50 Is the New 65: Older Americans Are Getting Booted from Their Jobs -- and Denied New Opportunities

[stopbush]

49. An excellent article that hits all of the salient points.

I'm 59 and have been out of work for 3 years. I still get plenty of phone interviews, Skype interviews and face-to-face interviews for good-paying jobs, even at my age. I have to believe that's based on the strength of my resume.

What I've noticed is that the phone interviews go great, but when it comes to face-to-face encounters, things go downhill quickly. Why? Could it be that it's because I'm bald, and what hair I have is tinged with gray? I'm in excellent physical shape - not overweight, no physical "quirks" or anything else that says "he's too old." But I don't have the head of hair I had into my early 40s.

Yes, ageism is alive and well in the workplace.

People who see my resume see that I went to college in the 1970s. They know that I am not a 30-something. They see that I have experience at a number of very large internationally based companies where I held pretty important positions. I get the feeling that employers see my experience, realize that I'm older, but hold out the hope that "maybe we'll get lucky and he looks like George Clooney." When George Clooney doesn't walk through their door, the interview process ends.

And it's true that it's almost impossible for an older worker to even get an interview for a McJob these days. My resume gets NO play at all from the Costcos and Barnes & Nobles of the world. Not a peep, even during the Xmas hiring season. I'm "overqualified." They're all afraid that they'll hire you, spend time training you, and that you'll quit within a few months because you "found something better." The fact that you haven't been able to find ANYTHING in three years doesn't seem to figure into their calculations about how quickly you'll be able to leave them for greener pastures.

Hate to say it, but the government is going to have to come up with something quick, or this country is going to sink back into the morass and poverty that afflicted seniors before SS and Medicare came around. At least in the pre-SS days, you worked into your 60s, maybe got a pension and had some assets to live off once you retired. Life expectancy wasn't what it is today. People like me are going through their assets just to stay alive!! And I'm not even 60. I may be forced to take SS at age 62, simply because I'll have no other source of income and will have gone through our retirement savings.

Where is the government plan for dealing with a work force that increasingly sees their careers - and any chance for meaningful employment - ending in their 50s, with their life expectancy heading into their 80s? Are we as a country prepared to support a growing subset of Americans for the final 30+ years of their lives? Or, do we just leave our seniors to poverty, starvation and an earlier death than they should suffer? Because that's what's brewing right now for people once they hit 50 in this country.

Logan's Run, anybody?

Not exactly a rosy scenario, especially when most people don't even know the problem exists, with the few people who do see the problem believe the problem lies with the older workers themselves, not with rampant ageism.