Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England recently complained about early retirees, accusing them of “reducing the productive capacity of the economy” and thereby driving up prices, which, in turn, have to be combatted by interest rate rises. But if my experience is any indication, many over-50s are out of employment not out of choice but because, despite a widely-signalled commitment to ‘diversity’, many employers don’t seem to want to hear from people above a certain age.
I am in my mid-50s and over the past few years I have been unemployed despite earnestly trying to find work the same as, or similar to what I had been doing before in the financial markets. I was fortunate that my wife was working and I had put funds away for a rainy day so I didn’t need to claim any benefits, which may be the same for many people in their 50s.
Recently I checked to see if my National Insurance contributions were up to date and I have to thank Martin Lewis for suggesting I do this as, despite paying in since I started work at the age of 17, there was a shortfall which would have reduced my state pension. Martin pointed out that it would be possible to claim credits even if you were not registered as unemployed as long as you could show you were available for work and had been attempting to find work.
I set about the task of getting all the information together to make my case. By the time I finished I was surprised at just how many different positions I had applied for (or at least those that I had records of).
I had applied for 110 different positions. Eighty-eight (80%) of those applications were rejected without interview despite many of them being an exact job match or only a slight variation but with the same skill set.
One in particular had stuck in my mind. I will not mention its name, just that it was an American banking giant that was looking to fill a London based position that exactly matched my experience. It has the following on its website:
[The company] and its affiliates consider for employment and hire qualified candidates without regard to race, religious creed, religion, colour, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, protected veteran or disability status or any factor prohibited by law, and as such affirms in policy and practice to support and promote the concept of equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, in accordance with all applicable federal, state, provincial and municipal laws. The company also prohibits discrimination on other bases such as medical condition, marital status or any other factor that is irrelevant to the performance of our teammates.
Two-and-a-half hours after sending my electronic application I received a message which said: “Thank you for your recent application to the above position. After careful consideration we are sorry to inform you that we will not be progressing with your application.”
Due to the ridiculously short period of time that my application had been evaluated in, I decided to write an actual letter to the head of human resources pointing out how I was surprised to receive an almost immediate rejection email and I didn’t know how the algorithm used to filter potential candidates is configured but in light of my experience, the fact that I was rejected so quickly suggested it was not working properly.
I asked for the opportunity to discuss the role in person but never received a reply.
Maybe I’m just too old.
I have since found employment, but for others perhaps the decision to retire is not through choice but more to do with diversity, equity and inclusion not applying to people in their 50s.
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Some of it will be disability following the you-know-whats https://rumble.com/v2f6j80-these-numbers-look-horrific-work-absence-rates-are-off-the-charts-and-its-o.html and people caring for such people, but certainly in my own social circle people are increasingly disinclined to work, after a few decades of asset price growth, often combined with neglect of their own health which also tips the balance.
My experience in a large multinational is that once you get over 50 you become fair game for redundancy or firing .This normally starts if your older boss retires and the new “young thruster” takes over and you find despite experience your face no longer fits .Then its a slow attack via appraisals and gentle humiliation.
I took redundancy and getting out was the best decision I have made .Despite many attempts nobody is hiring late 50s white men with 2 degrees apparently …
The BOE governor should try applying for some jobs incognito to see the reality .
Agreed. I always found appraisals to be a form of character assassination, and generally speaking managers continually poured on more work without ever reducing anything in order to keep balance. They don’t like being questioned by older employees who can see the madness of trying to do ever more within a single role. Nor do they make any allowances for people getting older. Nor do they like older, high quality managers knowing their job inside out and rejecting ‘change for the sake of change’ which will actually worsen outcomes. If you have stayed in one place of work for any length of time, the file of ‘letters of complaint’ can become very thick, whilst those who are happy with your work rarely write and give praise… ‘Look at all these complaints …. what are we going to do? …’
In other words – resign! (The latter point depends on the type of work you do). Eventually they pile on performance management techniques, reduce you to a gibbering wreck of a human being, and force you out. After a year to regain good health… you find nobody wants you as the professional you once were, even if you offer to work for free or do a job far beneath your grade.
Appraisals are an absolute joke. I am proud to say I had a good working relationship with everybody within the department which I managed from foremen to floor sweeper. I was told at an appraisal I had no social skills what so ever.; and when I questioned this was told it was based upon the fact I never had invited the boss out for a drink. I made it known that this particular facet of my appraisal would not be improving at any time soon based upon that criteria.
I think you’re right (it mirrors family experience). I’ve already warned my two adult sons (early 30s) that when they get into their mid-50s they will be vulnerable and to make sure they can cope financially when/if it happens.
From this article, it would appear that the employment world is unrecognisable from the one I left over a score of years ago on early retirement at the age of 52. (Financial Planner in the City). Thankfully, back then ‘diversity quotas’ were some way in the future, yet to be invented.
Young ‘thrusters’ (graduates in under-water basket weaving), 25 years my junior were evident however, and making a name for themselves in the training environment with sights set on management positions.
“Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England recently complained about early retirees, accusing them of “reducing the productive capacity of the economy” and thereby driving up prices, which, in turn, have to be combatted by interest rate rises”
Lol, nothing to do with the covid money printing idiocy with which the BOE enthusiastically collaborated. What a crock.
Yes indeed – quant easing on the scale of Niagra falls will do that to the economy, forcing a lot of companies to cut back on staff. And don’t forget:
I’m sure other sceptics can think of similar reasons.
