Joanne Gassman recently retired from a job she loved. As a senior vice-president at the Bank of Montreal, she drove the creation of BMO’s women’s market to take advantage of an underserved demographic.
Gassman, who regularly put in long hours, knew she wasn’t ready to stop working. She’s taken care to create a retirement plan that will keep her busy and connected to business contacts.
“We’re the first baby boomers going through this,” Gassman said. “There are more women in senior roles who had more responsibility and I think in some ways have let our jobs define us.
“It’s not like you just want to leave work one day and say, ‘I’m going to start knitting.’”
Gassman took a one-year consulting contract with BMO to continue to work on bringing the bank’s women’s market national. The work amounted to four to five days per month.
“I call it the umbilical cord. I’d worked for BMO for 39 years, so a big part of my business network were colleagues,” she said. “Having something where I was still connected to the company, and was important work but wasn’t all-consuming, I think allowed me to think about other things I wanted to do – but it wasn’t cold turkey.”
Gassman took a course through the Minerva Foundation called Leaders in Transition, which helped her figure out what she wanted in her new phase of life.
Since her contract with BMO ended, Gassman has kept very busy. She now sits on the boards of the Women’s Economic Business Advisory Council, an advocacy group that promotes women’s participation in business; a business called Gro-YourBiz.com; and the Bowen Island Community Foundation.
Gassman is also a director of the Streetohome Foundation, chairs a council called I Am Powerful for CARE Canada and chairs the board of the Bill Reid Gallery.
Being able to fully explore other interests is exciting, Gassman said.
“I kind of look at it in three buckets,” she said. “One is around women, one is around community and then time for friends and family.”
On being just busy enough | “What I need to be careful about is it’s like you’re a kid in a candy store; you get all these opportunities coming your way. It’s picking and choosing. But I feel really good right now. I have a great life. I’m not busy all the time but I’m busy enough.”
Has a work or life challenge taught you a key career lesson? Contact Jen St. Denis at [email protected]
