New Shoes
I have to admit that, although this shoe pinches a little, it does seem to fit reasonably well.
And, honest to gods, I so want to smack people around when they talk about retraining. Some of the most skilled and educated people in America are out of work and will probably never have another job because they are regarded as too old. For the most part, they will have better educations and be more literate and have wider experience than the younger people who come up behind them because they were educated before the Reagan administration set to work destroying our educational system. More of these people than you might imagine are pretty up-to-date with the skills required for modern technology, but even in the wonderful high-tech area, there are only so many jobs to go around.
[Avedon Carol, "I watch the sun go down", The Sideshow, 4 August 2010.]
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on Saturday, 7 August 2010 at 01.28
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Indeed, I could go on at length about the situation from personal experience. Increasingly, employers look on fifty-somethings as overpaid, less-eager performers "just hanging on for retirement" whose every day of continued employment brings with it greater possibility they will burden the company health plan with having to cover their treatment for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, cancer or some other expensive condition. Besides, older employees don't project the young, fit, lean and mean image the company prefers.
Last but not least, I suspect a good many employers really don't want older hands telling new hires how much better a place to work the company used to be, before several rounds of right sizing, down sizing and obliging the remnant work force to do double and triple duty for near-stagnant wages.