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Well all I can say is this. What would you have these people do. Dance an Irish *** and a Pot of Gold would appear with jobs for everyone. These people are most likely hurting and have been for some time. I assume the people you are referring to lost jobs in their older years. They are just not seniors who have retired from employers but want to work part time now. Losing a job in your 50's or early 60's must be terrible. I saw what it did to my brother in Law, when he lost his at 60 after 25 years with his company. It destroyed him since he was not old enough to collect SS, or get any type of retirement at that age. Of course the people you saw at that job fair have things to say. They have also entered the part of life, where many start to feel isolated. I would have let them talk. Perhaps you are just looking for work at your age now, and did not go what they are going thru. If not consider yourself very lucky.
I can empathize with your brother in law. It is terrible to lose one's jobs in their 50's. I can remember going to an employment agency that had a very good reputation in my city. I was dressed impeccably. My grey hair was colored in my natural shade. I had a small amount of makeup. I had someone check me over before my appointment to make certain I was presentable. I had a newly gotten paralegal degree. I was 54 years old with decades of experience in the health insurance industry.
As I looked around me in the waiting room of the agency I saw only twenty something people. I imagined many were new college grads. When it was my turn to be interviewed, the woman who interviewed me had grey hair and was obviously close to my age if not the same. I thought to myself that this was a bonus, she will be sympathetic.
Wrong! She was horrible. Her attitude was one of contempt, as if I were wasting her time. She barely glanced at my professionally made resume. She had me take various tests and told me I was too slow on the MSWord portion of it. It was a "Don't call us, we'll call you" kind of situation. She practically booted me out the door.
I was humiliated, devastated and just wanted to crawl into a hole. But of course I had to carry on. I eventually got a great job through a friend as I mentioned in a previous post.
There is an addendum to this story. Some years later I was chatting with a neighbor of mine who was much younger than I. She told me that she had gone to the same employment agency and had gotten her job through them. Like me, she had been fresh out of paralegal school but had no experience in the working world. She couldn't do the Word program so they allowed her to take the test home with her to finish it. And I got points taken off because I was too slow? Right!
If that wasn't some sort of discrimination I don't know what was. When I was younger I nailed every job interview I had ever gone on be it an agency or directly with an employer. There was only one difference now that I could determine and that was I was no longer young. If it was anything else, I sure couldn't figure out what that was, especially when I was seeing people my age not getting hired but being laid off right and left.
But you have to keep trying because there is going to be someone who will give you a chance. That's what happened in my case. It's just finding that person who is willing to give you that chance.
I retired at 60 and thought i'd get a job once retired not for the money but more to give me something to do, I put in job applications in all the local golf courses,big box stores,pharmacies,grocery stores, local municipalities,various janitor firms,renta car companies,security companies etc, to date not a single call back so i've given up on efforts to find employment and come to the conclusion companies really dont want to hire 60+ year olds no matter how menial the job.
Try Lowes or Home Depot. You have to hand it to them, they do hire older workers. Some are service desk jobs, not all on your feet.
Maybe i'm being simplistic, as I can be, but I think it's far better to develop a small PT business of one's own than to grovel for a job at our age. It's sooo demeaning to do so. And when you consider what these jobs are likely paying, as opposed to what you can charge per hour on your own, it's almost a no-brainer. These self-employment gigs can pay $15 to $20 and more per hour.
- errands (don't take on passengers, too much liability, you have to be insured and bonded)
- light carpentry
- yard work
- have truck? rubbish removal (good money)
- put a plow on the front of your truck and snow-plow (one of my kids, who's in construction, moonlights doing this and does a supermarket pkg lot at $70/hour)
- cat sitting, dog sitting, house sitting, child sitting
- companion for a disabled or elderly person
- personal secretary/organizer
- sewing, repairs
- light housekeeping ($30+/hour)
- etc.
It may be unrealistic, and certainly a waste of time, to keep applying for so many jobs over months and getting nowhere.
My 80 year old mother got a job being a weekend receptionist for a psychiatric hospital in Texas. It pays $15.00/hour. She got the job because of her prior experience working is hospitals and she was willing to work weekends. Because she is retired, it does not make any difference to her what days of the week she works. She is also very personable.
I can empathize with your brother in law. It is terrible to lose one's jobs in their 50's. I can remember going to an employment agency that had a very good reputation in my city. I was dressed impeccably. My grey hair was colored in my natural shade. I had a small amount of makeup. I had someone check me over before my appointment to make certain I was presentable. I had a newly gotten paralegal degree. I was 54 years old with decades of experience in the health insurance industry.
As I looked around me in the waiting room of the agency I saw only twenty something people. I imagined many were new college grads. When it was my turn to be interviewed, the woman who interviewed me had grey hair and was obviously close to my age if not the same. I thought to myself that this was a bonus, she will be sympathetic.
Wrong! She was horrible. Her attitude was one of contempt, as if I were wasting her time. She barely glanced at my professionally made resume. She had me take various tests and told me I was too slow on the MSWord portion of it. It was a "Don't call us, we'll call you" kind of situation. She practically booted me out the door.
