Today’s Blog highlights and ‘Showcases’ just one of the many, many reasons that this OGCC is being gradually turned into a ‘Third Rate ‘ nation. Just read the sad tale here presented by Michael Kinsley, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY read the comments that I included from the ‘Real Folks’
Every so often the MSM writes an article that has some merit. And this is one, but it certainly doesn’t explore the issue of ‘Age Discrimination” and the current ‘Government Enforced’ code of hiring to fill ‘Quotas of Certain Minorities’ (QCM), which is destroying this country’s competitiveness and job output and job product, rather than on the merit and the abilities and the capabilities of the job applicant.
Before graduating from College, I was a card-carrying member of three unions and personally witnessed the horror, for the employer and for the employees and for the work place and for the output of everything, of the just then ramping up QCM.
I need add nothing else to what you will read in the following article and comments, other than this country’s job output per employee in the world market place is diminishing rapidly under the QCM, and this country is basically FINISHED.
Too Old to Get Hired, Too Young to Retire
Bloomberg; By Michael Kinsley Mar 22, 2012 7:00 PM ET
“A friend of mine had his name in the paper the other day.
It was an article speculating about who might inherit a prestigious post in the literary world when the current grandee retires. The article said that my friend would have led the list 10 years ago. Ouch! The obvious though unstated implication is that now he’s too old. He just turned 60. He says he already has his dream job and didn’t mind the idea that, because he is 60, some career opportunities have moved beyond his reach. But I mind.
Another friend of mine, whom we’ll call “Nick” (because that’s his name), is doing something about it: He’s suing. Nick grew up in North Dakota and went to Stanford, where he graduated with honors and won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. Unlike Greg Smith, the guy who wrote that already legendary op-ed piece last week about quitting Goldman Sachs, Nick never won any medals in the Jewish Olympics. On the other hand, he never worked for Goldman Sachs, so that’s a wash.
Where was I? Oh yes: So after Oxford, Nick went to Stanford Law School, where he was managing editor of the law review. He clerked for the Supreme Court, won election and re-election as attorney general of North Dakota, served for eight years, then lost a race for governor, went on to practice law and served as chief legal officer of several Fortune 500 companies. Then he decided that he wanted to teach.
Just Two Interviews
If you want to become a law professor, one of the things you have to do is submit your resume (plus a fee) to the Association of American Law Schools. Every fall in Washington, the group holds a conference to recruit faculty, at which law schools interview candidates they are interested in. Just about every accredited American law school participates. Two years ago, of 172 law schools, only two offered Nick an interview, and he already worked part-time at one of them.
He got no job offers. Good heavens, why not? Was he attorney general of too small a state? Did the competition have even more Fortune 500 companies under its belt? Was it that lost race for governor -- the only blemish of failure on his record of success?
Nick suspects otherwise, and I suspect he’s right: It’s age discrimination. He was 60 at the time. Now he’s 62. Law schools just do not hire people in their 60s as tenured or tenure-track professors, except for the occasional “adjunct” (temporary) professor moving up or a lateral transfer from another law school faculty. …
Well, Nick has been a friend of mine for many years, and he’s not a jerk. He would have made an excellent governor of North Dakota. But I do have qualms about his lonely legal campaign.
I don’t raise this topic easily or happily. I am one year younger than Nick. Of all the forms of discrimination that the law forbids -- racial, gender, sexual orientation in some states -- age discrimination is the one that nevertheless goes on most brazenly. Corporate recruiters and human resource departments are carefully trained to talk in code, saying that they’re looking for “fresh thinking” or “energy, dedication and willingness to work long hours.” You know what they really mean. Hiring or promotion to top positions in government and private corporations doesn’t even pay lip service to equal opportunity for people over age 60 or so.
…. The most severe staff reductions among white- collar workers have come in my own industry, the media.
My literary friend who apparently is 10 years too old for a job now held by an octogenarian may well be telling the truth when he says it wouldn’t interest him anyway. But remaining gracious as the generations shift is harder than I would have expected. Fortunately, we all get a chance to be victimized by this shift -- if we’re lucky.
