Posted on 04/23/2006 7:49:45 AM PDT by 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at starnewspapers.com ...
The first option is what I am working for. I want to be finaially set to retire at about 55. Any work after that will be gravy. There are a lot of fish that need caught and I want to be the guy that does it while I still know what they are.
My second option is to sell some piece of crap in my cellar on ebay for $ga-gillions. Unfortunately, most of my cellar crap is actually crap.
The aged have power if they choose to use it.
LOL!!! You're the one acting like Hillary. I say to save for retirement and take care of yourself. You mock that. Hillary indeed!!! Why do you believe that one should not save to take care of themselves? Is govt. your answer to all of life's issues? I thought I was on FR yet I get responses right out of DU!!!
Yep the state requiring equal medical coverage to all employees at work again. Its very risky to have an older person who might need a 250,000$ surgery.
We can see in this article what is happening. The employers in fact do want to hire Harry. They are giving him contracts to get around the liability issues the government forces on them.
If the government got rid of the communist requirements... Harry would be hired full time.
Health insurance is overrated and oversold, the three best places in the world to become infected with a disease are a hospital; a doctor's office; and a school.
There are no statistics that show that people who make frequent visits to medical facilities for non-emergency issues live longer or healthier lives than those who shun them.
Actually, at 59 you may have the skills folks want - but not get the credit for having them. Particularly in fields like engineering and IT, you can find plenty of companies who assume anyone over 30 is behind the times on cutting technology.
A friend of mine getting out of the military, after working for years developing cutting edge equipment, repeatedly heard "You're military - you don't know about modern technology".
His qualifications didn't matter. His age and military background did.
I agree with that. I believe that these articles are also attempts at swaying public opinion into believing that the economy is bad and "you're the next one to get laid off" - it's Bush's fault!!!
No but I got caught in between jobs without it and am still paying medical bills from an accident.
Congratulations! Too bad more of the "news" stories aren't about people like you who said stuff-it to failure.
When Hillary was confronted with a question about her health care plan bankrupting a lot of small businesses her response was "I am not responsible for the undercapitalization of small businesses."
Your attitude is exactly the same as hers. You have no idea why this guy at 59 may not have enough money to retire. I suspect that having his paycheck robbed to pay for government social programs over the last 40 years may have something to do with it.
Me too.
The Harrys of the world don't figure into the unemployment figures either, they drop off the radar when UI expires.
I wonder how many there really are ?
I'm a recently-fired IT guy. The minute I was fired I became a "consultant" (which, of course, if Frence for "unemployed IT guy). Personally, I'm happier this way, and plan to keep it like this.
IT people need to face basic facts:
1. We are overhead, like the HR people. We don't produce revenue, at least not directly. Therefore, when a company needs to cut headcount they always ALWAYS look to their IT dept.
2. People who work for IT companies need to realize that, like engineers, once our project is launched and running we become expendable.
3. The IT world expanded rapidly from 1985 - 2000. Unfortunately, the products have become mature, become commodities, and need far fewer people to run them. Therefore, we won't be in a growth industry for a long time to come. Heck, even Microsoft had a recent round of layoffs.
4. Technology changes. I can't tell you of the number of mainframe people who lost their jobs when PC-based servers came of age. It is soooo tempting to stop learning new technology when you've mastered the current stuff. The problem is that when you decide to stop learning you've started the clock on the end of your career.
The only IT people who haven't been fired are either in their first job, or working for their parents. Keep the resume current, which includes keeping your credentials current in marketable technologies.
Get real. When I'm 59 I'll still have a kid in college. Not everyone can be in a position to retire early.
He obviously has the skills. But unlike when he acquired them, there are bunches of younger folk, both in the US and India who can be had for much, much less. He's probably a better worker, has more skill and experience than they do, but the bean counters don't see that, all they see is a "widget" that they can procure more cheaply elsewhere. Which is fine as far as it goes, until the company goes into the ditch because all they've got is an inexperienced, qualified on paper, workforce.
Are there no prisons? No work farms?
“Well, if they’d rather die then let them die. It will reduce the surplus population.”
Don't get me started on "accidents," short of meteors, weather and earthquakes there are darned few instances of gravity/mass violations that aren't caused by the human hand.
Any riskier than covering a younger person having children? I had a friend who's wife had a premature birth with complications. Thirty days later, a bunch of it in neo-natal intensive care, I'd bet the hospital bill was pushing a quarter mil. So by your logic companies shouldn't cover younger employees families either.
"You're military - you don't know about modern technology".
That is heard when the entire shop is full of EE and ME grads, who assume that only ME and EE grads can do the job. I've seen it happen with our local power company, who resisted hiring a Navy vet who had gained his experience on nuclear subs. BTW, the guy is now the head of his dept.
This is like IT depts that require a BA or BS. I usually write them and ask if they'd turn down Bill Gates or Micheal Dell or Steve Jobs or... (you get the idea). When they respond they simply say that the college degree is "company policy" as if that liberates them from critical thinking.
You can only deal with the stupidity and condescension for so long.
In my case, my illness was related to my experiences of 9/11 (I escaped 1 WTC), and it's manifestation was severe enough to have actual physical effects. It took 19 months to get everything back on track, and when I was ready to go back to work, the first question you;re asked is: Why were you out for 19 months?
You can't lie. not in this day and age where background and security checks are the norm. So, you tell them: I had a severe panic disorder, acocompanied by agoraphobia (fear of crowds or crowded conditions)and severe clinical depression, all of which required a healthy dose of medication to deal with. BTW, I haven't taken a pill in nearly two years, and I'm cured.
Now imagine just how quickly you get the bum's rush out of that interview? All most people have to hear is words like "mental", "depression" or "medication" and they automatically discount the possibility that you might still be a productive (and non-lethal) member of society.
I just got tired of it. Screw them: I make more now than I did after 20 years on Wall Street anyways.
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