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Fortune magazine in their May 16th 2005 issue ran a cover story called “50 and Fired.”
Where do I begin?
It is called prematurely, or involuntarily, retired. Let’s start with some facts from the Bureau of Labor. From 2001 through 2003, 55 to 64 year olds were 13 percent less likely to find new jobs than 25 to 54 year olds: 57 percent to almost 70 percent. Older workers are taking pay cuts to stay in the corporate world.
Under Jack Welsh, GE culled out older workers under his expression of “the vitality curve,” which means that if you are older, you get the axe, while younger workers go up the ladder. And GE identified what they called “Blockers”: people in the way that had to go.
And although age discrimination is illegal, almost 85% of the time these cases are won by the employers.
In fact, California Supreme Court Justice Brown wrote in a 2004 opinion that, “discrimination based on age is not...like race and sex discrimination. It does not mark its victim with a ’stigma of inferiority, and second-class citizenship’; it is the unavoidable consequence of that universal leveler: time.”
Boy is Justice Brown an A-hole, and the A doesn’t stand for atomic, or the smartest in the class.
Let’s face it; younger people will work for less and will work more hours. Where did I miss the boat? I have been here since seven and won’t leave until very late.
Younger people are also seen as “with it,” and they know and are not afraid of technology and advances that older workers don’t seem to pick up. (I am writing on an Apple- it is my first one, and I know how to work it as well as my younger IT guy. I can get the external and internal mouse to work at the same time.)
Now while companies are dumping the old, the young are going to be in short supply in the future because the boomers didn’t have as many babies. From 2002 to 2012 the Bureau of Labor projects the number of 35 to 44 year olds in the labor force will decline by 3.8%, while the number of 54 to 64 year olds will increase by 8.3 million.
So what is the bottom line here? America is the land of opportunity and you have to get your hands around the 1099 world, not the W-2 world. Perspectives have to change, and you are going to have to be an entrepreneur if you want to continue to work in America past age 50 or 60. If you don’t prepare yourself to become an entrepreneur, you will end up looking at your shoes, staring off into space wondering what the hell happened.
In Seattle they have a job club where people 55 and older get together and help each other find jobs. There are many people who don’t want to retire- they want to continue to be working and contributing in their lives.
People just don’t want to retire or retire for long. They want to be active.
A person I know whose father was an owner of an automobile dealership hated the car business, yet spent 40 years running a car dealership. The father dreamed of retiring, and he did that with all of the resources that one needs to have a financially free retirement.
He died six months later.
Imagine people are goal-oriented. So when this man met his goal of retirement, he died. And while he was meeting his goal he was miserable. What a way to live life.
On the other hand, people who want to work are having a tough time finding work so they can be fulfilled in their lives.
As we get older we have to adapt and stretch what we think we can or cannot do. We have to understand that as we get older people look at us differently, but also remember they will get older too. Life’s revenge. Having goals and being able to be active and full of life is life’s reward.
You are and can be someone special no matter how old you are, and don’t let anyone tell you different because they are wrong. And I can’t wait to see Justice Brown in her old age.
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