A close friend of mine went to a job fair a few years back.
He’s got a job, which is better than a lot of us can say these days, but he was looking to see if maybe he could find something better. His current job doesn’t provide health insurance, and it’s costing him a small fortune to keep his family covered.
He spoke with a recruiter who shall remain nameless working for a company that shall remain nameless and he dropped off a resume. The recruiter was polite at first and told my friend he was well-qualified and that he would pass his resume along.
My friend wasn’t expecting much, so he thanked the recruiter and started to walk away.
Then the recruiter decided to be “honest” with him.
“We’re not going to offer you a job,” he said. “You’re qualified, but you’re 56 years old and we just aren’t hiring anyone that old unless we go out and recruit them from another company.”
My friend wasn’t surprised. He asked the recruiter how old he was and found that he was 42.
“Nobody wants to hire anyone that old,” he said. “If we hire someone in their 20s or even 30s, we can train them the way we want them and then have them be part of our company for 20 years.”
It makes sense. My friend has heard it before and I’ve heard it before. But then the younger man decided he just had to be a little bit mean, I suppose.
“At your age, you’ve got nothing left to look forward to except grandchildren and death,” he said.
I would have punched the guy, but my friend just asked, “What about retirement?”
The guy sneered. “Nobody’s going to be able to retire in this economy,” he said. “Everybody’s retirement savings have been wiped out.”
My guess is our Gen-Xer’s 401(k) account has taken a major hit, because he’s certainly not accurate in what he says. I know people in their late 50s who have already retired, who are about to retire and who are very well prepared to retire.
But “grandchildren and death?”
Sounds like our recruiter is lacking in some people skills. It also sounds like someone has a lot of hostility toward the Baby Boom generation.
I suppose there is one other possibility.
Maybe he’s just a jerk.
***
That job fair was 16 years ago, and the young jerk turned out to be correct, at least when it came to my friend. He’s 72 now, still working at the same job. Still not dead but still no grandchildren.
Ain’t America grand?