A silent killer in this scenario is that companies are failing to prepare proper succession plans. The gap between the Boomers and the GenXers and GenYs is widening every day. Available candidates to fill top spots within the company are becoming fewer and fewer. Each time a young professional who was on the succession plan is rolled out, it takes years to replace them in the succession plan. Those of us at the older end of that scale may not have years to complete the plan. A recent report in AARP Magazine states that 1/3 of companies surveyed told Career Builder that they now have no formal succession plan. Roughly one-fourth said they had been adversely affected financially by poor succession planning or lack of it.