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I's bee a little over three months now since my last employer (a fast-pace warehouse) pushed me into retired status due to falling short of production quotas. In fairness, I was lucky to hold it for the three years I did and, save for the disappointment on missing an incentive payment, there was no hostility on either side. It's just emblematic of a new economy where knowledge seems to count for less and less.
I managed to land a typical "temp" job in a supermarket after about three weeks, but a chronic spinal condition, with which I'd managed to live for 55 years, began to re-assert itself about a year ago, so the supervisors of both agency and client got nervous and decided to pull the plug. Officially, I'm available for callback if something suitable turns up, but the odds are it will be even more sterile and dead-end than the last time.
Three summers ago, while waiting for that last "real" opportunity, I put in a couple of months at a call center with a notorious reputation for tediousness. I answered one or two calls an hour, read from a tightly controlled script, and generally concentrated on not letting the callers find out that surrender to a sales pitch was the fastest way to solving their issues -- this under the eyes of an Asian eavesdropper who spoke English well enough, but didn't grasp the nuances and inflectionary messages of American society, (Whether a close relative is seriously ill, or the dog just fouled the carpet, say "I'm sorry" every chance you get.)
So I'm back to pounding the pavement -- E-fling applications for any b within reasonable range (I had to close up shop in a metro of about one million, sixty miles from here, in exchange for one with perhaps 150,000). That, plus the need to travel further to work, has reduced the options quite a bit.
In fairness, there are some compensations; I'm spending part of just about every day with friends I'm both fortunate to have and fit in with, and able to help in little ways; also fixing up a house I rented out for most to the last fifteen years while out of town. The money situation is "adequate" -- for now; I use the temp and part-time jobs to "stretch" the Unemployment checks, but if I don't latch on to something by October, it looks as if I'll have no choice but to fall back on Social Security, rather than defer it for a few more years in hope of a bigger benefit. Medicare and a small private pension kick in this fall.
But most of all right now, I miss the satisfaction of earning my way by doing something, a goal that seems harder to find in a society that doesn't seem know what it wants either
But most of all right now, I miss the satisfaction of earning my way by doing something, a goal that seems harder to find in a society that doesn't seem know what it wants either
You are 64, an age at which finding a decent job is difficult. I sympathize, but that does not help you any. The reason I quoted only the last two lines of your post is to thank you for the sentiment you expressed there. It is somehow reassuring to find someone who gets satisfaction from working, from earning his way by doing something. This Retirement Forum is filled with posts by people who cannot stand working, who hate their jobs with a passion, who repeat over and over how life only begins when work ends. Good for you. I was beginning to think I was the only one.
Do you have Costco, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, or Starbucks in your area? They are supposed to be good companies to work for and open to hiring "mature" workers.
I hope you are able to find something suitable soon.
Like Escort Rider, I sympathize with your difficulty in finding a job and I respect your wanting to find gainful employment.
However, your post suggests you considered your past 3 positions to all be beneath you, and you perhaps didn't give your best efforts to them. Perhaps along with how you view society, you're not sure what you want either?
Like Escort Rider, I sympathize with your difficulty in finding a job and I respect your wanting to find gainful employment.
However, your post suggests you considered your past 3 positions to all be beneath you, and you perhaps didn't give your best efforts to them. Perhaps along with how you view society, you're not sure what you want either?
I understand where you're coming from, but I'm on the horns of a dilemma
Admittedly, most of my working life has involved learning more about my own strengths and weaknesses; I know that I don't have the gushy, phony "outgoing" personality sought for the "people jobs" that represent most of what's out there for a person my age. I hate to lie, and as far as I'm concerned, every sales pitch is a lie, to some degree.
But on a more positive note, some years ago I found myself unemployed, and while seeking a better-paying opportunity in my own field, took an overnight call-center job dealing with roadside emergency service, The need to cover the thinner supply of resources at odd hours, the lack of close supervision and the trust it entailed, all made it a natural for my background, and only a better-paying opportunity closer to my "old home grounds" convinced me to leave.
But what is beginning to look like the final three years of my career were spent in the "new economy" -- a much more diverse group -- which was just fine with me. We all subscribed to the same ethic as the military -- that if you could handle a job that intense, you obviously were no slacker, I assumed the role of "token geezer", and for nearly three years, it worked. Another great positive I'll recall about the place is that on only a few occasions, and always on visitors, did i encounter that ridiculous "corporate tribal scar" known as a necktie, "Desk jobs?" -- Fahgeddaboutit! -- there were almost none.
And unfortunately, the place also subscribed, and very strongly, to the credo of "continuous improvement"; many basic functions were reduced to little more than "continuous calisthetics"; production quotas rise a little as the process is fine-tuned, and it's usually the people over age 40-50 who fall by the wayside. I suspect that my status under the Disabilities Act kept me working quite a bit longer than would otherwise have been the case, but all good things must come to an end.
