Can Someone Over Fifty Find A Meaningful Job?

Is it likely that someone over fifty will find a meaningful job if they are terminated from their current position? Nope. The dirty little secret is that human resources departments everywhere say nay to gray.

What can you do about it?

You can do plenty. However it is unlikely you will get any results, let’s face it the gray crowd is the most discriminated against group there is. If blacks, gays, Hispanics, hamsters or any other group or animal species were treated the way gray hairs are, there would be hell to pay.

Take the Parking Lot Test!

The other day I picked up my wife from her workplace. Her company has gone through a big purge. The parking lot is now only half filled. It use to be as I watched the workers come out the door they were a cross section of Americana, women, men, races of all kinds, and all ages. Now, the employees who come out of the door look as if they are young enough to be going to a prom. Occasionally there is a token fifty something or sixty something someone.

The same is true all across America. Of course to compound the problem when the human resources departments hire a new employee, s/he is under 40.

Cancer was my Downfall

My position from a corporation was terminated (an acronym for get rid of the old guy) two days after I returned from Radical Prostate Surgery.  This was despite the fact that for two years prior I had won employee of the year for the contributions I made to the company. There were more than 20,000 employees in the company.

Older employees are more apt to get things like cancer, or heart conditions or stuff, and of course raise the insurance rates. I was told that off the record I was, “high maintenance.” The guy who replaced me 43. His job description had been changed slightly, but it was still the same work.

They Tell you To Retrain

The irony is that is what I had done. In the mid 90’s I went from traditional marketing to online marketing. Some of the projects I led my team on were unheard of. I had a satchel full of good stuff. The thing I didn’t reckon with was people didn’t believe someone over 40 could be involved in such change. I even had a guy tell me during a phone call that it was good to talk to someone under 40.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because any time you get anyone over 40 involved in this stuff its beyond them,” the voice said.

“I am 54 ,” I responded.

There was silence, then he said, “How come you misled me and hung up.”

He made the assumption because I was on the leading edge of applying new technology I had to be young.

Catch-22

The retraining to new technologies is a catch-22. The  culture of the united states is one that believes people over 50 aren’t equipped to handle change or new ways of doing things, then who is going to believe someone who is over fifty who has retrained is going to be good at something new? Yet, if the person doesn’t try to retrain for new skills than s/he is deemed  incapable of wanting to learn new things.

What’s a Euphemism for Over the Hill?

So I became a consultant.  That’s what people over fifty do. They become consultants after they learn they aren’t going to find a job that even begins to match the one they lost.

Being a consultant  worked for awhile.  But my network gradually aged from no gray to salt and pepper and many of them found themselves consulting. My networks grew bigger but of less value because they consisted largely of people over 50 without jobs.

Am I Bitter?

No, I am more frustrated than bitter.  I think if the reader looks at the blogs I have written he or she can see   I am pretty nimble with my fingers and brain in writing stuff. I am not the highest ranked blogger on hub pages, but I am not doing badly.  

I still enjoy writing marketing plans. I just did one for a nonprofit.  Of course it won’t be used the new director terminated my position and never bothered to ask me one question about what I had been doing. 

Oh yes the new director has no gray hair and has an attitude that if one has gray hair then one could not have anything worthwhile to contribute.

What can you do about it?

Use hair dye

Get a hair transplant

Lie about your age on your resume or job application: sure you won’t get hired if they find out you lied, but you sure as heck aren’t going to get hired if you tell the truth.

Keep on trying. Maybe I am a starry eyed optimist, but I believe there is someone out there who will look at the value I provide.

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