Age Discrimination in the Workplace

[EDITORIAL NOTE: If you have posted anything this week on any election issues, be sure to let me know by noon Friday so I can include it in the Sunday Election Issues list.]

In a recent email, a 62-year-old Time Goes By reader (let’s call him Joe), a design engineer, related his efforts of the past year to find work after 18 years with his employer. He had been managing a department of about 15 people. His skills are up to date. He showed during annual reviews how much his group had contributed to the company’s revenue and it had increased every year.

Nevertheless, he was told his job was being eliminated, although some months later he found that no such thing had happened. Another had been hired in his place.

Joe has a lot of contacts within his industry and he has diligently worked them in addition to casting a wider net through the usual means. In the past year, he has not achieved a single interview. As his financial situation approached desperate, he applied for early Social Security which is about half of what he would receive if he could have waited until full retirement age of 66 or beyond.

Joe is healthy and fit, a regular tennis player. A proud man, he refused to take the years of his college degrees from two prestigious universities off his resume and it felt foolish to him when a friend suggested he dye his gray hair. His face, he said, with or without gray hair, would belie his age – if he ever got an interview.

Although he cannot prove it, Joe thinks age discrimination is in play. And I don’t doubt it.

I had no intention of retiring in 2005, or anytime soon thereafter. But following a layoff, I beat my head against a wall of silence for nearly 12 months before giving up. I used every contact I had and friends of friends of friends too. I spent eight and more hours a day on the phone, scouring the web, making cold calls to places I would like to work. I sweated over individual cover letters and emails, tailoring each one to the job and company, matching my skills to their requirements.

As much as it infuriated me, I took all references off my resumes that would give away my age including removing the first 25 years of my professional life. It felt like chopping off a leg. I did everything else that is supposed to fool recruiters and hiring managers into thinking you’re younger than you are knowing full well an absence of years on a resume is the first alert that the person is old and the resume will be ignored.

Through every act of denying my age, I kept wondering why the burden fell on me to work around employers’ flouting of the law.

What did I get for my efforts? Two interviews in a year, one with a twit of a 20-something interviewer who said, patting my forearm, “Tell me about your life goals, dearie.” At the other interview at 10AM, I was told the job had been filled overnight since we had spoken on the phone at 4PM the previous day arranging the interview.

What is called “failure to hire” is the hardest kind of age discrimination to prove – not worth the effort to try. And even in the case of discriminatory layoffs, the legal deck is stacked in favor of the employer.

With the longer view now, three years removed from my odious job search, and Joe’s story, I’ve found myself asking: who does age discrimination serve? Who benefits by denying older people work?

• It can’t be the government budget. Millions of us who haven’t been able to find work in our later years are receiving Social Security rather than paying into the program. And we pay fewer other taxes than if we were working.
• It can’t be the economy at large. We’re not spending as much as when we were working.
• It can’t be employers. They have lost millions of experienced people who could be contributing to the bottom line without as many mistakes as younger people.
• It can’t be corporations who have fewer people to mentor young workers, show them the ropes and pass on institutional knowledge.

It is often said that older workers cost companies too much money. That is just a lie. American workers across the board have lost ground, making less money in real dollars than ten years ago. Every day, newspapers report stories of more executives taking home tens of millions of dollars in salaries and bonuses which increase by tens of millions every year while their companies lose billions and their workers’ salaries stagnate.

And why shouldn’t older workers be paid for the experience they bring to the job? Experience is what CEOs claim warrants their obscene salaries that deprive their own workers of a living wage.

It’s been a while since I’ve made anything more than passing references to age discrimination here at TGB mainly because it is painful to recall my own fruitless search for work. But Joe reminded me that age discrimination in the workplace haunts everyone older than 50 and sometimes even younger. It is something we should discuss here.

Age discrimination is illegal. It is a moral wrong. And it is bad for the economy of the United States.

[At The Elder Storytelling Place today, James J Henry Jr ponders his place in the universe in Being.]

