Still Clickin

There is no question that age discrimination is very real. It’s not due to workers costing more or driving up health care costs. It’s due to fear.

Step back and take a look at your standard corporation, Stagnant, Inc., today. The principal job most employees are working at is survival, i.e. to look good and avoid blame. One of their biggest exposures in that job is the hiring process. A brilliant hire reflects well on them; a poor one is an exposure.

Enter the headhunters, the experts in ‘safe’ hiring. They are in the business of providing clones of whatever that manager considers to be a brilliant hire. Age is definitely one of the criteria, and it is going to be less than the age of the hiring manager. Certainly, the hiring manager does not want to feel threatened by someone with more market savvy and business acumen.

Unfortunately, this leaves Stagnant, Inc. with the ‘same old, same old’ orientation and vision. Their hiring practices not only insulate them from experience in their own field, but in other fields as well. Today, it is impossible for someone from the petrochemical industry to switch to manufacturing. But if they did, think what a different orientation they would bring to the job. Cross pollination would be at work, and innovation would be the result.

Innovation used to be the business skill that set our country apart. Is our current economic struggle due to a loss of innovation? Certainly, you see very little innovation sparked by major US corporations today.

In the face of this, what actions should a senior take?

1. Forget the large companies. Follow the innovators, i.e. young companies doing less than $25 million in annual sales. The owner doesn’t have the time or the temperament for fear. That owner simply has a thirst for market survival and success.
2. Research the small companies in your area and identify ten that are in a growth mode. Study those firms and their competition. Identify ways that facets of your experience can help them develop their competitive edge. Once you determine that angle at a particular company, you are no longer old, you are golden.
3. Once you have an angle, get aggressive. Visit their lobby. Pick up their literature. Walk out the door and explore the lunch spots in their neighborhood. Pick one and talk to your server about the company. They may know someone or something that can help.
4. Take a deep breath and check your confidence level. Attitude is everything. Everyone is impressed by competence and confidence.
5. Once you feel confident enough to that you have something to say, it might be smart to make a ‘cold call’, i.e. walk through their door and ask to see the CEO or their HR honcho. A good outfit will route you to an assistant.
6. Use your time with the assistant to convey and validate your understanding of the company’s issues. Because they are at the assistant level, they will typically try to convey their best knowledge. They will also take your paperwork and contact information.
7. If you are uncomfortable with the cold call, write directly to the CEO. Stress your competence in the area you believe is under performing. It is always your responsibility to make the follow-up. Never leave it to them.
8. In negotiations, be flexible. If you start out as a contractor or temp, you will limit their legal and compliance exposure while getting a chance to demonstrate your skill set. If the chemistry is right, they would be foolish to miss the opportunity.
9. Smile and get to work. You have a challenge awaiting you, and the CEO is watching.

Click below to make a comment. If you would prefer to make an enhancement to the original article, please go to wikiSenior and click on edit.

Once we became eligible, my wife used to laugh whenever we went out to the movies. I would very firmly declare “two seniors” at the ticket window to secure the discount, while she would observe that we were grouped together with the children on the discount scale.

In many ways, we seniors are coupled with children. Both are subjected to age prejudice for the same reason, i.e. we are not viewed as major players in contemporary society. Our experience can be seen as passé, and our contacts have diminished through sickness, retirement, and death.

We also receive the same brand of prejudice, i.e. the “look through” brand of prejudice rather than the more hurtful “look away” variety. Because we are not viewed as players, we are ignored rather than avoided. It is a kinder form of prejudice, but it is still very frustrating.

How do you deal with this mindset during a job search?

1. To combat age prejudice, the first person you have to convince of its inaccuracy is yourself. If you allow yourself to focus upon, or be intimidated by, this barrier, it has achieved its exclusionary objective. Do not let it compromise your action plan.
2. Humor is the most effective weapon against prejudice of any kind. In a few quick words, it both recognizes the reality of that prejudice while at the same time removing the venom from its stinger. Remember how, in a presidential debate, Regan deftly responded that he would not use his opponent’s youth and inexperience against him. That classic zinger defused the entire age issue in that race.
3. In a job search, revise your resume to downplay the dates and stress the experience. You also may want to omit some early work and focus upon more recent activities.
4. Don’t be afraid to spend some time in volunteer efforts. These situations can present you with an opportunity to demonstrate your skills, make new contacts, and heighten your sense of self worth while producing a benefit for others.
5. As has always been the case in a job search at any age, contacts are your most important resource. Leverage your own as well as your children’s.

NB. Click below to make a comment.  If you would prefer to make an enhancement to the original article, please go to wikiSenior and click on edit.

Challenging the “Look-Through”

Adapting to life as a senior citizen seems to require more than a few adjustments. Some of them are physical, e.g. hearing aids. Others might require a shift in our mental attitudes. I’ve begun to detect a certain attitude in casual situations, e.g. mid-day at the mall, where I’ve noticed a subtle shift in how I’m approached by others. I’ve begun to refer to it as the “look-through”.

At times, we have all guilty of some prejudice, a.k.a. pre-judging. I now believe that it seems to come in two flavors, look-away and look-through.

• Look-away prejudice is the most common type. Typically, it is sparked by a rejection of diversity in racial traits or physical disabilities. Whether based in fear or indifference, it projects the “I don’t want to get involved” attitude. Looking away means you don’t have to deal with this person, issue, or situation.

• Look-through prejudice is a relatively new experience. It has always been around and, on any given day, we unconsciously may be subject to it or may be doing it ourselves. With this prejudice, the person is simply ignored or dismissed. They are either too young or too old to deserve serious consideration and can simply be dismissed with a polite smile. There is no need for a look-away.
  

Because it is so subtle, most people would deny having any prejudice against senior citizens. Unfortunately, it seems to be all too real. As such, I feel it is the responsibility of the senior to recognize and deflect.

1. I firmly believe that humor is the very best foil against any form of prejudice. I try to be engaged and challenging in a polite, but slightly aggressive, manner.
2. Turning the tables by making a witty observation coupled with an offer of help can often switch an attitude and engage a dismissive person.

Am I being paranoid? Am I the only one that has observed this? Love to know what you think.

N. B. Click below to make a comment. If you would prefer to make an enhancement to the original article, please go to wikiSenior.com and click on edit.