- newman1979 2 days ago
And if his health insurance is going up 18% a year because of age and risks, he will jump for joy when he gets Medicare. The real age where it becomes difficult to find meaningful work is somewhere around 50. As inflation heats up in essentials, I hope everybody understands Republicans won't be the friend of unemployed seniors.
No political party or government agency or official or politician is a friend to anyone not in the ruling class.
Most companies require you to bring a passport or other proof of citizenship which also has your birthday. How did she get around that?
I am 62 and was a law proffessor until layed off two years ago from NYU. How did she get away with this when you have to show triple proof of age one being an original birth cert. with seal intact? I have to take early retirement even though I want to still be employed.
Welcome to the real world Mr Kinsley. Now imagine being the blue or white collar employee who has been denied opportunities for more than 30 years because they are a white male. At least I was a white female and finally got a promotion. It was always fun to have to train incompetent people who got their job based on being "historically economically disadvantaged" as well as being about as capable as a box of rocks!
The more outrageous hiring practice than this actually happens in business schools around the country. Go to the websites of Havard, Chicago, Wharton, ... you name it, you will find that they are packed by young faculty who only went from one school to another and had no work experience at all. You have to wonder what these people know about business in practice beside what they learn in the book. How relevant is today's business education?
Good point, many of them know nothing useful. The result is the thousands of MBA-s who were taught that profit is everything and there is no leverage too high. Hence, the disaster of 2008. The business schools played a great role in causing this disaster by teaching the wrong things for decades. Did they change? Some did most did not.
- tweets21 2 days ago
Very interesting article. I am from what is referred to as the silent generation so am now 73. I recall age discrimination started en mass when I was in my 50's. The Boomers definitely were an overpowering generation simply because of their numbers. Over 70 million of them and they thought anyone past 50 was not with the program. H/R also saw the advantages of the salaries and benefit cost they could shed by canning older people, or offering them early retirement, or just freeze their wages as in demote them, anything to get them off the payroll. The country has been managed by that generation right into the sewer. Self absorbed is the reason. Now that millions of older people have to work we will perpetuate higher un-employment numbers.
Don't leave ANY job unless you have something else lined up first, if you possibly can.
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- HowardFinesucky 1 day ago
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Nonsense. I am 53, IT worker in one of the main Too Big To Fail Banks--and I've worked in such institutions for the last 20 years. The "model" as you describe it, is to hire 25-40 year olds, pay them reasonably well (I'm talking IT, not banker/trader, etc), and expect them to work 55-60 hours/week minimum. Of course, if you work out the actual hours worked vs income, the pay is not that generous. Such a worker hits the compensation ceiling around 45, and from there increasing age means decreasing wage--I have seen my income decline each and every year for the last 7 years--one of the unseen aspects of a discretionary bonus comp scheme--it's easy to pay less. I've seen this happen with my peers as well. And for the record, my skills and willingness to work long hours rival those in the 25-45 year old group. Over the hill at 50--that's the model--and that's a far cry at worrying about investing in a hire and having them retire in 2 years. And to top it off, these corporations howl they can't find competent workers--and thus have to off shore the jobs. It is pure BS.
- laker12 1 day ago
There are millions of us out here who are well educated, experienced, and eager to accomplish more for ourselves and our employers. Unfortunately age discrimination is so deeply embedded in our institutions that it will be many decades before it is ended. In the meantime these resources are being lost for the betterment of our society.
- map0557 2 days ago
I have some sympathy for Nick. I'm 55, thankfully still employed, but would love to change jobs or retire. Unfortunately, I can't do either. Not enough money to retire, and definitely age discrimination as far as finding another job, especially in today's competitive employment market. I am grateful to be employed, as I have no doubt I'd have to figure out a way to retire if I lost my job.
Welcome to the non-optional gulag. I'm in the office next door.
