Age based work discrimination.

I'm already experiencing age based discrimination and i'm not that old. Because of my experience i am on a higher pay scale (don't have a choice here) than new graduates. Increasingly employers are hiring cheap new grads instead of people like myself with more years experience, then they rinse and repeat when the new grads get too expensive.

I'm wondering whether i can do anything about it or if anyone else has suffered from age based discrimination.

 

Do anything about it to help yourself or do anything about it to help to younger people being churned?

Unless you have influence over hiring and firing, there probably isn't much you can do for the new grads, other than asking your manager if there is a way of identifying the ones the organisation thinks should be kept and looking after them better.

For yourself, look at your weaknesses as a strength and give some thought to how you can sell your extra years of experience to a future employer or as a freelancer. Maybe look at doing some business and marketing courses in your spare time too, just in case you feel the need to bale out. At the very least you'll improve your knowledge in another area.

It really is a shame to see so many companies only focusing on the salary costs and missing how much time an effort you have to go into training new staff. They just end up losing the savings because the new kids aren't as productive while they're still figuring out what to do and how to do it.

 

If you don't have a choice to adjust your pay and it's hard for your to be able to change employers then it sounds like the system has made you structurally unemployed. Sacrificed on the altar of minimum pay. (The Gubbmint Depts would have a fit if they saw some of the prices I had willingly sold myself at for work over the years. On the upside as well as the downside )

 

I want to know, have the 20 something managers thought about their own work life? What are they going to do when they are washed up or burnt out at 35?
I have not got jobs lately because I'm too qualified. Due to a unique set if circumstances, I have been studying for 20 odd years after yr12 at school. I know I'm either
1. Dumb
2. Slow learner

At least when I get old I will have slow and dumb down pat.

 

I went freelance when I hit 30. That way I can sell my experience, I don't have to be trained and I can jump straight in to get that desperately needed project finished by the deadline with a minimum of hassle. They don't have to pay me holiday or sick pay either. Minimum hassle on both sides. That way I get paid a much higher hourly rate. Downside, if you can call it that, is that I have to manage my life and finances much more than the average wage slave, I have to educate myself in my own time and there is slow periods. But I never looked back. Plus, I had money to plow into silver, gold, bitcoins etc and plan to be near completely financially independent by 40.

For most people, the job market can not be relied upon to provide you a job for life. That's just the way it is and you need to plan accordingly. The great thing is that there is a ton of opportunity to make money out there. You have to think outside the box.

 

Funny, in my line of work i had huge issues being taken seriously at 26, i completed the jobs on time and on budget, but they always thought i was "a bit young"

Now im a member of "the platinum" club, i'm talking hair colour, they are quite happy to bring me in and fix their issues.

In some games it's obviously better to be a grumpy old bastard

 

Im on the younger side here compared to most stackers,
Yet age based discrimination disgusts me.

Theres a ad running on tv at the moment advertising a particular flight company .. All it feautures is hundreds of tightly clad hostesses probably no older than 30 strutting their stuff for this company prancing about,the ad has no meaning & no purpose as i cant remember the company name.
The media pumps out the same crap over & over again,sex sells and beauty & looks is everthing,its so superficial.

What ticks me off is that my old Lady (50 years old +)works three jobs 1 - managing a retail store 2 - Working at another retail store & 3 - Cleaning
She slaves for these people,& if she were to lose these jobs theres no chance in hell she find work were she lives,she would be replaced.

Replaced by one of the dumb minimum wage bimbos with no work/life experience that are so common today.

 

You can throw your hands in the air, quit, and collect gubimit payouts. Or become a politician.

 

Sounds to me that whatever the industry you are in is doesn't need your experience? If that's the case, why pay for it? You can't expect to get paid more just because you've been there, or in the industry, a long time if that experience isn't required.

Or am I missing something?

 

& much easier on the eye when you watch them walk with trays of food . :lol:

 

especially if theyre topless :lol:

 

ok, take ooout the mobile phone, take tthat picture.

download this thing call app in the apps store, "Shake ..."

then apply it on your picture

is there wink eyes too ?

 

The problem is i'll be wasting 2 years worth of postgraduate qualifications. Plus i'm not eligible for govt handouts because i own my own house (with debt ofcourse) and my better half is in full time employment.

 

I'm not expecting more. I'm on a compulsory govt mandated pay scale which gets higher with every year of experience in the field. I cannot reduce it and do not have a choice how much i get paid.

 

Without blowing my own trumpet, my standard of work and professionalism according to all my previous employers is very high. This is not an issue.

Like i posted previously, i cannot lower the amount i work for as it is a govt payscale.

My issue is not with managers picking the right candidate but with picking the cheapest candidate.

This sort of thing will only lead to constant churn and a race to scrape the bottom of the barrel as to who can provide the cheapest service regardless of quality of work.

No wonder standards in Oz have turned to crap as many employers still believe in paying peanuts despite the fact they get monkeys.

Btw what do you do with your juniors after a few years?

 

No-one has the right to tell an employer who to employ. Should I start a new enterprise I'll only hire young pretty WASP girls. That's my right as an employer. If you are being discriminated against then start your own business and hire yourself. This is not aimed at you Byron in particular, but you mention your own house, most employers have their house up as collateral for the business so must make the best financial employment call for the business. Employees get wages, super, holidays, sick leave etc, employers get stuff all. Let them hire the young pretty ones.

 

Employers are treated about the same as prison inmates under the socialist party. No rights, endless obligations. It will backfire in the future.

 

One of my businesses actually developing an incentive program at the moment so that we can promote our juniors to better positions when they're ready for some more responsibility. There's a certain amount of risk on our part but the risk of churning though outsiders until we find a good one is higher, plus if we're going to pay the juniors for doing junior grade work we may as well do some talent spotting while they're at it. Okay, so the work gets done and we pay them for it but we'd rather have a problem working out how to grow the business in order to keep hold of talented people than have a problem finding and training someone disposable who'll be gone in a few years.

FWIW, the last management-ish position went to a divorced, 52 year old man who's doing a part time uni degree (for fun) and who works remotely half the time. He's head and shoulders above the 30 year old hotshot he replaced.