What can we do about Ageism?

BlueVilla

BlueVilla

Member
Location
New England, USA
Yet when was the last time you heard of someone fired for being ageist? When was the last person canceled for being insensitive to seniors? In a nation where saying “all lives matter” can get you dismissed, shouldn’t lambasting the old come with consequences? ~ Mitch Albom

Yes, we are seniors and yes, we have VALUE. And I applaud this recent article written by 65-year old Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays with Morrie:

https://sports.yahoo.com/mitch-albom-criticizing-old-isnt-040020600.html
 

I actually like a bit of ageism. People open doors sometimes, that's nice. People also don't mind if I don't look fashionable. Also, you can smile at people - especially women - on the street and they don't treat you as though you're going to attack them. :D

I'm old. There's nothing I can do about it. I'm not aware of anyone being fired because of their age though. In the UK we have what amounts to a forced retirement age of 67......
 

BlueVilla said:
Yet when was the last time you heard of someone fired for being ageist? When was the last person canceled for being insensitive to seniors? In a nation where saying “all lives matter” can get you dismissed, shouldn’t lambasting the old come with consequences? ~ Mitch Albom

Yes, we are seniors and yes, we have VALUE. And I applaud this recent article written by 65-year old Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays with Morrie:

https://sports.yahoo.com/mitch-albom-criticizing-old-isnt-040020600.html
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My son had to read his work for class and shared it with me! So much wisdom coming from this man! Thanks for sharing!
 
Then again, we Boomers were the first generation to realize what humans are doing to the environment and mostly failed to address that, so one can understand the resentment of the younger generations toward us. (I'll tell ya, I'm not looking forward to the treatment I may well get in the nursing home. :oops:)

Also, about that "respect for elders" thing? This quote makes a good point:

"Geriatrician William H. Thomas...{has said}, 'Elders have long spoken for the Earth, its living creatures, and the children who are yet to be born.'...Let us consider those elders who have 'long spoken for Earth.' I guess Thomas isn’t talking about old men who made their fortunes from strip mining, logging, or dumping industrial waste into rivers and who are trying to hang on to every dollar they have acquired from despoiling the natural world."

~~from Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age by Susan Jacoby
 
debodun said:
I've been following a thread on NextDoor where a woman complained about her neighbors parking on her lawn (not me, folks). Apparently her HOA does nothing, but the negative feedback she's getting is dismaying to me. Some responders even accused her of being a cranky old &%#$@ and to mind her own business.
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I have read a lot of horror stories about HOAs. If you go to AskReddit Or the You Tube videos that cover Ask Reddit threads, there are many about HOA horror stories. Sad.

I am now so glad I live in a senior only community. Much better
 
VaughanJB said:
I actually like a bit of ageism. People open doors sometimes, that's nice. People also don't mind if I don't look fashionable. Also, you can smile at people - especially women - on the street and they don't treat you as though you're going to attack them. :D

I'm old. There's nothing I can do about it. I'm not aware of anyone being fired because of their age though. In the UK we have what amounts to a forced retirement age of 67......
Click to expand...
forced retirment at 66 actually... which enrages me... I want to return to work !!..and no I don't want to work in Asda..

on the street and they don't treat you as though you're going to attack them.
Click to expand...
errrm.. here in the south, smile at anybody, and they think you're an escaped lunatic.. start a conversation, and see them slowly backing away....
 
I have not experienced the ageism you speak of (I turned 60 a couple of months ago). I wonder if a lot of people do because they bring it on themselves.
I shall explain: whinging is not a a good personality trait, gossip too, meets with the disapproval of many. Many young people avoid the elder folk who do these things.
The other thing is, smile, smile. smile.
Contrary to what people read, the UK has changed, smile at someone and they will return the smiles :):):):)
 
Pretty sure I dosed out plenty of ageism over my lifetime. Remember "never trust anyone over 30"? Whatever I get back - and it's been very little - is probably my own karma coming back to haunt me. To be fair, young people think youth will last forever because it's the only stage they've ever known.

Having been self-employed from my 40s on, workplace ageism hasn't affected me. On the other hand, I recall working with more than one person in their 60s who was skating to retirement rather than pulling their own weight.

Who hasn't had at least one incompetent, lazy, uninspired, impatient or surly older teacher who should have retired or changed professions many years (if not decades) earlier but was hanging in there to get maximum pension? Everyone knew who they were, including school staff and admins, but tenure/unions protected them so kids were stuck with them.

Maybe those teachers plus a few crabby older relatives, neighbors and workmates set the stage for young people to not be particularly respectful of their elders.

Just sayin...
 
There are people in this world who for various reasons will profit in some way if they divide us against each other. Splitting people by age is just another way of doing dividing people, the same as race, gender, religion, nationality, etc. These people feed off the hatred and anger their divisive policies and beliefs cause. They need to be starved.

We do have to recognize that age is a factor in how capable people are when doing a job. Would anybody here want to rely on 13 years old policer officers carrying a badge and a gun? Or a 90 year old surgeon about to cut into your brain? I think not.
 
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Living proof here that I haven't been a victim of ageism👵 LOL if anything, it's been my experience that employers are tickled pink to find people "of a certain age" who want to work.

And retail clerks are delighted to wait on people old enough to remember to say please and thank you and remember their manners in general.
 