Comments

[janinsanfran]

Age discrimination is illegal. Age discrimination is wrong. Age discrimination is stupid, unproductive. And age discrimination is an artifact of an economy that, for all the abundance of plastic garbage among which we live, isn't actually working for most of us.

We have an economy that funnels great profits and wealth to a few (anybody reading this own an oil company?) But most of us are just costs, costs to be cut if more short term profit could be squeezed out without us.

Our interdependence simply is unrecognized by the system we've allowed the rich to build. In a system that does not value maintaining the whole, those of us who are old lose value quite early, long before we're actually a burden.

I don't know whether any of this can be turned around. But I know we, collectively, need to demand that the purpose of wealth is not solely individual satisfaction, but also social well being for all. That's the attitude that would enable us to push back age discrimination.

Those of us who are old at least have some memory of times when "greed is good" was not the underpinning of everything. On this point, we're a social asset. :-)

[John]

Age discrimination! I hate it and I battle it daily. I am winning, however, as I am still employed at 60 with my high company. It has been a battle with huge personal energy and time sunk into the battle. I have stamina and some (social / psychological) skills to apply that many don't so I survive. I worry about those with reasonably normal energy levels and typical skills--they are usually gone by 50 something let alone 60. It is not right. But, I don't see anything that anybody can do about it other than total focus on survival and full engagement in the battle of a career lifetime. I cannot put it into these many words but it is an intense battleground and I wish everybody well. Ok, I'll get off my soap box but, wow, such an issue and such a problem and it just goes on and on all around us and WE CANNOT, seemingly, DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!

[Kay Dennison]

Yeah, every damned thing you've said here is true. I live it and am being guilted (and probably harassed) by a federal agency because I haven't been able to find a full-time job. It's a travesty.

[Darlene]

I can identify with Kay. I was in my late 50's when my hearing became so bad I could no longer do my job. I had to go on Unemployment Compensation and the gal I reported to did everything but call me a lazy liar when I couldn't find another job. It was humiliating; especially so, in lieu of my handicap.

There are all types of discrimination to deal with out there. In our 'greed is good' world morality no longer has a place.

[Granny Annie]

It is amazing how a person can go from applauded as intricate to the organization with praise, promotions and raises galore, only to reach a certain birthday and suddenly become a total incompetent.

[Laura]

It is wrong, it is appalling, and it is sad. It's also a symptom, I think, of two things (sometimes one or the other may be in play, sometimes both):

1) Short-sighted corporate goals, which work to maximize the situation today, not profitability and income over the long-term. If you are looking at the short term, and not accounting for knowledge transfer and long-term benefits, then the higher salaries aren't buying you much. Of course, unless you're planning to turn over your personnel every 3-6 months, the company will see those long-term benefits if this thinking is tossed...but it often isn't. It's not just in age discrimination that this mentality rears its head, though that's one of the nastier injustices it spawns.

2) Younger workers who feel either threatened by or alienated from their older colleagues. I've heard from friends (but not observed much that I can recall - my company's good about age mix, thank goodness!) of cases that, boiled down, sound like a failure on the part of the younger employee to communicate what they wanted to say clearly - then blamed on the elder not being tuned in. Heck, when I came to work for my current company, I was under 25 and I wasn't "tuned in" to what the company did either, since it was my first job in the industry. If you're just coming in to a company or starting on a new technology that was just deployed, yes, you'll need some landmarks and orientation. Older workers have the benefit of experience to help them re-orient (they've done it before, and maybe in similar ways, if they're lucky and the new tool isn't a complete departure in a random direction), but they do still need information, and if you don't give it to them, the failure of communication is not on their part.

