Age Discrimination in Employment .com
My interest in the problem of age discrimination in recent months has increasingly dominated this blog, which I created about five years ago to address the separate and equally important issue of workplace bullying and abuse. Therefore, I have created a new blog called Age Discrimination in Employment. Recent articles from this blog on the topic of age discrimination, and future articles about age discrimination, will be posted at AgeDiscriminationinEmployment.com. Meanwhile, this blog, When the Abuser Goes to Work, will continue to feature articles relating to general workplace discrimination, bullying and abuse.
Please be aware that I am 59 years of age, long term unemployed and yes, I have most definitely have been discriminated against for hiring due to my CHRONOLOGICAL condition.
I don’t want to gripe and rant about the situation – I WANT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT and make a FEDERAL CASE OUT OF THIS SORRY STATE, quite literally, for the older workers who have DISSAPPEARED off the radar screen of the BLS Stats, those Obama Enhancing newspaper reports all hailing a “ROSY ECONOMIC PICTURE”!!! All of this of course is just more damnable lies, and I am facing homelessness and poverty just as others who are in the same sinking boat.
Again what can be done – protest in the streets?; have a 15,000,000 Older Worker Man and Woman Unemployed American Citizen March on Washington D.C.??? I am not trying to make light of what I consider to be an EXTREMELY SERIOUS CRISIS afflicting millions of us who are still vital, still intelligent, and sorry young bucks right of school, my cohort IS FAR WISER and FAR BETTER TO HANDLE ATYPICAL JOB SITUATIONS requiring years of critical thinking and ability to think on the feet gleaned through years of work experience; the AVERAGE 20 and 30 something workers DOES NOT have this attribute, but there are many exceptions out there, and I know a number of workers in the aforementioned age group who are more mature than the AVERTAGE, TYPICAL 20-30 year old who lacks courtesy, customer service skills, empathy and a whole litany of other attributes. yet the younger cohort does have have great SMART PHONE skills, and man, can they flip through a phone screen like a maestro! Of course, we all know that such hand flipping skills are monumentally important in PERSON TO PERSON in- the -flesh-meeting situations
Ok, I am ranting, but again, instead of blog after blog after blog, WHAT ACTION PLANS can be implemented to wake up this damn sleeping Country of ours that seems to give AGEISM such short thrift as opposed to the much greater focus upon RACISM, which of course is still a major issue in the USA and yes, this “ISM” cannot be tolerated in ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM? BTW, People of ALL ethnic backgrounds, national origin, religion and race are being exposed to AGEISM
Yet, in a court of law, an employer who would be hard pressed to deny a case of RACISM in hiring, will on the other hand, just skate on by over thin ice when it comes to denying or rejecting a candidate the chance for employment when the gray hairs are present. THE DAMN SUPREME COURT, more concerned with EMPLOYER Rights (gee, what GOP surprise), screwed us older workers over with a their decision of few years back that basically KNOCKED ALL OF THE TEETH OUT OF THE ADEA Laws, especially with regards to the age parameter.
My rant is over – WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT AGE DISCRIMINATION IN A “GLOBAL FASHION” beyond writing about it?
Phil Harris, 59
Hi Phil – I totally understand, and I feel, your frustration. Age discrimination is rampant, unaddressed and invisible in America today. Even the White House Conference of Aging, which occurs once a decade, has refused to acknowledge the problem! What I am continually amazed about is that older workers are literally second class citizens under the law. The leading federal law prohibiting age discrimination was weak to begin with and has been eviscerated by the U.S. Supreme Court. Older workers have far less protection from age discrimination than workers who are covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion and national origin. Why is irrational and unfounded employment discrimination less reprehensible for older workers? Don’t we deserve equal justice under the law? Of course we do. This situation has existed for fifty years. At this point, all I can suggest is spread the word, complain to your U.S. Congressional representatives and, if you are a member of the AARP. ask yourself why you are paying dues and not getting any action.
You have taken right steps for Employment Discrimination…!!!Thanks for sharing…!!!
You do not know how happy I was to find this blog. I just created my first blog with the sole intention of starting some dialogue about age discrimination in the workplace, specifically SF Bay Area, a.k.a. Silicon Valley. I decided I better look to see if there were other blogs on the subject and found this one.
I have worked in the high tech industry most of my career and am now being discriminated against even with all the knowledge, education, and strong work ethic I still bring to the table. I have noticed more and more career websites articles with tips for the older job seekers, like how to make an employer think you’re younger by leaving off any work experience over 10 years on your resume, and to check to make sure your age is not searchable on Google, because recruiters or hiring managers now search Google for potential candidates. No one is even trying to hide the fact that age discrimination is happening.
Anyway, this is just the tip of the iceberg and a very serious problem on many bigger levels. I admit I am still researching all the issues surrounding this topic but I just had to add a comment. Your blog looks like a good place for me to get up to speed, thank you!
Kim
Thanks Kim – FYI, I have another blog dedicated solely to age discrimination in employment at agediscriminationinemployment.com.
good post thanks
Age discrimination will take anyone’s wind out of their sails and as it continues there must be an avenue to make most of the Human Resource specialist and hiring manager’s more accountable to the “Thank You but No Thanks”. I simply made a mistake when I made the decision to retire after my wife received a buy out and she took the opportunity to retire herself. For her, it has been great but I sure do wish that I could have had the crystal ball to look ahead. For starters, I retired at 67 years young and at that age graduated Summa Caude Laude with a MBA. However, my wife and I wanted to take some time and travel as we both deserved it. I have since turn two years older and have decided that I made a mistake with my decision to retire. So I fired up the resume and refined it with many additions, and corrections. In the past six months, I have sent out over 300 resumes, applications, and have been getting phone interviews with impressive feedbacks. I have also had some face to face interviews but with no job offers. Somewhere along the interview process companies are not providing any job offers even temporary jobs. First off, I am one year shy of 70 but do not look it. I approach each interview with preparation as described by all of the interview sites. I have multiple Master’s Degrees. I even Google myself and there is no lying about your age when that site had my current age and it is all based on public records.
Here, is what I would like to propose. All of the major defense companies have to complete a diversity program with certain percentages for small minority owned companies, veterans owned companies and a diversity program based on race. My proposal would be that for every diversified program there must be at least 5% of employees hired who are over 65. Every defense company must have this percentage met or face penalties for not obtaining that amount.
Any comments regarding this and age discrimination in the hiring place.
Hello, I was recently forced to quit my job of 18 years ( part time ) . I really enjoyed the work and the people . I was a hospital pharmacy technician. I was the “model” employee,never absent ,late and easy to get along with . This past spring , I was questioned extensively about when I would retire.I thought that was odd since they never had enough help on the night shift. After a few moths of getting written up for nothing . I realized I was being targeted . This went on all summer til one day our New Team leader ” put me in a P.IP program . I should have known , but not til I found an article on the internet did I see the light. I was forced to quit because I was going to be 75 . I ran circles around younger employees, didn’t matter . The P.I.P program pretends you fail at all your assignments,and you are coerced into signing a sheet of paper that your team leader prints out and calls a contact sheet. I wish I had known sooner about this age discrimination plot , maybe I could have save myself the time I sent learning things that were never going to be used . Don’t work for Union Hospital Cecil County,Maryland.