THE DOUBLE JEOPARDY OF AGEISM
Ageism and Redundancy seem to go hand in hand. When we are young we forget that one day we’ll be old. In some cases we’ll be older but still feel young and it’s those times when we feel so frustrated that there is an invisible glass ceiling stopping us from getting gainful employment.
Recently I spoke to an HR professional, very qualified and in a top recruitment agency and he admitted that the above is evident, especially today. Furthermore he said that people who have been made redundant, no matter how highly qualified, are finding it tough to get a job, and in most cases, any job.
An enormous pool of talent has been left behind and in a lot of cases, through no fault of their own. So to be mature and unfortunately made redundant from your last role, you haven’t much chance of being recruited any time soon unless a sea change is to come about.
This isn’t something new either. A mature friend of mine, a freelance journalist of long standing told me how some fifteen years ago she had lunch with a financial journalist on a top newspaper and this journalist had admitted that at that time the oldest person in her department was all of fifty years old. He was the only one who remembered how things were under a previous government and was the one they went to for queries the younger staff couldn’t answer. At the time my friend thought this appalling but I don’t think things have changed a lot.
The cult of the young is here to stay and we should get used to the fact that vibrancy and immediacy is the norm. What saddens me is that sometimes things do get lost in the translation between young and old. A mature friend I know who took up a creative writing course at 70, told me only recently that her teacher, a published author and magazine writer, told her that if she wanted to make some money on her work (she happens to be very good at writing) then she should dumb down.
After recovering from her shock, she told me how it had surprised her and she asked the teacher why. The teacher told her that the reading was usually done by young people and they simply didn’t understand the meaning of some words such as “minion” and so on. So dumb down or don’t get published in some of the smaller magazines. Fortunately my friend doesn’t have to earn from her writings, just get published for the sheer satisfaction of getting something in print.
As an end note “Minions” have now become a buzz word under the young thanks to those wonderful “Despicable Me” movies!
My advice to her was to carry on writing as she does very creatively with excellent English and perhaps one day… I couldn’t bear the thought of her dumbing down her writing as it was so good.
It does tell a tale though. If the young are being placed into positions of authority, then if they don’t have the long experience they should have the right qualifications to do the job.
Personally I'm still not too old to get contracts for my profession but Steemit gives me the freedom to write what I like and when I like! Thank you