To me, it seems as if the older generation like our grandparents are loosing their jobs that they have had for a long time just to be replaced with a younger person, fresh out of college. I think employers value college degrees over long time work experience. I think it is too bad that it is this way for many jobs.
For thousands of American workers, it’s the same message they claim to hear on the job. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has received more than 19,000 age discrimination complaints in each of the past two years, and has helped win tens of millions of dollars in settlements.
However, attorneys say age discrimination often is hard to prove. Only about one-seventh of the EEOC age cases were settled to the complainant’s benefit.
Aging in America
Older Americans are finding innovatives ways to live and get care in their later years.
New Yorker Bill DeLong, 84, was fired three years ago from his longtime job as a waiter at a Shea Stadium restaurant, but he continues to seek out charitable volunteer assignments and still works as a waiter occasionally at special events.
“I didn’t give up,” he said. “A lot of my contemporaries give up too soon.”
Seventy-eight-year-old Catherine Roberts stays active with New York City’s Joint Public Affairs Committee for Older Adults, a coalition that encourages seniors to advocate on their own behalf on legislative and community issues.
“I don’t have time to get old,” said Roberts, who came to New York from Maine in 1955. “I’m too busy.”
Yet despite her upbeat outlook, she resents how some of her peers are treated. “We’re a culture that worships youth,” she said. “Seniors are getting pushed aside. I see people in my building whose families ignore them — they fall through the cracks.”
Source: MSNBC
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I whole heartedly feel that society needs to treat our elderly better. We should embrace and respect them rather than segregate them and be scared of them. But, I do feel that their comes a time when an elderly person should retire and leave the hard work to the young ones. I also feel its a product of society's focus on staying, looking, and acting young that elderly people are finding it hard to embrace their age and force themselves to want to "stay young". It is important to keep healthy and excersise the body as well as the brain but the elderly have lived extensive lives and should be supported by society to retire and work on things they love and not worry about working on funds to live off of.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as though the elderly are stretched between two extremes. Some are forced out of work and are not expected to contribute to society while they are still high-fuctioning. While some elderly are underestimated, others seem to be overestimated. Some elderly continue to work, drive, and do many activities that are no longer safe for them to participate in. These extremes seem to come from an expectation of the elderly to be slow and enjoy their remaining time as well as the expectation for them to live independantly and support themselves financially as well as physically. It seems as though some elderly individuals suffer under opposing expectations.
ReplyDeleteMelissa, I really like what you have to say here. I had a further thought about it, the term, "aging gracefully" kept popping into my mind for some reason, and then I sort of thought to myself, what the heck does that mean? What I came up with is, just like with everyone else we meet, we are individuals and aging is going to be different for all of us.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to older people reaching an age of retirement it is really heartbreaking for me when I see an elderly person having to work beyond the time their bodies are equipped to. I wish our society valued elderly people and allowed those who want and can continue to work and not judge them while also having resources available for those who need or want to retire... ah to live in a perfect world.... and furthermore, I think that our perceptions of "elderly" are a little out of date. As life expectancies are getting longer people who are described as elderly can range from 60-100+. It seems a little nutty to me to describe people over a 40 year span as the same... and I just think this is inaccurate for our current day society.
Society does not treat the elderly the way they should. For the most part they are looked down apon as if they are not as smart as someone right out of college. I do not find it fair for a younger person to come straight out of college and take over a position that an elderly person has had for many years and has lots of working experience in the field. Just because the younger person has a degree does not mean that they will do a better job than the older person. I disagree that the older should lose their job over the younger just because of their age.
ReplyDeleteI love reading all of your comments since this is an area where my passion lyes. Carolyn, I liked what you said too. It seems as though there is no winning for loosing for the elderly. This may be another area where we could learn from other countries and different minority groups!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great topic, and I’m glad you are addressing it in your blog. Ageism as it relates to employment is particularly interesting to me. I just finished a Macroeconomics course where I studied the topic of unemployment over the course of the semester. One of the issues that struck me had to do with older workers and their particular difficulties with regard to employment. Many economic factors in our society are creating all kinds of difficulties for older workers. They are often forced by economic circumstances to stay in the work force longer than they expected or wanted to. This is largely because they need the income and/or insurance to supplement an inadequate health insurance system that they expected would take care of them after retirement. Prescription and health care costs force them to remain in the work force. In addition, pension and social security payments often aren’t adequate to cover the rising costs of daily living. Of course, there is the other side, where you have a large population of older adults in good health who want to continue working. Often these folks are marginalized by ageism, and we all lose. These people are often underemployed or unemployed despite their desire to be more productive. And, we, as a society, lose out on the opportunity to capitalize on their expertise and wisdom. We do not take advantage of the potential mentorships that could happen between these older, more experienced individuals and younger workers. I think we need to work to advocate for mentorship programs and other initiatives that would increase societal esteem of the elderly and respect for their experience and wisdom. This would decrease ageism and help us all.
ReplyDeleteI think this topic is great! Too often is agism swept under a rug. It's easier to ignore than to face and try to fix. Most of us have contributed to agism and may not be aware of it because it seems positive. Like holding a door open for someone who's not even close by because they are older or telling someone they look good for their age which some mean to be a compliment but really it's saying that most people that age aren't attractive.
ReplyDeleteI am also particularly interested in agism in the workplace. It's unfair for someone to lose their job (or not be hired for one) because of their age. I think it's becoming more and more of an issue because in our economy now, people are having a hard time making payments on things like mortgages. Someone who's lived in the same place for years could be forced to move because they're "too old" to work" (even if they are able)but they are also not receiving enough money from entitlement programs to have their well-being ensured. I'm excited to follow this blog!!
Thanks everyone for the excitement about the topic!
ReplyDeleteI think Dave is on to something with the mentor (ship) possibilities. We can learn so much from the experiences and education of those that proceed us. I have always looked up to and be taught to respect my elders! if for no other reason than because they are an excellent source of knowledge. Missa I agree with what you said about the elderly being allowed to retire and having a place within society where they can relax and write the next chapter in their lives, however I also think this is not as realistic in practice as it seems in theory. Where would we get the resources to house/feed/cloth those elderly persons who can not afford to pay for these services?
ReplyDeleteI often don't think about our aging population but a conversation that I had with my father in law the other day prompted me to consider this issue more. He is 67 and still drives a tractor trailer truck to Boston every night to deliver air freight. We poke fun at him for not retiring as his wife has done. His reasoning is that he wants to make sure that he has enough money to retire. He told me a story of how 10 years ago one of his co-workers was 72 and still driving. He was fired not because he had done anything wrong it was simply because he was old. I asked him "you think they will do that to you?" to which he responded "no its ageism but I am sure they will find some other reason to fire me eventually" and he is right. I think that sometimes its so easy to be consumed with our own strife and struggles that we forget that our older population is dealing with these same problems as well as having a hard time finds constant employment. We assume because they are old they are not good enough but actually most time we are very wrong in this assumption.
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