Company tells 60yo employee of 35 years to reapply for position or lose her job.
Ageism is real and so are the consequences.
One son went online to talk about how he felt his hardworking mother was being completely disrespected and in danger of being discarded. She had spent her entire adult life working for a company, climbing up the ranks and always providing profit. But now, she has just learned that she will have to compete to keep her job, 5 years before her retirement plan. He's worried she will be left with nothing and that no one will hire her because of her advanced age.
My parents are finally seeing the truth.
It sucks, because this is not the way i wanted it to happen but my parents are finally seeing the truth about how disposable the working class is to the elite.
Today my mom got the notice, that she and her friend at work would be pitted against each other for who gets to keep their job. They were notified together, that they would both need to reapply and re interview and only one of them would keep their job and the other would be eliminated.
The worst part? Both her and her friend's divisions have made steady profits over the past 15 years. There is no logical reasoning behind this, her boss just told her they were cutting costs.
My mom has been with this company since 1988, fresh out of college. A total of 35 years with them and she is now told that she will need to re interview for the job she has been working successfully at all these years.
On top of that, even if she gets to keep the job there are rumors her division will be sold at some point in the next few years. She made them a profit for 35 years, and in just a few weeks to a month they could make her unemployed at the worst possible time.
She is 60 years old, 5 years away from her planned retirement. Shes not sure where she would even go, but shes certain shes not financially ready to retire after putting both my brother and i through college debt free.
She just needed 5 more years out of the company she gave 35 years to. Her biggest fear? That no one will hire her due to her age, and that she couldn’t get a job in her current management position so she would have to step down to the more manual labor oriented part of her field. At her age and health thats becoming a risk in of itself.
Shes likely facing the fact that the retirement she earned, with minimal vacations and countless hours of unpaid OT will be robbed from her to strengthen the bottom line on a division she’s made profitable year after year for the past 20 years.
I'm devastated for my mother and I can't help but feel angry at the company for threatening to drop a longtime, well-performing and dedicated employee.
COMMENTS
They're trying to get them both to quit.
After 35 years, they will have to offer her a great severance package or mom can have grounds for age discrimination. They should definitely hire an employment lawyer. The worst thing to do would be to quit.
And this is why I’m pro unions.
My mom’s job made everyone reapply for their jobs. She just… didn’t bother, made them fire her, and went into retirement a year early.
I'm so sorry she's going through that. It's disgusting how companies are treating the people who made them what they are, who built them up and sacrificed so much of their lives to them - especially people who are too old or otherwise unable to easily find work in the field anymore. It's just so wrong!
You know, I'm actually surprised that in America, the land of the lawsuit, there is nothing she can sue them over. It's insane. It's like divorce, man...I'm sorry she has to go through this.