Everyone I know is laid off by age 55

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH was laid off in March 2020. He was 51 then and the oldest on his team. His boss repeatedly told him he was one of his strongest team members and counted on him for everything, including acting as the boss’ deputy while out.


Layoffs came in April 2020 and my husband and two other long-tenured people were laid off. It’s been 18 months and my DH has barely gotten any interest in his resume. He’s now applying for jobs that pay a fraction of what he made previously - everything from help desk support to custodial jobs.

The company rehired for the job DH has almost a year to the day and the starting salary was apparently about 60% of what DH earned in the same role.

Would your DH been willing to stay on if they cut his salary to 60%? For what ever reason, they had to adjust the cost of his position -- the only realistic way was to let him go.

Is that ageism or just capitalism? If your DH was 30 and still cost that much, they may have canned him too?

That's technically illegal. When a company lays a person off, they cannot hire a different person for the same role at a cut rate. They have to rehire that person.

Companies get around that by changing the job description, though. I stated in another thread.. there is no loyalty anymore. That's why I went to gig work 20+ years ago.

Also, you do get aged out. So I switched to PM work, which I don't love, but it pays decently.

I am 54 years old in IT/cybersecurity and I am not worried about it because:

1- I always keep up with the latest technologies. I am not completely irreplaceable but if that happens, I am confident that I can find another job rather quickly,

2- I have the latest certifications. If things do not work out in the private sector, I will go into government contracting work. I might make a bit less as a contractor but I will still have work,

3- I spend a lot of time on weekends constantly upgrading my technology skills. That's just the way it is, I guess. I am not going to give up my 300k/year salary without fighting for it.

4- I have a lot of contacts with people in the government that I can get contracting work

That's the nature of technology. Get yourself updated or become extinct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH was laid off in March 2020. He was 51 then and the oldest on his team. His boss repeatedly told him he was one of his strongest team members and counted on him for everything, including acting as the boss’ deputy while out.


Layoffs came in April 2020 and my husband and two other long-tenured people were laid off. It’s been 18 months and my DH has barely gotten any interest in his resume. He’s now applying for jobs that pay a fraction of what he made previously - everything from help desk support to custodial jobs.

The company rehired for the job DH has almost a year to the day and the starting salary was apparently about 60% of what DH earned in the same role.

Would your DH been willing to stay on if they cut his salary to 60%? For what ever reason, they had to adjust the cost of his position -- the only realistic way was to let him go.

Is that ageism or just capitalism? If your DH was 30 and still cost that much, they may have canned him too?

That's technically illegal. When a company lays a person off, they cannot hire a different person for the same role at a cut rate. They have to rehire that person.

Companies get around that by changing the job description, though. I stated in another thread.. there is no loyalty anymore. That's why I went to gig work 20+ years ago.

Also, you do get aged out. So I switched to PM work, which I don't love, but it pays decently.

I am 54 years old in IT/cybersecurity and I am not worried about it because:

1- I always keep up with the latest technologies. I am not completely irreplaceable but if that happens, I am confident that I can find another job rather quickly,

2- I have the latest certifications. If things do not work out in the private sector, I will go into government contracting work. I might make a bit less as a contractor but I will still have work,

3- I spend a lot of time on weekends constantly upgrading my technology skills. That's just the way it is, I guess. I am not going to give up my 300k/year salary without fighting for it.

4- I have a lot of contacts with people in the government that I can get contracting work

That's the nature of technology. Get yourself updated or become extinct.

Oh, cybersecurity is a good recommendation. It is so risk adverse, and really operates much closer to an accountant (auditing of systems, checklists, etc) then IT development it definitely caters to a more mature mindset.

So you work for a company? All in, what are your work hours? I have a tech role in gov at $150k, straight 40 hrs, not sure if I want to bump time at this point in life but maybe in 5 years when I'm 50...

[Anonymous]

I basically had an anxiety attack reading this. 46.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I basically had an anxiety attack reading this. 46.

The key is to lateral to stable career now or save your higher pay now

[Anonymous]

This would be a good thread for the usual posters in the money and finance forum who advocate stretching oneself to buy a house 5-6 times their annual salary at 30 on the idea that they are only on an upward trajectory. I have seen many, many people get laid off in their 50s and early 60s before they were ready to retire and unable to find jobs that paid nearly as much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I am 54 years old in IT/cybersecurity and I am not worried about it because:

1- I always keep up with the latest technologies. I am not completely irreplaceable but if that happens, I am confident that I can find another job rather quickly,

2- I have the latest certifications. If things do not work out in the private sector, I will go into government contracting work. I might make a bit less as a contractor but I will still have work,

3- I spend a lot of time on weekends constantly upgrading my technology skills. That's just the way it is, I guess. I am not going to give up my 300k/year salary without fighting for it.

