“When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now”
I’m pretty sure you can imagine that aging really sucks! I’m still officially sixty-four, butI’ll be sixty-five at the end of the year. I gotta tell ya, there’s so much I didn’t see coming. I mean, I knew aging was inevitable, but jeez, I never expected it to be this hard. The body starts going a little wonky so you really have to pay attention and take better care of it. When I was younger, I never thought twice about waking up and rolling over in bed to have a cigarette. Eating nachos, pizza, and beer for dinner and Taco Bell for a late night snack before bed …at three AM. Now, you gotta really watch what you eat …less salt, no sugar, carbs, or red meats. And definitely, no smoking, which I miss terribly. And only drinking alcohol in moderation, if at all. It’s a travesty, I tell ya, a travesty. And then, there are the moments when you’re having a normal conversation and sometimes the words start playing hide-n-seek in your brain …and you have to spend a good amount of time searching for them….which causes a fit of anxiety because you’re suddenly afraid you might have Alzheimer’s…which only buries the words deeper and you’ll never find them until an hour later when you’ve calmed down. Now that REALLY sucks! But, in spite of all the physical trials, people my age are also confronted by a challenge we just weren’t prepared for. Ageism.
“I could be handy, mending a fuse
When your lights have gone”
Being overlooked for employment, the misconceptions, dismissive attitudes, negative assumptions, and the notion that all of your experience gathered in a
“Doing the garden, digging the weeds
Who could ask for more”
Yes, I know…I know. Younger folks will have much more time in the workforce than us sixty-four plus workers. It’s the natural order of things. But let me tell you, I’ve recently seen so many resumes of young people in today’s workforce who have only held on to a job for just a year or two and they move on to the next one.
Please don’t get me wrong, I work with younger people all the time. I’m not that “Hey you kids, get off my lawn” guy. That’s just ageism in reverse. But, it seems that some young workers feel entitled to more without really working for it …or at it. They want a better title, higher salaries, more opportunity for career growth without gathering the needed experience. After only a year or two, when things aren’t moving fast enough for them in this instant gratification world, they lose patience and move on to the next job looking for the same things. I was flabbergasted when I read these resumes! But there it was, in black and white, and sometimes multi-colored because they use MS Word resume templates (but never in large print.) These young people only hung around for a year or two then moved on! Yet, they continue to get hired.
Look, it’s just an observation, and, kind of a biased one I admit. I don’t have any research or statistics or official documentation about this generation being any different than previous ones. I’m certain there were resumes of peers in my age group reflecting the same lack of commitment to a job or career in their time. And I’m just as certain this generation is filled with hard-working, conscientious adults who believe in working their craft and earning their future. My point is, why not consider hiring someone that’s sixty-four or older? A hard worker who has shown loyalty and commitment to a company longer than it takes to have a Triple, Venti, Half Sweet, Non-Fat, Caramel Macchiato, no whip coffee? They just might surprise you. And they just might stick around for as long as you’ll have them.
Most older workers have a career full of experience; they can contribute to a business’s bottom line as well as mentor young workers. Now, there are lots of older folks who reach sixty-five and have had enough, made enough money, and look forward to retirement. And golf every day. But there are many older people who still enjoy working and don’t want to stop. Or let their age–which is just a number. Or let any age-related physical challenges get in the way of continuing to be a productive, whole person, capable of still making substantive contributions to
“Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
Lennon & McCartney
when I’m sixty-four…”
I just finished writing my short story screenplay Second Chance, a story about “the one that got away.” I hope to have this cast and filmed this year. It should be an easy shoot and I have just the director in mind to do it. His name is Matt Pallotta and he’s been a great collaborator for years, and one talented son-of-a-gun behind the camera. He just opened his own production company last year and I highly recommend his work if you’re in need of a video for corporate, commercial and film. Find him at