So we'll keep pursuing every opportunity that seems to fit, but with the caveat that it might come down to a choice betwen taking a job I'll quickly come to resent, or being forced onto a fixed income before I'm good and ready.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 07-18-2014 at 02:53 PM..
Whatever happened to just feeling grateful to earn a paycheck, regardless of how mindless the work or how much arse kissing or pretending to be a sociable person is involved?
You get a job; you give it all you've got; do the best you can. It is called mindfulness. It doesn't matter if it is sweeping floors or running a Fortune 500 company: you do a good day's work in exchange for a wage. Down and dirty, plain and simple.
I think it is a little late, frankly, to be so picky. And that attitude about wearing a tie . . . really? **Really????** It's a job. You do what you need to do and do it cheerfully. And why? BECAUSE YOU ARE GRATEFUL TO BE ABLE TO EARN A WAGE.
When you agree to work for an employer, you agree to the terms of that employment . . . meaning . . . if you are told to do X a certain way, you do X a certain way. If you are told to wear X, you wear X. If you are told to give a sales pitch, you give a sales pitch.
Trying to find someone to hire ANY OF US at 64 is a feat in itself. If you can land a job, stop overanalyzing all this and be a good employee, whatever that means. Do what you are asked. If you can't do that, then you really don't want to work.
Sorry, but while there are people desperate enough to humiliate themselves to those depths for a paycheck, and manipulative types who probably enjoy participating in that sort of tommyrot, I'm not among them.
I try to defuse such situations; it's been about seven years since I engaged in any sort of confrontational stance with any employer. But back in 2006, I was transferred (involuntarily) from a department where I worked well in a small, overnight shift, to one run by a "spit and polish" military veteran who just had to have some sort of "salute" in recognition of his authority on a regular basis. Part of every day included the sort of personal service -- making coffee, picking up his dry cleaning, etc. -- that was a fixture when women started standing up to it thirty years ago.
After two weeks, another supervisor explained to me that the bully-boy had a long history of this, that some people were concerned about possible legal challenges, and that an Unemployment claim would not be challenged if I left. I walked out, but was at another job in two weeks, and a better job within three months.
And as I believe the attached link demonstrates, "power games", and petty short-term thinking have become more prevalent in the gutted, post-industrial economy.
I'm a conservative in most economic matters; I recognize the need for and superiority of free markets. But supervisors who sink to the type of pettiness, over-structure and needless regimentation which has become all to common in our over-sensitized workplaces have no justification in whining when Big Brother/Sister pushes his/her presence into their little fiefdom.
Protected by the social safety net, the private pension system, and my own previous choices, I no longer have to work. But I want to work, just not for some petty sycophant who expects me to "jump through hoops" -- especially when my time and attention are being marked up and re-sold to some over-protected "trailing spouse", child, retiree, or other party who is too sheltered from the harshness of the economic mainstream. That well-insulated distortion is the root cause of much of the discontent in workplaces that offer all the autonomy (and responsibility) of the middle-school classrooms upon which too many of them are modeled.
At least when I worked in the latter-day sweatshop of the warehouse, I could keep my pride.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 07-18-2014 at 10:07 PM..
.......I think it is a little late, frankly, to be so picky. And that attitude about wearing a tie . . . really? **Really????** It's a job. .
Ani, I remember having an online argument about the necktie question with the same OP over a year ago. At least I'm pretty sure it was the same fellow, as I've never encountered such a strong tie phobia before or since. There is something bizarre going on psychologically.
OP, did some guy wearing a tie molest you when you were a child or something?
Hmmm. Interesting. You are 64. Why would anyone be interested in hiring you?
Are you a well known doctor or professor or engineer or the equivalent? Or are you well known in your particular field/industry? Chances are that if you are, at that age you'd likely be looking forward to a well deserved retirement.
If you do fit that profile and are not yet ready for retirement, you likely could set your own self-defined parameters for your next job and work environment. Otherwise, in most of the work world today you are SOL. Unless, of course, you have your own business. But evidently you aren't in that situation.
Given though that you are set for retirement and you despise (for the most part) how things are today (at least, as you perceive them), get over it, move on, enjoy life and your retirement.
When i retired at 60 i spent a year on vacation then thought about getting a job just to give me something to do and make a little extra money.I thought it was going to be easy, didnt turn out that way,over the next 2 years i put in applications in all the local big box stores,grocery stores,pharmacies.golf courses even rentacar companies end result? not a single call back. I've come to the conclusion that once past 60 you are no longer a relevant or wanted member of the work force unless you have some sought after special talent or you know some one who is in a position to hire you your working life is over and for many like me one loses a sense of relevance in life.
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The necktie question
didnt turn out that way,over the next 2 years i put in applications in all the local big box stores,grocery stores,pharmacies.golf courses even rentacar companies end result? not a single call back. I've come to the conclusion that once past 60 you are no longer a relevant or wanted member of the work force unless you have some sought after special talent or you know some one who is in a position to hire you your working life is over and for many like me one loses a sense of relevance in life.
