Commentary
Those over 55 need not apply
By Howard Lisnoff
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Jun 26, 2009, 00:16

In 1965, in the midst of the zeitgeist for change created in the 60s era that was the Free Speech Movement at the University of California at Berkley, Jack Weinberg, one of the leaders of that movement said: “Don’t trust anybody over 30.” While the context in which that quote was made is debatable, its irony upon a generation that came of age long ago is not lost. Even a stock investment company has taken up that clarion call, using a famous icon from that period, in an appeal to baby boomers to seek new opportunities through investing.

Recently, I sought out a dog trainer to help resolve a behavior issue with a puppy. That in itself ought not to be an earthshaking revelation, but the price the trainer charged for one hour’s work is three times the rate that I currently earn helping students with writing in a community college setting. I can only conclude from this experience that well-behaved dogs are more important to the functioning of society than students who can write.

Dog training aside, it’s not so much the dollar amount that I’m paid for the work I do, as are the jobs and interviews that I don’t get. I have a sense that grows with each resume I send out, or each interview I’m not granted, that age discrimination has become a major factor in getting the kind of employment I would like at a wage that is not insulting and degrading.

A recent segment on CBS Evening News covered two older workers who had lost their jobs and had been forced back into the workforce. One worker was able to find a job in the same field that he had left years ago, while the other worker was placed into a lower-paying position. As is the modus operandi with the national media, the CBS program dealt with upper-middle class individuals.

I’m no stranger to discrimination and have developed a sixth sense in ferreting it out after many years of having been denied job advancement in public education because of my political beliefs and activism. But age discrimination is something entirely new to me. With multiple university degrees and decades of experience in education and counseling, I believed that at least some of the jobs I applied for were well within my reach, even in the midst of the worst economic climate since the Great Depression. I even thought that applying for jobs with state agencies would offer some sort of protection against blatant discrimination, but was shocked when application after application was either ignored or denied.

When I applied for a position as the director of a community college’s tutorial center, a job for which I possessed years of experience, the job was given to someone in the good-ole-boys’ loop. The community college maintained that in tight economic times they would fill the job on a temporary basis without interviewing other applicants for the position. Two years later the same crony is still directing the tutorial center.

In yet another job, a temporary position again with the state, I thought that I might have an edge in the application process because the job application gave special treatment to military veterans. During the interview, the interviewers were dismissive of my credentials and the job went to someone else.

And so that public sector is not singled out unfairly, I have had the same experiences with job application after job application in the private sector where even fewer or no protections are offered to the job applicant.

Attempting to locate statistics on the incidence of discrimination in either the public or private sectors is a fruitless endeavor as much of actual job discrimination that takes place is never reported or dealt with in either a quasi-judicial manner or within the judicial system.

So, while trillions of dollars are given out to huge business interests such as mega banks and insurance companies, not a single effective piece of jobs legislation has emerged from either the Obama administration or Congress. The president and his advisors maintain that 150,000 jobs have either been saved or created through their efforts, but the reality is that whatever the actual number is, it is a pittance when measured against the jobs programs of the Great Depression such as the Works Progress Administration. Even with the most open-minded approach to the problem of job creation, a casual observer might conclude that there are those who matter in society and those who definitely do not, and those who are older do not matter at all!