Blaming the over 50s bears all the the same hallmarks as blaming eating ice cream for the current heart attack explosion. Anything but the
jabfiscal policy!Indeed. Not only is the comment way off the mark, it’s dishonest and despicable.
Agreed. What a nerve to blame Over 50s for exacerbating inflation? What the jell does he know about finding work at that age?
For myself, I worked in 3 totally different jobs – 0 to 50 in dairy farming; 50 to 60 in politics and 60 to 68 in development planning enforcement and then became a self employed planning consultant. Never stopped working,(now 75).
My point is that one should attain manydifferent skills and have huge self confidence in carrying them out and be prepared to work longer and harder than anyone else.
I retired early, starting with a 4 day week, then 3 day week, then sod it, and stopped altogether. In my last 20 years as an engineer, in design and project management, my skills and knowledge were not so much being ignored but derided as old hat and worthless in today’s world. Drawing on paper was ridiculed as drawing all morning and rubbing out in the afternoon, tools and machinery that were manual and analogue were avoided, and on one occasion was told that a particular machine we were discussing should be scrapped as it had no buttons.
I never went to University and I am grateful for it, I did my time and never stopped learning from those who knew something I didn’t. Todays the bright eye bushy tail youth from Uni’ have all we old buggers built given to them on a plate, and are full of their own importance because they have been told they are important. They are told that the systems and functions of the OLD HAT stuff is no longer relevant, that includes discussion, debate, evaluation and investigation, all the how, what, why, where, and when questions that brought us to this point in history.
Today we have nothing new, we are still sending rockets into space with 1920’s technology, solar and wind generation 140 years old and still not quite good enough, and it goes on. Technology of electronics and miniaturisation has given us the I-phone lap top etc, all from old principles. For me, to retire early, was to get out of it, not as a surrender but I had run out of fight against the copy and paste and of pushing buttons, opposed to pushing the extents of your imagination.
I expect it’s a combination of both.
In your case, Mr Leith, I expect if you had set your sights lower than your experience suggested you should, you would have found employment quite quickly. My ex-husband was made redundant (a decade or so ago) when he was around 53/4 and he refused to accept a role which was more junior than the one he was made redundant from. He has never worked again, apart from a spell “pottering around” in a self-employed role.
Personally, I’ve chosen not to get a job. I have an arrangement with a small, privately-owned company which is a deal which suits us both. I work when I’m needed and IF I want to – most of the time I’m happy to oblige. I’m paying no NI, no pension contributions (I don’t need another one) and virtually no income tax. Fortunately, I can afford to do this.
I’ve now simplified my life and am enjoying depriving this appalling Government of as much of my money as I legally can.
I expect there are hundreds of thousands of well-qualified older people who are doing likewise.
PS. It’s quite fun being the office junior at my age
Never mind diversity it’s the Elf & safety mantra that’s getting ever more complicated !! More time spent on courses & RAMS than working !!!
Ah; H&S, a requirement turned into an industry for interfering busy bodies, to criticize others and impose their will. Where you are no longer responsible for your own actions, but are required to conduct yourself according to their mandates, for only they have the wisdom, the power and the glory, for ever and for ever……….
I quit at 55 – I no longer had any interest in policing my speech to keep a few lunatics happy/
Although this was some years ago, I was made redundant in my late forties, and the impossibility of getting another job eventually led me to start my own business instead. Before I decided to do that I actually began to feel I was invisible. Very dispiriting.
Mind you, this BOE chief is the same person who was surprised about the continued rise in inflation. Ah yes, I thought, there’s a man who never sets foot in a supermarket. Anyone who buys food can tell you that costs are spiralling with no sign of a slowdown. Not this dork though!
I was the global lead in my profession, the training of practitioners in managing large, complex defence lifecycles.
The lockdown killed face to face training but the customer took the opportunity to replace our custom with some groupthink females who knew nothing about the process. After 25,000 customers and 21 years of great feedback and training everyone from CEO, MD and down the chain, they didn’t even answer my emails or phone messages.
No worries though. Pension pot in place so I shook the dust off my feet and haven’t looked back.
I’m early forties and work in a skilled area in finance. My employer is a very woke global corporation. I’m underpaid for my role but am fearful of seeking alternative employment, as I’d immediately fail the ESG/DEI section of any job interview.
A huge chunk of finance sector activity now revolves around ESG, in particular “climate change” and helping institutional investment clients comply with government reporting obligations in that area. Basically, if I were to get made redundant I’m sceptical that there would be a way back into the industry.
Thankfully no mortgage at the moment, but my wife isn’t of the hunker down mentality and wants a bigger house!
I think it is a reconfigurement that is in progress. Like Milan Kundera said, the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory over forgetting. And of course there is a big digital divide in terms of the progress of information technology in the early 1980s. Essentially employment will be stripped down to its bare minimum. Financialisation of everything ensures that this is the only successful dynamic.The inexorable logic of comopund interest and the dreadful power of the purse. Thankfully we are now seeing a global revolt against these Ahrimanic tendencies.
I read books like Cider With Rose now just to remid myself that our world existed and still exists. For me the English language contains many mysteries. Jorge Luis Borges said that English literarure was one of the greatest adventures in the history of humankind. We can’t just let this country fall to a bunch of pirates.
Fortunate to be self-employed and fortunate that most younger members of my profession are female and want to work 10-20 hours per week, and avoid the “hard stuff”, leaving plenty of necessary work for the remaining old farts.
American organisations are driven by their EDI tick box exercises and quotas. Your application was machine rejected by the three characteristics that are excluded from ‘protected’ status: white, male in your 50s