I was humiliated, devastated and just wanted to crawl into a hole. But of course I had to carry on. I eventually got a great job through a friend as I mentioned in a previous post.
There is an addendum to this story. Some years later I was chatting with a neighbor of mine who was much younger than I. She told me that she had gone to the same employment agency and had gotten her job through them. Like me, she had been fresh out of paralegal school but had no experience in the working world. She couldn't do the Word program so they allowed her to take the test home with her to finish it. And I got points taken off because I was too slow? Right!
If that wasn't some sort of discrimination I don't know what was. When I was younger I nailed every job interview I had ever gone on be it an agency or directly with an employer. There was only one difference now that I could determine and that was I was no longer young. If it was anything else, I sure couldn't figure out what that was, especially when I was seeing people my age not getting hired but being laid off right and left.
But you have to keep trying because there is going to be someone who will give you a chance. That's what happened in my case. It's just finding that person who is willing to give you that chance.
Know many "Boomers" are from generations that don't like to make a federal case out of everything, but someone really needs to start calling employers, agencies et al out on what appears to be rampant age discrimination.
If these places pulled half the stunts they get away with on gays, African Americans, Latino-Hispanics, and other minority groups they'd be on the evening news with the federal government leading the charge to hang.
Speaking of employment/temp agencies, the places have historically been ripe with discrimination and apparently that has not changed.
Employers could (and again apparently still do) specify what sort of persons they wanted sent an agencies would comply. Here in NYC years ago an undercover investigation was launched that found many such places used various codes on applications to indicate race, age, gender, sexual preference and so forth. If you were this or that minority there was a good chance you would not be sent to certain places (top law firms, investment banks, ad agencies, etc....) because they didn't hire "those" sort of persons. If they did it was for "invisible" back office positions where you wouldn't be seen by clients or so forth.
My 80 year old mother got a job being a weekend receptionist for a psychiatric hospital in Texas. It pays $15.00/hour. She got the job because of her prior experience working is hospitals and she was willing to work weekends. Because she is retired, it does not make any difference to her what days of the week she works. She is also very personable.
This post puts a big smile on my face. What a wonderful story. My next door neighbor worked late into her 70's and that included a two mile round trip walk to work. Hopefully your mom will enjoy her new job.
Know many "Boomers" are from generations that don't like to make a federal case out of everything, but someone really needs to start calling employers, agencies et al out on what appears to be rampant age discrimination.
If these places pulled half the stunts they get away with on gays, African Americans, Latino-Hispanics, and other minority groups they'd be on the evening news with the federal government leading the charge to hang.
Speaking of employment/temp agencies, the places have historically been ripe with discrimination and apparently that has not changed.
Employers could (and again apparently still do) specify what sort of persons they wanted sent an agencies would comply. Here in NYC years ago an undercover investigation was launched that found many such places used various codes on applications to indicate race, age, gender, sexual preference and so forth. If you were this or that minority there was a good chance you would not be sent to certain places (top law firms, investment banks, ad agencies, etc....) because they didn't hire "those" sort of persons. If they did it was for "invisible" back office positions where you wouldn't be seen by clients or so forth.
Some are decent though. I worked at a place where we got all our lower level entry jobs from one temp agency. They sent us people of all ages. Sometimes the employees they sent us went on to work into really great jobs and sometimes they were only temporary because that's what they wanted. I guess we just we dealt with one of the good ones, sad to hear there are many that aren't.
The job market is tough for everyone these days. I feel sorry for young people as well as old. I really can appreciate now how easy it was for me to get work with only a high school diploma when I was just 18. Boy, those were the days. Although back then it was tough to get some really good jobs if one was female because there were what was considered "men's" jobs and "women's" jobs. Remember those? But that's a topic for a different thread.
Our economy has real structural issues reintegrating older workers whose former career fields were eliminated or were downsized.
With that said, I have noticed that many of the 50+ I know who have been laid off, including my father, have a defeated air about them and simply have given up before they try. Dad was making $45k-$50k base in east TN (low COL) before OT in 2006 with a thirty mile commute and no state income tax. He went from the factory to a call center in 2007, making $29k, with a hundred mile commute, and a roughly 4% state income tax. There are lots of 40+ workers at this site in the exact same situation.
Had my father moved in 2007, he would have been fifty, and probably in better financial shape than today. He's turning fifty-seven this year, making less money than eight years ago, and still won't relocate. I've told him that him and my mother will be replacing $35k/yr jobs, not $100k jobs, so it shouldn't be unreasonable to relocate, but they stubbornly will not od it.
Instead of moving to where there may be more jobs, retraining, or aggressively pursuing employment, many older workers are just "hanging on," trying to make it until they get SS eligible, eligible to withdraw from their retirement plans without penalty, or waiting it out until they reach some milestone. That's a major life error, especially if one is already whittling away retirement accounts in the likely vain attempt to stay afloat.
My 80 year old mother got a job being a weekend receptionist for a psychiatric hospital in Texas. It pays $15.00/hour. She got the job because of her prior experience working is hospitals and she was willing to work weekends. Because she is retired, it does not make any difference to her what days of the week she works. She is also very personable.
That's just plain cool. I bet they love her!
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