Do you feel that your age is a factor of still being unemployed?

1. 61

   Rhymeandreasonposted 9 years ago

   Is your age the reason why you are still unemployed? When you are told in most cases you are "overqualified" do you immediately think that your age could be the reason why employers do not want to hire you or they do not want to pay you for what you are actually worth?

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      rhamsonposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      My business has suffered immeasurably since the economic downturn and was so slow I looked to find employment elsewhere. I found my age and experience a true detriment when applying for work doing much the same kind of work I currently engage. With over forty years experience and almost sixty years of age I had to ramp up my own business while accepting much lower wages to accomplish it. I am just getting by much like before but retirement with my loss of savings is becoming an impossibility.

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         tsmogposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         In agreement and very empathetic. I am just now on the journey you share and see my age is detrimental. The type of experience I have over the passed 15 years is specific to the place I worked. It is not transferable skills. That almost causes me to be a non-skilled person. I simply am not physically qualified for labor too. A rock and a hard place as they say and stuck between.

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2. 84

   gmwilliamsposted 9 years ago

   For those over 50, many prospective employers will use the ruse "overqualified" to eradicate older employers who from their qualifications means that higher pay.  Many employers are extremely loathe to hire older employees for that reason alone.  Also, they may feel that this employee will be hesitant and/or incapable of learning new technologies. 
   
   These employers feel that older people are dinosaurs in the workplace; they had nothing to add and will severely distract from their corporate image.  But I read that older employees who are MORE LIKELY to be terminated for whatever reason are fighting back with a vengeance.  There is no reason why age should be considered a detriment to employment.   It is hardwired in the human mind and consciousness that advancing/increasing age= infrmity physically and mentally. NOT SO!

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   1. 61

      Rhymeandreasonposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I believe that older people are an asset in the workplace. They should not be swept under the rug like yesterday garbage.

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         tsmogposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Many times the older employee especially of longevity offers a sense of stability to many of today's volatile business / workplaces. The younger see hope and promise for tomorrow with a perceived sense of confidence in 'things will work out and get better'. When the older are eliminated, IMHO, in those volatile situations of business the environment becomes at times much more stressful wondering who will be next. Or, they got rid of the person who worked for years and years, are they after me next?

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3. 61

   Rhymeandreasonposted 9 years ago

   Yes, I am compelled to write more articles in dealing with how the term "overqualified" is effecting the long term unemployed. This word should not be used as a "X" against older workers or someone that earned that experience. It should be seen as a plus because more wisdom is an asset for a successful company. I am just shocked that the use of this word is seen as a negative. It is the same as a student working hard to earn good grades, but at the end does not gain any recognition for all that hard work. In the academia world, we are not allowed to do that to students. But, that example does not transcend in the work world. It is more like all the above from my experience...you know too much or you are too old or you will be a liability to the company or you are not wanted. Each time I hear the word "overqualified" I think along those lines.

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   1. 84

      gmwilliamsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      So true, not only older employees but employees who are smarter and/or more educated than the employer pose a problem.  These employees are seen as problematic at best and threatening at worst.   Less educated employers see the more educated employee as a competitor, even a usurper in the corporate world.   So many times, the more qualified and/or more educated employee is treated unfairly.  They may be given more complex and onerous assignments but receive mediocre ratings.  It is thanks but no thanks. 
      
      Also, such employees may be subjected to disparate and differential treatment in the workplace. They may be disciplined more severely than other employees.   They may be put on a stricter schedule to be observed by the letter.   The less educated employer may be highly cutting and critical towards them to put the latter "in their place" and not to usurp the former's authority.    Less educated employers are highly threatened by employees who have more expertise whether it is knowledge, experience, and/or education. I have experienced and seen it.

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         rhamsonposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I too have experienced the less experienced passing judgment on my abilities as they claim my experience (forty plus years) would have to be "unlearned" because I would be set in my ways and not be able to keep up.  After seeing some of the solutions they came up with and the new "techniques" they employed and their failure I can see how this guy would not want me around to point a finger at his methods.

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4. 84

   gmwilliamsposted 9 years ago

   Let me add that many younger employers find the older employee to be a threat to them because of their years of job/career expertise.  Such older employees are unlikely to be taken advantage of by these younger employers.   In addition to that, the younger employers want to feel that THEY are the ONES, the BOSSES and they really cannot pull this with older employees who can tell them a thing or two.

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5. 63

   demonfort007posted 9 years ago

   Todays educational system are creating people just smart enough to accurately repeat what they are told and to follow orders. And dumb enough to make them think this makes them smarter than everyone else. Thus why it is true that having experience doesn't set well with them. Sickening and a horrid view of our country and it's future leaders.

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      rhamsonposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      What I also find appalling is the ability of the educated to know and understand their topic. I was recently at a barbecue and there was a fresh out of college history major who I engaged in a conversation about her work as a school teacher. She said she taught 8th grade history and that they were spending a  few days on the wars of America. A "FEW DAYS". I asked which war they were studying the day before and she said the American Civil War. I asked her what the most salient issue she could conclude was the reason for the South's starting it. She said it was to free the slaves. I asked her why was it that the Emancipation Proclamation did not happen until a year later if that was the reason. She said slavery was the only reason it was fought.
      
      If we are teaching dummied down history to our teachers what can we expect their students to learn by it?

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   demonfort007posted 9 years ago

   My word that is just so disturbing and takes away from any hope in restoring our country. I have had many conversations with people under 35 where they tell me I'm lying that Japan attacked the USA! And they will argue that I'm making it up because....well it has to be because I'm racists to make up such lies. They will not even take the suggestion of looking up the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In their minds, it doesn't exist and anything else is a lie. Scary!

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