So how many people have lost their careers forever?

[Hugabear]

Seems like if you're middle-aged or older and lose a job that you've been doing for awhile, you can almost forget about finding another job in your field. The longer you remain unemployed, your chances of ever finding a job in your field fall dramatically. It's that whole double-edged sword, employers simply don't want to hire someone who's been out of the workforce too long, and we all know that those of us who are middle-aged or older are going to face age discrimination in the job market. For someone like me, who is middle-aged and overweight, it can be even that much more difficult to find a new job. Rethugs love to say "why don't you just get a job at Walmart or McDonald's" - yet when we apply for even these jobs, which would pay far, far less than what we should be making, we're told that we're "over-qualified", they don't want to hire someone who they think would take a better job the minute one came around. For people like us, seems like the best that we can about hope for are temp assignments, which invariably means frequent changes, absolutely no benefits whatsoever.

[MNBrewer]

1. One here

[Newest Reality]

2. Same here!

Welcome to the Desert of the Real.

[RandomKoolzip]

3. Everyone should go re-read Naomi Klein's "No Logo."

The sections on the tech bubble mavens of the late 90s/early 2000s re-framing the loss of job security as "freedom," extolling the joys of being free agents, seem eerily prophetic nowadays.

[KamaAina]

10. Way back when, Buckminster Fuller called it "the socialization of leisure time".

Seriesly.

[Mimosa]

15. Definitely prophetic. n/t

[givemebackmycountry]

4. I know that and I'm worried BUT...

I'm getting ready to hire a guy in his late 50's - an old warhorse if you will.
Not only that, but he has a very visible deformity, one of his arms is easily twice as large as his other one.
He came in, and he just blew us all away and we all said we got to have this guy.

When I called him back and told him an offer was coming, he sounded shocked.
Almost as shocked as when I called him back for a second interview, a day after his first interview.
This ain't no Wal-Mart job either.
Full benefits and 2 weeks vacation right out of the gate, and a great place to work.

Now, I doubt if I get let go, I will find that kind of good fortune.
But for this guy?
I need to figure out how to get him on MY team.
Good luck dude.
We're pulling for you.

[Celtic Raven]

5. Thanks for the good news

Even though I don't know you or this man you're hiring, your post was a bright spot for me.

:toast:

[Celtic Raven]

6. K&R nt

[LooseWilly]

7. A great argument for Single Payer... ironically

"seems like the best that we can about hope for are temp assignments, which invariably means frequent changes, absolutely no benefits whatsoever"

Benefits, especially for older workers, and doubly especially for overweight older workers, is expensive... so odds are that companies won't take on that expense to hire. Meanwhile, with the loss of job security in the economy as a whole... more and more workers will be looking for work more often—including when they are older.

Mandatory purchasing of individual health insurance is all well and nice, but it doesn't change the fact that, for employers who do offer health insurance, hiring more expensive to cover potential workers will be ... more expensive. With a Single Payer plan... it wouldn't matter.

Of course, with a reasonable social security plan that would support workers in retiring at a reasonably young age it wouldn't be an issue and younger workers would have more opportunities to find work too... but that's just crazy talk I suppose.

[NNN0LHI]

12. Forget Single Payer

Concentrate on becoming unionized.

Government isn't going to save us. We are going to save us. Or not?

Don

[LiberalEsto]

8. I'm one of them

Nobody seems to want real journalists any more, just media whores.

I worked as a journalist for more than 25 years, but lost my last newspaper job in 1997 because I refused to become a media whore.

The semi-technical marketing writing I used to do has dried up. Freelance jobs are a joke these days because they want a lot of copy but won't pay squat for it.

Can't afford retraining.

[Reader Rabbit]

9. I'm worried it might happen before I can retire.

Teachers are being screwed over left, right, and center. It's only a matter of time before they start firing veteran teachers because they're not "cost effective."

[B Calm]

11. I lost my job of 27 years and decided to go to trucking. I had a son

in college and I had promised him if I gave him one thing in life, it would be a quality education.

[NNN0LHI]

13. I admire you. That is rough work

I would have done the same thing in your situation if I had to.

Don

[Octafish]

14. +1

Journalist. Now I am a "consult-t-tant."

On my last Full Time job, with benefits, etc., about three years ago, we put out the "Help Wanted" sign for a Part Time Writer position that paid $10 an hour. We got more than 500 apps, including several from lawyers and professors who wrote they needed the work.

FWIW, the gig went to a great young kid, a year outta college, who'd been working retail. I'm glad she kept her retail job as we all were let go a few months later.

[Mass]

16. One here.\nt

[Greyhound]

17. Present. I don't miss the career so much as I despair over the crapware that

has replaced it.

Ageism, sexism, and racism are alive and well and protected from any prosecution by a government that refused to enforce the laws.
:kick: & R

[raccoon]

18. K&R. nt

[northernlights]

19. not only did I lose my career, a former colleague and his wife,

a VP at Fidelity Investments, are part of an identity theft ring operating out of HP. From the laptop "stolen" from her car, they got my SSN, prior address & phone. From my resume sent to him at his request for a *bogus* free-lance contract they got my current address, current phone, employment and education history.

[Tsiyu]

20. It's pretty dismal when you're over 50

Like so many on DU, been going over my "career history" and wondering just what the hell happened. It used to be a no-brainer that a job came with health insurance (even vision and dental) sick pay and vacation. Now, you're just happy if you break even after you pay for gas, decent clothes (ha!) and the bourbon to ease the pain of having no medical care.

And then I remember all the times I've been ridiculed for being a Pollyanna as a teenager (about as many times as I was ridiculed for posting on DU that all the shit was going to hit the fan, that the economy was going to tank - not any example of optimism, but just the truth as seen by an outsider living in Appalachia watching my country go on this bizarre lying spree to itself) and I search valiently for the silver lining in all this non-wage earning.

Just a year ago, I had more work than I could stand and my home was falling apart. I was never home. Rarely saw my friends. How many times did I wish for more time at home to organize and regroup and relax? Got it.

How many times did I wish i wasn't too tired to visit with loved ones? Well-rested here. :)

How many times did I wish for some time to write, think, imagine? Got it.

And best of all, I've seen a sea change in people's attitudes toward those who are struggling. Yeah, there are still teabagging asses out there, but I rarely see any "pull yourself up by the bootstraps/if you're poor it's your own damned fault" posts on DU, and they used to be legion.



So it's cold and the cupboard may be nearly bare, but I'm imagining my pony under the steaming pile of....;)