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At my job, we have people in their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. I've worked with the spectrum every place I've worked. But a lot of people are edging closer to retirement and because people don't care that much about my field, they aren't exactly dying to get into it.
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Originally Posted by CGab
I'm in my 40's as is my DH and we both work. We both agree that employees in their 20's and 30's are not as good as employees 40 and up. Example, my employer hired a 31 yr old 2 months ago. I attempted to train him and he kept telling me "I got it" and wouldn't pay attention to me. He literally played on his phone the entire time. So I gave up. He has no clue what he's doing and continues to make major mistakes that now I have been correcting. I'm stopping that. Not only does he not care to be trained, but he does not speak professionally at all! I heard him say to a client the other day "You say what?". YOU SAY WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!! What happened to, pardon me, excuse me, sorry? How can you work in a professional atmosphere and speak like that?
Terrible!
I wish I could agree but I cannot. Please don't generalize based on age. I have worked in too many places where:
1. I had to help the people at night (all older than me) on the computers with every little thing. They have been working on computers forever in this field and also, I was the last hired at the time---how do they not get it? (This is what I would say to myself when getting called over to help them for the 100th time about something that I knew I helped them with before.)
2. I had to tell someone they were wrong about something (I said, "I don't agree. I think it's ABC.") Someone who had been working in that particular area for over twenty years and she was the lead. And they didn't believe me, so I had to ask someone else to "agree" with me who was also older. (I work in patient care so getting it right is IMPORTANT.) I knew I was right because I knew exactly what it was, but I knew they wouldn't believe me because, "I am younger." (I was correct after all.)
3. The person who has been working in my field for over twenty years (in her 40s) at my current job is horrendous. She actually considers herself an expert in a certain area, which is a joke. I don't know how many mistakes I've had to fix (including ones that impact patient care) and she's still there. They are scary mistakes some of them. But you're right, she's in her 40s, she's automatically a better worker. Then God be with you if she is on the shift if you ever happen to be a patient there! Honestly, the more horrendous part, IMO, is that management doesn't actually write her up for any of this. Oh I can't wait until I am out!
I'm in my 40s and work - have must work. The company I work for hired a woman in her 30s and another one in her 50's..the difference is unbelievable. The 30 year old doesn't take notes, texts constantly, and makes TONS of mistakes. The 50 year old is pleasant, eager to learn and has great energy...now this is just based off two people - and not entire group.
We all are leaning towards the 56 year old...and trying to get her on our team. It showed my boss - age sometimes is better older...
Many if not most in the former are rude passive aggressive drama queens. I mean most in the 30 something group have this almost sick sense of entitlement.
My observation is that the trick is to find a in demand skill that isn't easily replaceable. Tech is way to volatile. You graduate college, get some experience, work your way up the ladder while becoming an expert in XYZ tech. Then the industry changes and your expertise becomes obsolete over night, even if you saw it coming and received some training in the new tech, you find yourself competing against new college grads that know as much as you do about the new tech and are much cheaper.... unless you re well connected in the company you can find yourself out the door and find that the tech industry has moved on from what you knew and you have to start from scratch.. if you can get a job that allows you to. Its a case of, your the valuable asset one day and the unjustified overhead the next.
There are some industries out there that you can learn skills that are not replaceable. Knowledge of how to design certain system in petro chemical/power generation plants are skills that are learned over many years that no new tech is going to replace. There is no class room to teach these so you can be in demand for the rest of your working years..
I know this because, I chose to pursue engineering technology instead of the traditional drafter/designer role. While I loved the work and excelled at it. I was easily replaced when the technology changed and I wasn't invited to the new party.
I'm now struggling to find a similar role as the tech I was skilled at is being phased out and have had to fall back on a former career that pays a lot less.
Its frustrating and depressing, but I made my choices and have to live with them now. I turn 40 next month.
wow i havent checked this post since i posted it and i dont have time to read all these posts now!