[Deejay]

This is a problem that will never be resolved, because the people who are in a position to do something about it -- the young -- don't realize ageism is a problem until it happens to them, and by then it's too late. Thirty-some years ago, I was on a search committee to fill an important mid-management position, and we came down to two finalists, a woman in her mid-50s and a man in his 40s. On paper, there was practically no difference between them. When it came time to make a choice, mine turned out to be the swing vote. I opted for the guy, and I admit I made my final decision on their age differential. I've regretted that ever since, as he turned out a complete bust, and was gone in less than a year. She might have failed too, but I'll never know, and it's too late to reverse what was a very bad (and -- I now realize -- biased) decision on my part.

"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo was right.

[Rain]

I know this won't be popular with any right winger reading but unions are why this hasn't happened earlier and when unions lost their power (some due to their own abuse of that power) it left each individual worker bargaining for themselves. Government won't fix it because you have to sue to get them to do anything but unionization makes each worker have more say than any of them individually. Business mostly cares about making money and even when they are wrong about something, where it's really short-sighted, they still think it makes money.

Unionization protects the individual and many corporations have successfully kept it out for obvious reasons, and they make it the bad guy where it exists. This is, of course, another party difference and Republicans see it just the opposite of Democrats

[Citizen K.]

Deejay makes an important point, IMHO. Young people can easily see the value of diversity in all areas other than age. It was ever thus, I suppose...

[Kate]

janinsanfran has hit the nail precisely on the head, inmho. Reread her 4th paragraph (1st commenter).
And it's not just we, the old people; it's We, the People. Our elected officials don't answer to us anymore, if they ever did. They answer to the money, and that's in the hands of big business & their lobbyists on a monstrous scale.

It's clear to me that readers of this blog (and others I read) do, actually, think; but how do we use our reason & our power (a vote) to make the necessary changes? And how do we teach our neighbors - those with the minimum wage jobs, 4 kids, and bills they can scarcely pay - that they have power, too.

In these days, I'm glad I'm old and childless. And I'm still concerned about the world's future. A Primetime special on China last night has only heightened my concern. Whew! I can go from angry to feeling absolutely helpless in a heartbeat.

Answers? I don't know what they are. But one policy I now ascribe to is to vote against incumbents. You won't get more than one chance to mess with my planet.

Ok, I'll quit with the rant.
Thanks for the venue, Ronni.
....sigh...exhale...

[Chrissy McB]

Like everyone, I’ve had my ups and down, wins and losses. One of my great blessings was to get a good job, near home, at the age of 65 and continue in that job for five years. It was a fluke. The “absent minded scientist” that I worked for didn’t even interview me. He needed an administrative assistant right away and had one of the senior admins interview and hire me. To say my boss was not a people person is an understatement. He left me alone to do my job and I was thrilled because my previous employer was a mean control freak. Being divorced and helping four children through college didn’t leave me with many resources for my old age. The best part of working until I was 70 was that after the age of 65, I could work and collect Social Security. Hooray for that change to the Social Security law!

[donna]

I tend to think it's abuse of all workers, not just ageism. Younger workers end up working for lower wages than they might otherwise because older, more experienced workers are forced out. We've seen those at the highest levels increase their incomes enormously, while the rest of the work force has suffered.

It's time we demanded that all workers be valued again, at all ages and experience levels. Yes, there is ageism -- and sexism, racism and all the other isms. But the main problem is we are not valued as individuals for what we know and can do, but as cogs in the machinery. It is time for businesses to once again realize that the people make the business work.

And we as customers and consumers must demand better, too. I refuse to shop at places like Walmart that don't value their workforce, and will shop at stores like Costco where I know workers are well treated. Make the effort to research the places you buy from and know what their employment policies are. We can and should demand better treatment for everyone, and especially for older workers.

[Betty]

When I was 61, my job was "eliminated," too. My company was sneaky enough to realize that they couldn't hire someone else in that position, so they turned my duties over to a (much younger) woman in the HR department. This created a burden on her, and they didn't even offer to pay her more. So, within a year, she found a new job and quit. About three years after I left, the company closed the plant in my town, leaving over 300 people out of work. This had been in the planning stages long before I was let go. So, what was the point of "eliminating" my position, if it wasn't ageism?