Everyone will experience aging, which is the way of all phenomena. Discrimination because of just age is wrong, but losing jobs, or not being qualified to do the job/task/activity efficiently is appropriate to regulate is most cases...except our Government. :)
 

What can we do about Ageism?​


I smiled at a young 50 year old woman in Sainsburys last week, she smiled back at me, then I smiled an even broader smile at her, she literally beamed a smile at me.

I asked her, "Are you smiling at me 'cause you're after my money?"

She again smiled at me and replied, "Well of course I'm after your money, customers have to pay for their groceries." 😊
 
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debodun said:
I've been following a thread on NextDoor where a woman complained about her neighbors parking on her lawn (not me, folks). Apparently her HOA does nothing, but the negative feedback she's getting is dismaying to me. Some responders even accused her of being a cranky old &%#$@ and to mind her own business.
Click to expand...
I have to say, I've seen some nasty older women on shows like "Neighborhood Wars." However, a woman living alone, speaking up for something that is being done to her that is not right, can quickly be made into something she is not. Especially if there is not a lot of company coming to the woman's house. People notice this stuff. If they see males visiting, they know those males can be called if they harass this woman.
 
hollydolly said:
forced retirment at 66 actually... which enrages me... I want to return to work !!..and no I don't want to work in Asda..


errrm.. here in the south, smile at anybody, and they think you're an escaped lunatic.. start a conversation, and see them slowly backing away....
Click to expand...
VaughanJB said:
I actually like a bit of ageism. People open doors sometimes, that's nice. People also don't mind if I don't look fashionable. Also, you can smile at people - especially women - on the street and they don't treat you as though you're going to attack them. :D

I'm old. There's nothing I can do about it. I'm not aware of anyone being fired because of their age though. In the UK we have what amounts to a forced retirement age of 67......
Click to expand...
VaughanJB said:
I actually like a bit of ageism. People open doors sometimes, that's nice. People also don't mind if I don't look fashionable. Also, you can smile at people - especially women - on the street and they don't treat you as though you're going to attack them. :D

I'm old. There's nothing I can do about it. I'm not aware of anyone being fired because of their age though. In the UK we have what amounts to a forced retirement age of 67......
Click to expand...
Sorry, I've made a balls up of multiquoting again. Can't get the hang of it on this forum.


Vaughn and HollyDolly, you're both wrong . There is no 'forced' retirement these days. It was abolished in 2011:.

'Employers used to be able to force workers to retire at 65 (known as the Default Retirement Age), but this law was scrapped in April 2011, following a campaign by Age UK'.

Can I be forced to retire? | Work & Learning | Age UK

Working after State Pension age

Hollydolly - you can work return to work. No-one is stopping you - so get out there ;)
 
I've never come across any ageism.

A few times in supermarket, I've asked other shoppers what the date is when checking the sell by dates on items, and act like a little confused old lady, just because I can. It's rather fun :ROFLMAO:
 
Quackers said:
Sorry, I've made a balls up of multiquoting again. Can't get the hang of it on this forum.


Vaughn and HollyDolly, you're both wrong . There is no 'forced' retirement these days. It was abolished in 2011:.

'Employers used to be able to force workers to retire at 65 (known as the Default Retirement Age), but this law was scrapped in April 2011, following a campaign by Age UK'.

Can I be forced to retire? | Work & Learning | Age UK

Working after State Pension age

Hollydolly - you can work return to work. No-one is stopping you - so get out there ;)
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ah yes,I knew that of course, what I meant to say was that our retirement age is now 66... and will soon be 67...

No I can't return to work at my old job, not now I've retired... positions have been filled by younger people now..
 
Well a short terse rant...

Eastern Wall Street based wealth became extremely envious of Silicon Valley into the 1990s so began buying into public corporations. And when they did, installed their Ivy League schooled human resource educated persons in numbers of our corps with a strong bias to at that time the new globalization paradigm with out sourcing to foreign companies mostly in the Far East, technology transfers to foreigner corps, and importing green card workers to replace older experienced USA workers. What fat cat Wall Streeters hated with a passion were the high salaries technology workers were being paid.

With the rise of the Internet, that made it easy to ignore experienced older technology worker resumes applying for jobs that was just a trash can toss away. They eliminated walk in and phone contacts for jobs to HR departments. They had tech gurus train crews of the inexperienced. And yeah they all advertised jobs for guru levels while those in the middle technology levels were removed often in layoffs. Experienced workers fled to sales and management positions or changed their careers.

Instead they hired green card holders and inexperienced recently degreed college person to fill many positions. Many of us like this person could only get in the door by working through employment Head Hunters. HR departments often structured their processes like mystery black boxes so it was even difficult to bring talent into desperate departments through internal referrals. The mantra was "train the new hires". Of course eventually, the new hires were making just as much as we USA citizens used to make.
 
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Quackers said:
Sorry, I've made a balls up of multiquoting again. Can't get the hang of it on this forum.


Vaughn and HollyDolly, you're both wrong . There is no 'forced' retirement these days. It was abolished in 2011:.

'Employers used to be able to force workers to retire at 65 (known as the Default Retirement Age), but this law was scrapped in April 2011, following a campaign by Age UK'.

Can I be forced to retire? | Work & Learning | Age UK

Working after State Pension age

Hollydolly - you can work return to work. No-one is stopping you - so get out there ;)
Click to expand...

I could return to work tomorrow. Sadly, the law doesn't dictate human behavior. Younger folk will always find it easier to find work.
 

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