Im glad I'm not alone in my thoughts on this and that there are people in this age group working. It's disturbing. I will never reach VP level, heck i will likely never reach director level...but i still need/want to work. It's bull **** that only 20 somethings are desirable it seems. It's very scary that many jobs are disappearing, getting outsourced/automated and the ones that are left are only good for a 20 something. What happened to this country? It's one thing for younger actors/actresses to only get the movie roles, but now it feels like only the 20 something are getting the jobs?
At my job, we have people in their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. I've worked with the spectrum every place I've worked. But a lot of people are edging closer to retirement and because people don't care that much about my field, they aren't exactly dying to get into it.
I wish I could agree but I cannot. Please don't generalize based on age. I have worked in too many places where:
1. I had to help the people at night (all older than me) on the computers with every little thing. They have been working on computers forever in this field and also, I was the last hired at the time---how do they not get it? (This is what I would say to myself when getting called over to help them for the 100th time about something that I knew I helped them with before.)
2. I had to tell someone they were wrong about something (I said, "I don't agree. I think it's ABC.") Someone who had been working in that particular area for over twenty years and she was the lead. And they didn't believe me, so I had to ask someone else to "agree" with me who was also older. (I work in patient care so getting it right is IMPORTANT.) I knew I was right because I knew exactly what it was, but I knew they wouldn't believe me because, "I am younger." (I was correct after all.)
3. The person who has been working in my field for over twenty years (in her 40s) at my current job is horrendous. She actually considers herself an expert in a certain area, which is a joke. I don't know how many mistakes I've had to fix (including ones that impact patient care) and she's still there. They are scary mistakes some of them. But you're right, she's in her 40s, she's automatically a better worker. Then God be with you if she is on the shift if you ever happen to be a patient there! Honestly, the more horrendous part, IMO, is that management doesn't actually write her up for any of this. Oh I can't wait until I am out!
I suppose there are exceptions, but it is not the NORM and I think many would agree with me!
I suppose there are exceptions, but it is not the NORM and I think many would agree with me!
Sorry, I don't agree, and I've worked in a lot of places. I think people should be judged individually. My field has quite the spectrum in terms of age and you can definitely tell the people who "get it" versus those that don't. Those who want to learn will learn. I think my field has actually become stronger with the younger crowd, due to increased licensing and certifications that didn't exist before, which meant before anyone could roll off of the street and do my job so a lot of people were grandfathered in that shouldn't have ever been there in the first place!
I've seen some scary things. Once, this one woman was working the shift before me and I was working behind her in the following shift. On the same patient, we were getting very different results that didn't clinically make any sense to me. So, I went and found what she was working with and got a completely different result. After going through what she had been doing, I found she was doing it completely wrong---in fact, no matter how I did the math, I couldn't figure out how she was doing it so wrong. I brought it to my boss because I care about patients and there would have to be error corrections. When they brought it to her attention, she blamed the instrumentation and said that she knew what she was doing and she knew how to do it because she had "been doing it for years." She didn't want to listen because she knew better. Now I can blame the fact that she was older, set in her ways, etc. But I won't, because I also worked with another woman, older than the previous one mentioned, where if she was told she was doing something wrong, she would listen.
I haven't read this whole thread, so I apologize if I repeat anything. Other than people who were close to retirement and lost all their money, Millennials were most hurt by the recession. I just read an article that said that those who took out student loans in 2012 have the highest default rates out of everyone who took out loans after 2009.
Many Millennials graduated from college during the recession and right after it when the unemployment rate was still high. Depending on your source, the oldest Millennials are 36 to 38 years old. I remember searching for work between 2011 and 2014, and it was hard to compete with older workers with more experience.
Now, we have a very low unemployment rate, and I see many 22 year olds graduating right into jobs that pay $40k-50k. I'm even seeing people with less marketable degrees getting good-paying jobs soon after graduation, and it's because we have a worker shortage. Unfortunately, older Millennials were delayed in gaining experience during the recession, so they now have to compete with 22-24 year olds for entry-level jobs.
Age discrimination knows no bounds. That's because age discrimination laws have very few teeth.
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