dog adoption. Fund that instead of contracting with supposed stress experts to parachute in.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.