That was the bumper sticker that caught my eye on the way out of Starbucks earlier this week. First, I was taken aback, then kind of smiled, immediately thinking of it as a statement on slow driving. Then, it reminded me of an experience I had a few years ago that was kind of any eye opener.
About a year after my husband was diagnosed with Stage IV Lung Cancer and about 5 months before his death, I was laid off from my job. I was not particularly surprised; there were other layoffs happening, and the whole place was on shaky ground, but it was not done in a particularly graceful way.
Having recently turned 62 and dealing with Earl’s illness for the past year I didn’t relish the idea of looking for a job, especially in the North SF Bay community I lived in. There were not exactly a lot of jobs available there, and certainly none in my field. I decided to retire early to spend time with family, so I applied for Social Security online. Within a few days I’d received a call from a placement agency with a 6-month contract in Marin. Earl wanted me to keep working and I knew he worried about me being OK when his cancer took its inevitable toll.
I agreed to the contract and went to the local Social Security office to rescind my application. After waiting for a short while I met with a clean cut young man with a semi-surly attitude. I told him why I was there, and he told me that people like me, who refused to retire, were the reason people like he could not get a decent job. I had absolutely no idea how to respond to that, and probably laughed it off. Later I decided I should have told him he didn’t qualify for my job, but I didn’t.
It has been one of the reasons for, and results of, retiring that I realize that I have lost my credibility in the working world, pretty much because of my age. I will admit that some of that dimming of my star may have to do with me getting pretty fed up with the corporate world and copping an attitude.
Not long before I retired I was “voluntold” to interview a recent PhD graduate who was interested in my career field. They had no work experience, their degree had nothing to do with clinical research, and their final question was “How long do I have to work here before I can have your job?”
It occurred to me that the bumper sticker had meaning far beyond slow driving. Probably every generation looks at their parents (and grandparents) and the world that they have created and wonders why they don’t get out of the way of progress and new ideas. I feel that way myself about the political climate in this country, and most of the politicians are younger than I am. I guess I can understand the angst, but I also know that many of my generation still have things to offer; experience, knowledge, assistance. The transition cannot suddenly be us being out and them being in. They would need to reinvent the wheel and relearn so many things that they could easily pick up from us while we are still around. Of course, many of us are not ready to step aside and we kind of stonewall those coming up behind us on the corporate ladder. Instead of mentoring them, we store up our little secrets. Sometimes we call it “job security,” but, of course, there is never any of that in today’s work environment.
It is sad that all those Gen X’ers and Millennials see mostly the horrendous debt and out of control economy that enriches the already wealthy and burdens what is left of the middle class and the poor. What I had hoped would be the Baby Boomer legacy; technology, social equality, world peace (someday), preservation of the earth, a little spreading of the wealth (not by trickling) are all being dismantled before my eyes while we spend trillions of dollars that we don’t have even though we know we will be gone before the tab comes due and it will fall to them to figure out how to pay it.
I am glad that they are registering to vote in droves, not so they can support my agenda but so that the true intention of the majority of the citizens of the United States will actually be implemented. If everyone who can vote does vote, then even if I don’t agree with the outcome, I will gain solace from knowing this is what people really want. I haven’t felt that was true in a very long time, and I was probably misinformed then.
I am not ready to get out of the way but I hope I can still contribute some value as things progress.
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