4- I have a lot of contacts with people in the government that I can get contracting work

That's the nature of technology. Get yourself updated or become extinct.

Oh, cybersecurity is a good recommendation. It is so risk adverse, and really operates much closer to an accountant (auditing of systems, checklists, etc) then IT development it definitely caters to a more mature mindset.

So you work for a company? All in, what are your work hours? I have a tech role in gov at $150k, straight 40 hrs, not sure if I want to bump time at this point in life but maybe in 5 years when I'm 50...

NP. I wouldn't characterize cyber in that way at all. There are aspects of it like you describe - compliance-based auditing for various standards (FISMA, SOX, HIPAA, etc), but most of cyber is very dynamic and constantly tracking the evolution of offense and defense. Even in the slower corners of the field like compliance, the good practitioners stay up to date on things so 1) they don't look uninformed to their clients and 2) they can speak to /why/ somebody should comply, not just that "regulation X says you should do this."

But agreed with the above poster that cyber feels relatively insulated from the issues in this thread - at least for now. My heart goes out to those dealing with ageism. And agreed with the prior poster that this thread is anxiety inducing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both of us were pushed out, 51 and 54. Techies. Had a 10 and 12 year old. Outsourced to India in one case and new younger hire in another. Took DH a year to find something at 30% lower salary and I haven’t found anything yet.

Our story almost exactly. His is 45% less salary. I am jobless. 50, 48.

That's disgusting. Now 48 is too old?

By 35 you start being a bit long in the tooth in tech unfortunately.

Wow! So is that not a good field to get into? Or can you use the skills elsewhere?

So should my DS who is majoring in Comp Sci at UMD look into another field?

FFS. No. Most of these people don't know what they're talking about.

If you let yourself stagnate in tech, your market value will diminish over time. It's a dynamic field and you need to stay on top of things and/or move into management. But, no, do not encourage your son to leave one of the most lucrative fields because of a bunch of anonymous online posts.

My father writes compilers for *ancient* languages on embedded system (think Fortran and Cobol, C on a good day). We can't get him to retire, but demand never really went away. He seems to still be raking in cash. (think 500-1M/compensation per year at 65; not including any equity). Apparently what happens is some firm tries to 'upgrade' (since some consultant told them to) and then realizes at the last possible minute that their old system simply better, and just needed a few tweaks. So they pay my dad and his firm a fortune to save the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both of us were pushed out, 51 and 54. Techies. Had a 10 and 12 year old. Outsourced to India in one case and new younger hire in another. Took DH a year to find something at 30% lower salary and I haven’t found anything yet.

Our story almost exactly. His is 45% less salary. I am jobless. 50, 48.

That's disgusting. Now 48 is too old?

By 35 you start being a bit long in the tooth in tech unfortunately.

Wow! So is that not a good field to get into? Or can you use the skills elsewhere?

So should my DS who is majoring in Comp Sci at UMD look into another field?

FFS. No. Most of these people don't know what they're talking about.

If you let yourself stagnate in tech, your market value will diminish over time. It's a dynamic field and you need to stay on top of things and/or move into management. But, no, do not encourage your son to leave one of the most lucrative fields because of a bunch of anonymous online posts.

My father writes compilers for *ancient* languages on embedded system (think Fortran and Cobol, C on a good day). We can't get him to retire, but demand never really went away. He seems to still be raking in cash. (think 500-1M/compensation per year at 65; not including any equity). Apparently what happens is some firm tries to 'upgrade' (since some consultant told them to) and then realizes at the last possible minute that their old system simply better, and just needed a few tweaks. So they pay my dad and his firm a fortune to save the day.

This is a great anecdote, but hardly something to build a career on. How do you know that you're niche will persist and need legacy support. Maybe you pick the most popular CRM software platform to support; well because its so popular, Accenture sets up a whole shop to port those systems to the latest whiz bang, and invest in it enough to make it work because there are so many opportunities. Or you pick a smaller player, but over the years everyone you support transitions to the larger players. Not to mention mainframes were built to last, unlike most anything from recent years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both of us were pushed out, 51 and 54. Techies. Had a 10 and 12 year old. Outsourced to India in one case and new younger hire in another. Took DH a year to find something at 30% lower salary and I haven’t found anything yet.