- gdcksn 2 days ago
I find this article very much on target for today, But possibly five years to late. I guess this is just starting to get to the upper echelon. I too was let go after 30 yrs in management of new car dealerships, for someone 20 yrs younger and 10k cheaper. I was 55 at the time and even with this experience could not buy a job. I have had to change careers and start over at a time when most want to think of retirement. With the powers that be wanting everyone to work longer, I wonder where we will all find jobs.
I had the same experience. I started work in media when I was 22, but I learned that you are dead meat when your age starts with a 5. I made a mid-life career switch to join an investment advisory, an industry in which gray hair is a plus and not a negative. I'm not making much money yet, but I'm having a ball. I wish I made the switch much earlier.
- iwbia826 1 day ago
Many politicians claim that the salvation for Social Security, Medicare, etc. is to raise the qualification age. They seem to have missed the fact that many older people are frozen out of the labor force in their late 50s or early 60s. Just how they are to manage the gap until they reach the age to qualify for Medicare, etc. seems to have escaped them.
This is a problem. You can't both tell the oldsters to get out of the way and to keep working longer at the same time.
Dont expect this DOJ to investigate age discrimination claims. Holder may be the worst AG we ever have had. Age discrimination is rampant, with job adds frequently putting an upper limit on experience. Imagine if they stated that they wouldnt hire members of specified minority groups? But Holder lets this rampant violation of the law continue, without so much as an acknowledgement it is problem.
Holder is beyond bad. I feel he was taken on by Obama because he was a friend.
- Muni Pereira 2 days ago
- Poor baby !
Many smart Engineers wuth patents who got laid off in the Nortel bankrupycy had to settle for work at approx. HALF their Nortel salaries (if they found anything)
That is the reality for educated workers. for the blue collars perhaps worse - VintageVNVet 2 days ago
Agree with you Michael, I am in that exact same situation, with super experience and skills.... Luckily, following my grandmother's advice, I have a trade in addition to my profession, and have been able to fall back on that to keep working.
Good Luck to all of us in this situation, and God Bless America, we need it.
- Allocator 2 days ago
I have a simple solution to all of this. Re-establish the importance of ability, accomplishment and merit in all hiring decisions. Let the best-qualified, best credentialed candadate win no matter what their race, religious, sexual orientation or age happens to be. Ever since we moved away from "ability and merit" in hiring and other allocation decisions in the mid-sixties, the United States has declined as an economic and military power. Coincidence? I don't think so. So Nick....go get em!
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- Jamodit 2 days ago
Sign me up. 62 & canned after 24 years.
It is typical for job ads to specify upper limits for experience. I understand the excuses. Imagine if they specified their desire to exclude certain minority groups. I am sure there would be excuses for that too. Neither is acceptable and the law should be followed. But dont expect the DoJ to do anything, especially with Holder as AG
- PseudoTurtle 2 days ago
Been there, done that.
Welcome to the realities of getting older -- I am a CPA/MBA -- and losing your job when you never planned to retire at all because you enjoyed the work you and were good at it.
The only difference is the wealthy in such a position have other options -- like suing, which was never an option for me and many others.
Sorry, but your article simply fails to generate any sympathy from me.
I have an MBA in accounting also. and I have come to the conclusion that my career might consist of a career until I'm 60, and then bouncing around interim 6-month positions and/or consulting, parttime, etc.
It's not necessarily the end of the world, but it really underscores (double-underscores?) the need to save everything you can.
There are a lot of people that have it worse. I'd hate to be the 60 year old construction worker looking for a job.
If I have to emphasize anything to the younger generation, it's to save as much as you can, and to be as employable as possible. I think everyone thinks about working until retirement, but 55-67 are your prime earning periods, and you can easily lose a chunk of that time due to health, economic, or just bad luck.
If you're working 3 days a week at age 60, and have your 401k fully stocked, life is still pretty good. But if you haven't done any saving, then it will suck, just at a point where you should be enjoying yourself.
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