Sentenced to the Rocking Chair

One of my pet peeves for years has been age discrimination. Long before I crossed the line into "senior citizenship," I saw it impact me and others on too many occasions.

Bring us in for the second and third job interviews; ask us questions that only our years of experience can effectively answer, but hire someone else and arm them with the information we provided.

In 2020, we still haven't figured out what to do with people, who just a few decades ago were considered "old." I have great memories of my Mother's parents and when I think about them now I have images of people who are actually younger than I am, but look and act much older.

Our confusion with age struck me once again following the recent
decision by Cleveland Cavaliers Coach John Beilien to step aside. A highly successful college coach at the University of Michigan, his record with the Cavs at the All-Star break was a dismal 14-40. It was reported that he couldn't relate to his young players.

When the commentary on ESPN turned to whether Beilein should go back to the college game, there was always a remark from a 30-something talking head that went something like: "Well, he's 67 you know..."

To which I would silently scream to myself: "Yeah, so????"

Duke's legendary Coach K is 73 and I haven't heard anyone suggest that he should be heading to the rocking chair on his front porch. Bill Belichick is 67 and no one would dare even whisper that he's "too old" for the rigors of an NFL head coaching job.

As someone who isn't interested in retiring, I'm fortunate that my resume includes years of teaching, where experience in my field counts.  I'm also lucky my wife decided to bring me on as her associate in her highly successful real estate practice, where the fact that I'm older and "helping her out" has seemed to give me credibility with some of our clients. 

I have to be honest and say that in my mid- 50's when I moved on from the job of a lifetime that came at the wrong time in my life, the search for what to do next wasn't easy. I followed all the suggestions offered by AARP and other sources, but finished runner up to someone younger with less experience more times than I care to remember.

I'll never forget a call I received from a contact in an HR Department at a non-profit where I was the second choice. She told me confidentially that the organization was very interested in hiring me, but was afraid that I would retire in a few years. This after I made it clear that for a variety of very specific reasons I had no interest in early retirement and was looking forward to long career with the agency.

I think part of the difficulty society has in dealing with the "new" older generation is that we're not one size fits all. Many of us have been blessed with good health and an interest in remaining active whether working, traveling or volunteering. But, there are also others our age, who are struggling with challenges. There's simply no algorithm to predict who will be what and when.

Eighty-one year old British TV personality Johnny Ball, who is best known for his popular children's math and science programs, has said that "discrimination due to age is one of the great tragedies of modern life. The desire to work and be useful is what makes life worth living, and to be told that your efforts are not needed because you are the wrong age is a crime."

The question is how do we convince the people in HR and ESPN that age is just a number?