I'll shut up now, but I think I feel a blog post coming on. lol

[joared]

Job discrimination actually starts to rear its ugly head around age 40. I've never experienced it personally, but know full well it would likely have been exercised in the industry where I had worked before taking family time off had I sought to re-enter that work force at 40+. I knew this because I saw what happened to far too many older employees when I was working in the field.

I know the anguish of the older job seeker from my family member's experience, and his sharing indiscreet comments interviewers made before their increased caution to not reveal the real reason why the job offer wasn't made. I helped with the hundred of letters going out, and saw the few interviews that emerged. There were cross country paid family travels for his interviews and what seemed to be exciting opportunities in highly desirable locations. There was being included in the narrowing to one of three, or even one of two final candidates. Only later after the rejection, noting the age of the hiree, and receiving input from various reliable sources revealing this was no competition did we know the truth. The educational institution was simply going through the legally required motions of interviewing candidates, as they already knew who they intended to hire, but had to "make it look good."

For some the repeated psychological and physical effects can over time sap the discarded individual's life energy and sense of self-worth. Family dynamics and futures can be forever altered as some people can be broken much as some soldiers of war experience post traumatic stress syndrome.

I think many older people who retain their jobs tend to think they are "special" and/or those let go are lacking in some way. Nothing could be further from the truth in most instances. I realized this to be true when I discovered what was happening in one industry where I worked, then saw and heard about it in others.

Another area of inequity I saw impact individuals and know to be true for many has to do with some positions educational degree requirements. In some instances specific degrees are important, but there are people without advanced degrees who may be more knowledgeable about a particular job than the person with a degree, who actually have to train those with the lesser actual skills (with the degree)and then find themselves without a position.

There is no fully enforceable legal, ethical or moral requirement that insures fair, just treatment of an employee, but I believe it's important to keep protesting to minimize those wrongs.

(I spoke too soon a few weeks ago that my personal info was being retained here for comments as it has again ceased to be. Oh, well!)

[Chuck D]

Ronni, you really know how to hit a nerve! I started with a comment that turned into a post. It's on at my new URL.

Its thrust is that any discrimination is usually based on fear, and you have to address the roots of the fear to combat it. I got one new job in my 60's. I intend to get another this year now that I've finished my cross country move. The fact that I'm now in my 70's will make it tougher, but I believe it is still doable.

Thanks for another 'Article of Excellence'. (PS- I owe you an email.)

[Mike Nichols]

I was retired on disability when we moved to this new town. Since then I have wanted to get a job, but have faced the same ageist, too-qualified, under-qualified BS that Ronni and other commenters have described so well.

Having been self-employed for many years, I have decided that's the only way to beat the system. So I have been learning new skills and honing old ones, and looking to build my own business. It may pan out, and it may not. But at least I'm not being demeaned, discounted and patronized by ageist employers!

[To echo Joared, my info has never been "remembered." I have to enter it in anew every time.]

[Paula]

The worst thing of all is to be alone with this.

It is crazy-making thinking something is "wrong" with you because you have "too much experience" or are not "cool enough" or all the other things we supposedly have wrong with us.

I read somewhere that age discrimination is about 40% of a failed job search for an older applicant. So that must mean we only have to work twice as hard to be considered barely good enough. I'm sure everyone is looking forward to that "opportunity" ;) I know I am!

Seriously, consider that America is generally "de-jobbing," one economic sector at a time. Look at the last twenty years--and hey, we can do that since we weren't in Pampers at the time! First it was the family farms, then the Rustbelt, and now the outsourcing necrosis is eating deep into white collar territory.

After that, who's left, exactly, to go shopping at Wal-Mart?

