Still Clickin

Human beings, as social creatures, are bound to live in community. But living in community brings with it two intrinsic elements - regulations and taxes.

In the history of mankind, you have to assume that regulations came before taxes. The first regulations likely involved the proper sharing of the food from the hunt. Time and work contributions to the community didn’t get replaced by taxes until some sort of currency was established. However, the lapse of time between the two couldn’t have been more than a few moments. No one with any power would skip an opportunity like that.

Eons later, we are still involved with community and still arguing about regulations and taxes. Conservatives want less sharing and stress the rights of the individual. Liberals stress the good of the community, and are more willing to accept regulations and taxes to enhance it. Obviously, both viewpoints have some validity. It is a question of balance.

Right now, the issue of Social Security is moving into the crosshairs of our Federal Government. Where is the proper balance?

When Social Security started out, it was an insurance plan. Our payroll deductions that were made for Social Security were insurance premiums. Like any insurance program, the money was to be invested and the benefits paid out of from the fruits of those investments. Those funds grew, performed, and began to look to tempting to ignore. Before long, Congress decided to “utilize” these funds and ignore the insurance concept. As a consequence, the program is under-funded today.

Now, what do we do? How about we allow senior citizens to work? Give them the choice.

• Possibly it is wrong to ask this question at this time when so many younger people are out of work, but many senior citizens would love the opportunity. But we live in a youth-oriented society, and in the workplace, senior citizens are more often tolerated than valued.
• Provide sliding scale tax incentives to companies that hire senior citizens. For example, one credit/hire for jobs that pay in the 20’s, two for jobs that pay in the 30’s, three for jobs that pay in the 40’s, etc. This would counter the earnings barrier that seniors face. As a professional who works to find jobs for seniors recently said, “The best opportunities that I can find for seniors in major cities pay $12/hour. I have people with PhD’s working for that.”
• Our current tax code already returns Social Security payments for anyone with some earnings. Working seniors not only recognize, but willingly accept that. Effectively, because of the opportunity to work, they are paying their own way.
• Promote job sharing so that those that didn’t want or need to work fulltime could share their responsibilities flexibly with another person. This arrangement could be very beneficial to organizations that have variable business demands.

Congress seems afraid to reduce Social Security, and the way things stand now, they should. However, if given an incentive, some of the younger members of our society might be courageous enough to stop calling us “Honey” or “Dear” and start treating us more as equals. They might be surprised that we have contributions to make and that experience really does have some value.

Today, Social Security is nothing more than guilt money. It allows Congress to assume the posture that the “senior issue” has not only been dealt with, but generously. However, if you ask anyone that has to live on it, they will laugh in your face. For many of these people, the opportunity for a job would be a gift.

Some sites for further thoughts are -

• There are a few opportunities, e.g. Experience Works
• A Canadian perspective, Senior Years
• Volunteering is the current option, e.g. Senior Corps

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What Will You Do?

The smartest question I ever heard about planning for retirement was not, “How do you plan your finances?” Instead it was “What are you going to do?” Most of us don’t appreciate how much structure and purpose the daily grind of a job adds to our lives. It is easy to focus more upon the frustrations rather than the rewards. But work adds challenges, rewards, and interest to our everyday experience.

What happens when that is gone?

There are some people who truly delight at chasing a little white spheroid around a golf course, and plan to do it everyday of their retirement. Others can be just as passionate about the game of Bridge. Still others plan to exhaust the cruise circuit.

But some people are still fixated upon the idea of making a difference. This group of people are unsatisfied, or feel just plain guilty, unless they are spending a good portion of their time engaged in some activity that ‘Makes a Difference’ on this planet. Some examples available in most locales include –

• tutoring at local schools,
• providing support services at hospitals,
• fund-raising for charities,
• driving the local ‘Senior Van’, or
• volunteering at a community organization.

Unfortunately, none of these pursuits produce a shred of revenue, which has become a more urgent requirement for those with 401k’s and savings devastated by our current economy. Is it possible to ‘Make a Difference’ and ‘Make a Buck’ at one and the same time?

The answer is ‘Yes’. It is called the non-profit sector of the economy. Jobs are available, but all at lower pay scales than they would be in the for-profit business sector. As noted in this article, Volunteer Your Way to a Job, the best way to approach the sector is to first volunteer. Once you are inside the organization and make yourself known, you will be in a much better position to land a paying job doing work that ‘Makes a Difference’.

Some helpful sites for volunteering are -

• Learning and Volunteering
• Volunteer Opportunities
• Volunteering Approaches
• Volunteer Match

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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.

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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.