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I had every expectation of retiring in my late 60s or as late as 70. I was always reading the articles by the experts telling us that the best approach is to keep working until 70 and then start collecting Social Security. That way more money goes into your bank and investment accounts and you get the maximum Social Security. Seemed so logical but life and people's bias got in the way.
Once I got to 62, I could do nothing right. Every action real or imaged I did at work was second guessed and spun to the negative. I had a long record of success at work and always got great performance appraisals.
People started calling me old man and duffer. They kept asking me when I was going to retire. I was marginalized and given less and less to do. All the others workers in the office around my age were falling like flies and once they left none of them could get another job. Finally, I was fired for a poor fit. (After fitting in for over ten years at the company.)
I can't decide if I should sue for age discrimination, or call it a day and officially retire. For all practical purposes I am retired now. I expect that my story is quite common today.
agr discrimination is very hard to prove .especially when you yourself said you could do nothing right and so they have justification .
unless someone is underfunded i don't know of any experts telling people to retire at 70. none i would consider experts anyway .
they may recommend taking social security at 70 but that is a different situation than retiring at 70 .
for someone underfunded , working until 70 may be the silver bullet that turns an underfunded retirement in to a well funded one . it can represent a difference of as much as 800k in savings .
but that is not something i would say any expert iis telling people to do if they are not underfunded
Many people are involuntarily retired, fired for some likely untrue reason, but it's really due to being old! I think we'll see a lot more of this in the future as companies need fewer and fewer workers due to automation.
could very well be , but very difficult to make a discrimination case . as long as there is some valid reason the company can come up with ,they can do as they see fit.
Unless there are basically no workers in ones expertise at the company, then laid off for performance is easy to justify. They still have 68 year old Joe doing something similar, so its not age.
the company i left found the opposite problem . us retiring seniors are leaving the company with all rather inexperienced youngin's .
they have me coming in and working as many days as i want ,when i want just doing technical training . this is year 2 i do this once a week unless we are away.
ironically we build ,sell and service those robots and factory automation gear that put others out of work . it created a flood of opportunity on our end as the company grew in the 20 years i was with them from 8 million to a 100 million dollar company today .
Last edited by mathjak107; 05-08-2017 at 07:19 AM..
I have not directly experienced age discrimination, at least not that I was aware of. I have seen some examples where older people felt they were discriminated against. Personally I saw those instances as being related to performance.
Some of the obvious issues were falling asleep in meetings. Or having difficulty getting to work on time.
Other issues are much harder to identify. There are tendencies for older people to become rigid. They have done things a certain way for so long that they just don't want to change. Even worse when change is needed they can take a superior, know-it-all attitude that really puts off bosses and coworkers. Often the rigid, superior attitude is not in keeping with what the employee should know. Often they received their education and formal training many years ago and have not kept up.
The biggest issue is often being able to work as a team which requires the interest and ability to relate to younger workers. That can be difficult when the older worker has different interests and cannot relate to the younger workers who are buying their first houses and having kids or child care issues. If there is no rapport, no respect, and no connection, interactions can go downhill in a hurry.
I am sure interpretations vary, but I don't see these issues as being age discrimination. The older employee needs to keep up their knowledge and skills. They need to turn their experience into an asset rather than a hindrance. They need to take an interest in their coworkers and along the way gain respect and trust. Too many times I have seen older employees who just do not bother. Often they seem to have also lost interest and are just coasting towards retirement.
I do agree that some situations are hopeless. There are bad bosses, difficult coworkers and sometimes just an overall toxic work environment. Some people count down towards retirement in misery. Others pick up and leave well before the misery begins. I would want to be in the later group. As a matter of fact I did get to that point. I felt I was no longer being paid and rewarded for my accomplishments and effort. It was not really my boss but more the corporate pay structure. Experienced; i.e., older employees got lesser raises and bonuses than the younger lower ranked employees. Rather than be unhappy or get another job, I just retired a year earlier than I would have under different conditions. Basically I decided my time was worth more than what I was being paid.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I'm the opposite. I expected to be retired by now, but at 65 I really enjoy my work, make more than ever before, and get the highest performance ratings and associated annual raises. As of today, I'm thinking 68 at the earliest, 70 at the latest. Of the people that have retired recently here, ages were 67, 69, 70, and 72. Our latest hire, in an executive position is 62.
I had every expectation of retiring in my late 60s or as late as 70. I was always reading the articles by the experts telling us that the best approach is to keep working until 70 and then start collecting Social Security. That way more money goes into your bank and investment accounts and you get the maximum Social Security. Seemed so logical but life and people's bias got in the way.
Once I got to 62, I could do nothing right. Every action real or imaged I did at work was second guessed and spun to the negative. I had a long record of success at work and always got great performance appraisals.
People started calling me old man and duffer. They kept asking me when I was going to retire. I was marginalized and given less and less to do. All the others workers in the office around my age were falling like flies and once they left none of them could get another job. Finally, I was fired for a poor fit. (After fitting in for over ten years at the company.)
I can't decide if I should sue for age discrimination, or call it a day and officially retire. For all practical purposes I am retired now. I expect that my story is quite common today.
With all due respect, it will most likely be a waste of time and money to sue for age discrimination. Unless you and someone else, heard someone say they were getting rid of older people or made comments about older workers, or have some written communication indicating a bias against older workers, you will most likely not have a case.
Maybe you should take part time work or maybe something less stressful. But, I would not advise trying to sue.
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