[doctafill]

Great post. Right on. I was a secretary for 15 years before returning to uni for a teaching degree. As a secretary, I witnessed all kinds of people fired for stupid reasons. Example: one cafeteria waitress was overweight, so she got the boot. A woman was sole support for her husband who had lost his sight while testing a plane. The boss overworked her to tears, because he knew she had to work. A 40 year old salesman was let go because he didn't fit "the image" (read..he was too old) for the company. I was shocked and disgusted to see all this happening. A secretary was fired for refusing to sleep with her married boss. He even tried to stop her from getting a transfer. He knew she needed the job as she was sole caretaker for her aging mother. I couldn't wait to get out of that kind of work. As a teacher, I had equality in pay and etc. BUT there were still politics. When teachers hit a certain age, they were often given the toughest assignments and students, in order to get them to retire...and make room for new malleable teachers. I too, in retirement, applied for all kinds of jobs, but not teaching ones, as I did not want to substitute. But none of these jobs really enticed me. Most of them were working in stores with teens... if I were to do that, for $8 an hour, why not go teach teens again with my proper credentials? Finally I started gardening for people and it's hard, damn hard. But it's still better than standing in front of 35 grade 9ers, trying to get them to write an essay. I'm a hard working, goal oriented woman, 65, willing and able to work, but on my terms.

[TropiGal]

Despite the grave terror brought on by having one's economic ship full of retirement dreams sunk just as it was sailing into the harbor, the most corrosive part of employment age discrimination has been to my self-esteem. Not only have I been found suddenly incompetent by employers, my longtime beloved discovered, "My feelings have changed," five weeks after I lost my last permanent good-paying job. Five years have passed; I do my best on a daily basis to hide the inner conviction that I am somehow seriously defective -- because I got old.

[Georjina]

Hit it on the head, all of you! After all the years of experience, the expense of keeping your skills sharp...now, a birthday unravels it all.

My experience matches John's, and TropiGal makes a very valid point that I have also felt in the 9 years since I've been working as a 'temp'. How do you justify not having a 'permanent' job, when everyone knows what's going on - but no one has the guts to call it what it is?

It's "blame the victim", how do you defend yourself? What the heck can you say??

Is there a solution? I have no idea. This began for me at 40, now at 50 it's more serious.

I can't help but feel that 'What's the use?' when it's become a struggle just to work in a career you've built over the years comes to an end through no fault of your own. Either you're not hired, or offered a job at a salary that makes you ineligible for welfare but doesn't cover basic living.....you go to work below your skill level and keep going because doing otherwise will sink you.

Sorry to be a downer folks, normally my happiness quotient is higher - this hit a nerve.

[Floridafrannie]

So many have said it so well. My ship sunk approaching the harbor when I was 59. Too young and too old. Luckily (or unluckily as you will), I was determined to be "disabled" and am able to receive a SS check which has saved us from total disaster.

I keep thinking that as baby boomers, we have never tolerated anything that we felt was wrong or unfair but we seem to be rolling over for this one. There must be a way to rise above and create an important change for society. There must be a way.....

Anyone out there to join with me and brainstorm what can be done?

[Joy D]

Good post! I retired at 62 from teaching but didn't have the experience doctafill described. I had the schedule I wanted and would have been rehired here in the county if I'd wanted to stay - but I was ready to go!

I'm still teaching homebound students and am a mentor for teachers in a program for older people who are making career changes into teaching. Google "Teach Tennessee" if you want to know more about it.

Of course, I'm in a profession where our salaries aren't that great and the conditions are stressful, so that might have something to do with it. (sigh)

[Joy Durham]

Brainstorming - I guess we're going to have to create our own opportunities. We're a creative group who should be able to come up with something.

[Brenda]

I agree with so many of the commenters that ageism (maybe more than any other ism) is extremely short-sighted. It is almost as bad as companies giving away their intellectual property. But I also concur that agism IS, indeed, occuring ... and will continue to occur until companies that use these discriminatory practices feel the full bottom line impact (investors take heed!). Meanwhile entrepreneurship may be the only viable answer for many of us. I'm just under 50, but have found that my expertise is appreciated when I enter the picture as a consultant. Baby boomers are fully capable of adapting ... and changing existing rules. Admitting there is a problem is a first step so I appreciate this post!