Laid off and over 50. Ouch. Ageism is tough

[Anonymous]

I wish there were more protections for older workers. I know there are technically but I also know companies easily navigate around them.

[Anonymous]

What makes you think it was due to your age

[Anonymous]

It is. I am very sorry, OP. My husband and my best friend have both gone through this. They did not find equivalent positions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What makes you think it was due to your age

Not OP but older workers with more tenure tend to be more expensive. Lots of consulting firms advise slashing that way. It's data.
I don't know what the answer is. I think older managers should be making sure that all of their direct reports are being compensated as they advance so that there's not such a big gap.

We have a capitalist machine that wants the most out of everyone for the least amount of money and we need to raise that lowest amount of money to raise all boats. We can't have people undercutting our US wages. We can't have people thinking that factory workers and food service workers and health care aids "shouldn't make as much as I do" absolutely let them be worth that! Pay living wages. It protects all of us!

Stop measuring success at the top and giving bonuses on how much budget you can cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It is. I am very sorry, OP. My husband and my best friend have both gone through this. They did not find equivalent positions.

why would you lead with this? way to make op feel worse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What makes you think it was due to your age

Not OP but older workers with more tenure tend to be more expensive.

Yes of course, but I am asking OP specifically why she feels it was age related.

[Anonymous]

My 50-something partner just applied to apprentice as an electrician. He left his ivy-league graduate degree off his application and only listed his BS, without the year.

[Anonymous]

I think older workers need to consider moving to easier jobs and lower salaries. It’s not always a continuous upward path of improvement for a worker. Sometimes you’re not as good as you were twenty years ago.

Also your health costs rise sharply as you get older. A lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It is. I am very sorry, OP. My husband and my best friend have both gone through this. They did not find equivalent positions.

why would you lead with this? way to make op feel worse

Because I empathize. Also this is the reality. If OP finds an equivalent position, then she needs to be feel incredibly proud of herself, and lucky. My friend has been actively looking for 18 months, which is grueling. My husband took a different position, a downgrade, but which also offers more flexibility, which means he's more present to help our teens. So it's not all bad... but for a while he was quite disappointed, which is understandable.

[Anonymous]

Isn't it nice not to work? I'd be so done anyway.

[Anonymous]

I’m 55. Have been looking and it’s very tough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It is. I am very sorry, OP. My husband and my best friend have both gone through this. They did not find equivalent positions.

why would you lead with this? way to make op feel worse

DP. It's called empathy.

[Anonymous]

Why are there these periodic random posts about ageism in this forum, that seem to be from the same person, with little detail about any actual case?

Right now, being an older worker is an advantage. It's young people who are having a hard time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are there these periodic random posts about ageism in this forum, that seem to be from the same person, with little detail about any actual case?

Right now, being an older worker is an advantage. It's young people who are having a hard time.

Why would you think that there's only one person experiencing this, when every day brings another set of statistics about the employment bloodbath older, more skilled workers are experiencing? Don't you read the papers? Sure, it's ok if you have a job... for now. But if you get laid off, as so many are, your chances of finding another one are abysmal.

I'm squirreling away every cent I can in anticipating of getting canned bc of AI, high salary, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are there these periodic random posts about ageism in this forum, that seem to be from the same person, with little detail about any actual case?

Right now, being an older worker is an advantage. It's young people who are having a hard time.

Both are having a hard time. And probably everyone in between, too.