Our story almost exactly. His is 45% less salary. I am jobless. 50, 48.

That's disgusting. Now 48 is too old?

By 35 you start being a bit long in the tooth in tech unfortunately.

Wow! So is that not a good field to get into? Or can you use the skills elsewhere?

So should my DS who is majoring in Comp Sci at UMD look into another field?

FFS. No. Most of these people don't know what they're talking about.

If you let yourself stagnate in tech, your market value will diminish over time. It's a dynamic field and you need to stay on top of things and/or move into management. But, no, do not encourage your son to leave one of the most lucrative fields because of a bunch of anonymous online posts.

My father writes compilers for *ancient* languages on embedded system (think Fortran and Cobol, C on a good day). We can't get him to retire, but demand never really went away. He seems to still be raking in cash. (think 500-1M/compensation per year at 65; not including any equity). Apparently what happens is some firm tries to 'upgrade' (since some consultant told them to) and then realizes at the last possible minute that their old system simply better, and just needed a few tweaks. So they pay my dad and his firm a fortune to save the day.

This is a great anecdote, but hardly something to build a career on. How do you know that you're niche will persist and need legacy support. Maybe you pick the most popular CRM software platform to support; well because its so popular, Accenture sets up a whole shop to port those systems to the latest whiz bang, and invest in it enough to make it work because there are so many opportunities. Or you pick a smaller player, but over the years everyone you support transitions to the larger players. Not to mention mainframes were built to last, unlike most anything from recent years.

Also, the scarcity of tech talent that existed in the 70s and 80s no longer exists. For any technology, there are armies of people well versed in it (more or less). So whereas your dad may be one of a few people who can do what he does today, techies of today can't rely on being the one, indispensable person who can fix a system 30-40 years down the line.

[Anonymous]

All looking for advice. Please read previous posts then you won’t need to ask.

Eg

My goal is to be done by 55 and after that just be running up the score or saving for grandkids college or a boat or something. I think that’s the approach all professionals should try to take if they can.


Also

Tall white male or attractive white or really attractive any female.

Also

There can only be finite number of exec positions even in the lower rungs. Top class mba early on is the only way to go. If you wait till your 40s it’s already too late.

[Anonymous]

Compound this with the fact that many people hit this ageism level just as our kids start high school. Get laid off while looking college tuition down the barrel and not old enough to access your retirement funds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:45 yr old checking in. This thread has scared the crap out of me. Thanks guys!

Me too and I’m only 37. I have alot to think about.

48 year old here and same for me.

What advice is there to help me keep my job? Additional education? Credentials? A certain level that I'll be "safe"?

Certs are worthless, only education helpful would be top shelf MBA as a tool to move into leadership. If you aren’t executive/leadership level where you decide strategy for company and would be one deciding if their are layoffs etc, you are vulnerable

Even if you are executive leadership - in my company, the upper ranks are a revolving door. A new person comes in at C level and brings a whole new team with them.

[Anonymous]

People from India dime a dozen willing to work for half the salary. My company has several of these. They did their PMP and now making more but if I were to compare to PMs before (I am 50, tech manager and make only $85k so safe for now or do I think I) they are way below average. Just being truthful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:45 yr old checking in. This thread has scared the crap out of me. Thanks guys!

Me too and I’m only 37. I have alot to think about.

48 year old here and same for me.

What advice is there to help me keep my job? Additional education? Credentials? A certain level that I'll be "safe"?

Certs are worthless, only education helpful would be top shelf MBA as a tool to move into leadership. If you aren’t executive/leadership level where you decide strategy for company and would be one deciding if their are layoffs etc, you are vulnerable

Even if you are executive leadership - in my company, the upper ranks are a revolving door. A new person comes in at C level and brings a whole new team with them.

Yes this absolutely

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:45 yr old checking in. This thread has scared the crap out of me. Thanks guys!

Me too and I’m only 37. I have alot to think about.

48 year old here and same for me.

What advice is there to help me keep my job? Additional education? Credentials? A certain level that I'll be "safe"?

Certs are worthless, only education helpful would be top shelf MBA as a tool to move into leadership. If you aren’t executive/leadership level where you decide strategy for company and would be one deciding if their are layoffs etc, you are vulnerable

Even if you are executive leadership - in my company, the upper ranks are a revolving door. A new person comes in at C level and brings a whole new team with them.

Yes this absolutely

True, but as an executive you would get a significant separation package, unlike the 2 weeks of pay as a staff employee.