Vigil617, I commiserate with your plight. My wife has been laid off a couple of times, and might be looking at that again in June. In her case, she's old enough to retire, but with a reduced pension.
The two times she was previously laid off, it took her a longish time to find new jobs. She's a teacher, and I think the reason she was hired, is that her field is dying and there aren't any young teachers getting that certification.
Still, I strong feel that there is subtle, and not so subtle, discrimination against people over 50. I've been told that it's actually people over 40, but I can't speak to that.
Even in teaching, where there is job security once you achieve tenure, administrators are more critical of older teachers. They use subtle terms such as "does not keep up with current trends in pedagogy", "is not able to integrate newer technologies into their lessons", and "does not use current techniques to evaluate students". All of which I take to mean "Comes from a different time when students were actually expected to learn." The principal at her current school told her that she should either find You Tube videos that the kids could watch to learn how to do things OR make her own.
I faced some of that as well before I retired. I applied for a promotion to a management position for which I was the most qualified AND the most senior applicant. At some point in the process, I was told that upper management was looking for "the future leaders of the department". Which I took to mean that people like me, who were within five years of being able to retire, were not what they were looking for. Sure enough the two people who were promoted had 15-20 years less experience in the agency.
Flundertaker has some valid points, although I think they are for the wrong reasons.
Companies don't want those employees because they are less willing to tolerate the lousy pay and crappy working conditions that a lot of employers think are okay in this economy. Also, insuring those employees might cost more and it's also likely that we'll have more medical issues and thus miss work.
Companies are bottom line driven, and I understand that. However, I've long suspected that many managers don't understand the different between price and value. More experienced employees are less likely to walk away from the job if something better comes along, they have a better work ethic, and understand that "partying" is less important than showing up to work when you said you would.
Those are things that I would say if I was interviewing for a job. Probably more subtly than that, but I'd convey the message.
When I retired from EMS at 59, I was still a better worker than people my kids age. I think that most of us in my age bracket retain a pretty good attitude towards work.
My daughter was a paralegal for a number of years and she was always looking out for new job opportunities. In talking with friends of mine who are lawyers I found that many of them didn't hire paralegals because their practices weren't large enough and/or for just a bit more money they could hire recent law school grads, with or without bar licenses, who could do everything a paralegal could, plus more.
Finally, and I don't know if this applies to you at all, if I needed a job, I'd consider one of those car services, like Uber or Lyft. It's sort of self employment, but with a network to help get work.
Keep plugging away, and don't lose hope. Something will pop up.
The two times she was previously laid off, it took her a longish time to find new jobs. She's a teacher, and I think the reason she was hired, is that her field is dying and there aren't any young teachers getting that certification.
Still, I strong feel that there is subtle, and not so subtle, discrimination against people over 50. I've been told that it's actually people over 40, but I can't speak to that.
Even in teaching, where there is job security once you achieve tenure, administrators are more critical of older teachers. They use subtle terms such as "does not keep up with current trends in pedagogy", "is not able to integrate newer technologies into their lessons", and "does not use current techniques to evaluate students". All of which I take to mean "Comes from a different time when students were actually expected to learn." The principal at her current school told her that she should either find You Tube videos that the kids could watch to learn how to do things OR make her own.
I faced some of that as well before I retired. I applied for a promotion to a management position for which I was the most qualified AND the most senior applicant. At some point in the process, I was told that upper management was looking for "the future leaders of the department". Which I took to mean that people like me, who were within five years of being able to retire, were not what they were looking for. Sure enough the two people who were promoted had 15-20 years less experience in the agency.
Flundertaker has some valid points, although I think they are for the wrong reasons.
Companies don't want those employees because they are less willing to tolerate the lousy pay and crappy working conditions that a lot of employers think are okay in this economy. Also, insuring those employees might cost more and it's also likely that we'll have more medical issues and thus miss work.
Companies are bottom line driven, and I understand that. However, I've long suspected that many managers don't understand the different between price and value. More experienced employees are less likely to walk away from the job if something better comes along, they have a better work ethic, and understand that "partying" is less important than showing up to work when you said you would.
Those are things that I would say if I was interviewing for a job. Probably more subtly than that, but I'd convey the message.
When I retired from EMS at 59, I was still a better worker than people my kids age. I think that most of us in my age bracket retain a pretty good attitude towards work.
My daughter was a paralegal for a number of years and she was always looking out for new job opportunities. In talking with friends of mine who are lawyers I found that many of them didn't hire paralegals because their practices weren't large enough and/or for just a bit more money they could hire recent law school grads, with or without bar licenses, who could do everything a paralegal could, plus more.
Finally, and I don't know if this applies to you at all, if I needed a job, I'd consider one of those car services, like Uber or Lyft. It's sort of self employment, but with a network to help get work.
Keep plugging away, and don't lose hope. Something will pop up.
