About being laid off and unwanted when you're 59

The Star (South Chicago) ^ | 4/23/6 | Michael Bowers

[SmithL]

One of my readers is an underemployed 59-year-old man from among us here in the South Suburbs. Call him Harry. He works in information technology. Slowly and wearily, he says: "Once you get past 50, I swear, it gets tough, it gets really tough."

For instance, Harry applied for a job with a city of Chicago department that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He got an offer for some contract work. There were no benefits, but it was a paying job.

A woman from the city called him one Monday morning and wanted to know if he could start at midnight. Harry said he'd like to give his current employer a week's notice. That wasn't good enough. The job was gone. The caller told him: "This is a brave new world. Learn to live with it."

[SJackson]

Not everyone can plan and execute a perfect "30 year retirement plan." Merde se trouve.

I am 56 and worked for 20 years. I also had a nice "nest egg" put aside, which was used up to feed and educate 9 kids.

Now I am broke and I haven't been able to find another job since my last contract almost a year ago.

Oh, and my husband experienced a major medical catastrophe and now lives on disability.

So screw you and your superior attitude.

Missed your post, but I'm glad to second the sentiment.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

At age 59, I'm wondering why he felt he needed to give two weeks notice to his current employer.
It's not like he would be needing the reference.
Why would he be worried about burning bridges at 59?
He should have taken the job on the spot.
Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

[tortoise]

Since when did it become "expected" that parents would put their children through college?

I've been wondering that myself, and it only encourages immaturity on the parts of the adult children. I saw stark differences between those whose parents paid for school and those that did not when I was there.

Incidentally, in a number of states now (e.g. California) it is absolutely assumed that the parents will pay for school for the purposes of financial aid. The income and assets of your parents will be included in your own for the purposes of aid well into your 20s, whether or not you receive a dime from your parents. Which is pretty messed up, if you ask me.

[ImpBill]

I am sorry if I offended you or you took offense. You don't know me or my situation at all, especially concerning health problems. It is few people indeed who arrive at the age my wife and I are without some health history and I am quite thankful that we were fortunate enough that one of us worked for a Fortune Five Hundred Company that had as it's benefits an excellent health plan. As one of us has had over a 1/4 million dollars of health care expenses and the other more than that in the last 15 years.

This has nothing to do with "acceptance". I would like to believe that had we not had the health benefits we did (provided by her employer) we would have bit the bullet and spent the $700.00 a month or so needed to purchase that same insurance. Perhaps we would not have retired quite as soon as we did, but we at least would have, I guarantee you accepted, our fate in life and not gone on a "conservative" bulletin board complaining about it.

Listen, my whole point in posting on this thread has been to point out that the vast majority of Americans, these days, take next to no and accept very little responsibility for their lot in life.

We have lived an a spoiled, spend today and screw tomorrow world for 50 years now.

I am certainly saddened that you have had to go through what you have gone through, but it has nothing to do with the majority of people who haven't had to go through your experience, not being prepared for being laid off at age 59, which is what I believe the topic of this thread is all about. Not how to deal with devastating medical problems in life.

You took my posts totally out of context and off the topic. I in no way was personal in my response to you to the point that you should have been offended in the first place. So I think as compassionate as I feel about your situation I won't take responsibility for irritating you.

[CindyDawg]

You are right. I didn't open the link. I take back about Harry being a whiner. I still think this is a "poor victim" article though and what's wrong with working a little longer as long as you are happy? It's healthy. My grandmother worked until she was almost 90. When she quit and people started taking care of her she declined. The base salaries are deceptive too. You should not need as much as you are bringing in now to live off of if you are careful. My husband and I figure we can be comfortable on a 1/4 of our income. A few things like paying off some bills has to happen first though. That said, I still feel like the Harry's of the world need to make things happen.

[Jmouse007]

You've got mail

[Jmouse007]

You've got mail

[CindyDawg]

It's a work ethic that we are losing. Giving two weeks notice doesn't leave your old job in a bind. It also tells your new boss you are responsible. I have refused to hire people that do not give their former employees notice.

[SamAdams76]

If you want a job, you must have a skill set that employers value. Such as? Management is an important one, he said.

One way that older people can help keep themselves marketable is to have management skills. I can tell you from experience that companies are always starved for managers. Especially growing companies (and those companies are usually willing to pay a premium for good managers).

For some reason, precious few workers decide to take a management track in their careers. As a result, many of them end up dead-ending themselves like this guy evidently did. Good managers are much less expendable than worker bees. And once you are in management, age actually helps you. Earlier in my career, I was passed over for promotion on the basis of my youth and inexperience! Especially when you get into middle-management and the VP level - companies prefer to put forth seasoned, older people.

However, many workers are just not interested in management. I guess they are either intimidated by the job (feel they can't handle it) or they feel that they are being disloyal to their fellow workers by taking such a job. But being a manager is not as tough as it looks. It does require a thick skin, the ability to handle all types of people, strong organization skills and a positive can-do attitude. If you have those traits, you have the core skills to be a very effective manager.

Once you have established yourself as a manager, you can manage in just about any working environment, giving you many more career choices. For example, if you are an IT worker who specializes in Novell, you are pretty much limited to that niche until you train and get experience on some other platform. However, if you manage an IT department, you can manage an IT department anywhere regardless of what platforms they use. Hell, if you are a superb manager, you can manage a supermarket, a factory or a dry-cleaning business. Because no matter where you work as a manager, managing is pretty much the same. You manage people, profit, and control expense. So whether your company sells soda, computers, cars or services, all you need is a primer on your companies core functions. All other facets of management are transferable.

[ladyjane]

Good employees should not have to worry about job security as they age.

They shouldn't have to worry, but it's reality.

I have some friends who were laid off when their jobs were shipped to India. They were good. They were so good they were the last to be let go. They had to help train their replacements.

Those jobs won't come back to their home state. If they move they'll easily get jobs but moving is difficult sometimes.

[Nowhere Man]

By 59 he should have saved enough so that he could retire. Then it wouldn't really matter if he were laid off. His savings should have been enough for your food, clothing, health insurance, and whatever fun he wants to have. Your home should be paid off by then.

Not everyone can do that though after you pay your living expenses and such.

But, this is the "live for the now" society where many spend every penny rather than save for the day when they get laid off.

Although I cannot deny that this is part of the problem with some people, but still that doesn't explain everyone's situation.

Pinging the crowd on this one.

[MissAmericanPie]

I was driving down a busy street in what use to be my town, now it's a city of immigrants, and saw a very nice looking gentleman in his 50's, wearing a white dress shirt, tie, dress shoes, standing beside the road, holding a sign that says, "I need work". It really moved me.

Right there I knew that the economy is not good, no matter what the press says regarding the stock market. Not everyone is in the stock market. Some in the trenches for instance are finding it impossible to hold their middle class position. Between outsourcing and the influx of millions into the country it's not working out so well for the average American.

But then your average politician would point out, "Why should it work out for the average American?" CEO of Boeing, and "Who says the majority of Americans in the future should be Euro"? Jim Wright and David Rockefeller.

But then who wins American Idol is so much more important to the average American than what is going on in his country, who really cares?

[GingisK]

...he didn't bother saving for retirement...

Purely an assumption on your part. I know many people who lost ample retirement savings in the stock crash of the late '80s or early 90s.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I have refused to hire people that do not give their former employees notice.

Good point. I agree with and adhere to a fairly high work ethic myself.
But I did take into account that this guy did offer and his prospective new boss declined and said he must start right away.

Under those circumstances for a 59 year old, the ethical stance is a nice gesture but really he needed the job. There are times when looking out for number one is paramount.

[CIB-173RDABN]

Cindy,

The hardest lesson I had to learn (and I really wished someone would have told me sooner), was buying on credit is not always a good thing.

I quailify that with "not always", because we all sometimes need to make purchases on credit.

But I fell into a trip someone up thread mentioned. If I could afford the minimum payment, I thought I could afford something. What I did not know was I was selling my future for some temporary pleasures.

One of the things that woke me up was when I realized that I was still paying for things that have outlived their usefullness, and in many cases have been sent to the dump.

Paying minimum on credit cards just means that all your extra money is going to someone else. If you do not mind some free advise, here it is. If you are in debt, do everything in your power to get out, now.

The first step to getting out of debt is to stop buying. This is an amazing concept but one that is often overlooked. We cut up all but one credit card. We then looked at the one with the highest interest. Every extra dollar we had went on this card, paying minimum on the rest. When that card was paid off, we redirected all the money that was for the first card to the second, and so on.

It did not happen over night. It actually took several years.

But an amazing thing did occur. Our savings account began to grow (the extra money was put into savings) and when we needed to make a major purchase we paid cash.

Orginally we set a goal of $10,000. That is we would not make a major purchase until we had that much in savings. After awhile we raised it to $20,000.

We got off the treadmill of keeping up with the "jones" sort of speak. We have nice things, but our home is not a decorative show place. My yard is kept just well enough the neighbors do not complain. I drive a 14 year old car, my computer is 5 years old, and our TV has a large purple splotch in the top left corner but we have gotten used to it.

The point is, we no longer spend like we used to. This was not a concious decision, but a learned behaviour. After being frugal for a few years, we just sort of got used to it and it fits our life style. Today we spend a lot less then we earn.

There is no one path, but I always read these type of threads on FreeRepublic because there is a wide variety of participants, and most with real life advise worthy of hearing. Good luck on your future, may it be paved with opportunies, and the wisdom to take advantage of them.

[BillM]

A job is the process of trading something you have for something you want. Unfortunately, You must always be sure you have something that other perople want and are willing to pay for. That is life, and YOUR responsibility, not the buyer's!

[mdmathis6]

I guess at age 44, I'd better stay in nursing 'till doomsday...or the overlords figure out how to milk illegal aliens to be effective nurses at 8 dollars an hour, under the table with-out benefits.

There was a hospital in Boston that attempted that stunt with fillipinos...fired a third of their most highly paid nurses then filled in that missing third with the fillipino's at 9 dollars an hour.(what the UK health systems does with foreign nurses). Many of the fillipino's left and went to hospitals paying much higher wages. I haven't heard what happened afterwards other than the fact that the hospital found itself up the proverbial creek!

Still I see the hand-writing on the wall...if the Health CEO's could figure out a way to do it, a lot of American nurses will get replaced by cheaper foreign help as well. As it is, I sense the need to learn Spanish......

[CIB-173RDABN]

Thank you so much. I have been trying to point out the same.

---

I think some on this thread are confusing offereing advise (by example) as "gloating", or "I got mine, now shut up".

That is not the case. I doubt if "Harry" is reading this thread, and if he is, there is little advise we could provide him.

However, there are many potential "Harry" reading, some in their 20s, 30s and 40s who may not have thought about what will happen as they get older.

There is some good advise on this thread form them, if they will take it.

[TheOracleAtLilac]

our TV has a large purple splotch

Sounds like you need a "free estimate" from your local TV repair guy
'bout 2 minutes w/ a handheld degaussing (sp ?) coil should fix it (make sure he brings one)

[FreeReign]

You are right. I didn't open the link.

I didn't either. I started lecturing Harry on staying up to date. It turned out he already knew the solution.

BTW, you homepage is very funny.

*Bark*!