Day 9: Your Feelings on Ageism

I had to look it up on my dictionary app to make sure it’s what I thought it was. I was correct. “A discrimination against a certain age group” or “a tendency to view older persons as debilitated, unworthy of attention, or unsuitable for employment.”

I’m not sure who came up with these writing prompts, but I feel that I could write more dramatically about something else. The ‘unworthy of attention’ pulls at me…but I’m liable to get pulled off on a tangent. Oh well, here goes nothin’.

We have several old men working at the Co-op, so I have firsthand experience with this. I don’t feel that they should get special treatment. If they can’t hack it, they should be sent home. Just like a younger person with a strong back would be. (Unless you could be moved to a lighter duty position). Keeping one person because you feel sorry for them is just preventing someone else from having work. That being said, there is one that works circles around most of us. And there is one who ain’t worth shootin’, in my opinion. There is one who is an icon, we keep him around for his brain. And there’s one who stays as lost as last year’s Easter egg. I don’t think he’s ever gonna catch on, & he’s been with us for a couple of years now.

Just like our younger people. We have young people that are go-go-go, younger people that are smart but aren’t much for the labor end, younger people who are so slow you can “see the dead lice fall off of ’em” {Hazel’s words, a bit of an exaggeration}. We have younger people that every day is like their first day, no recollection of the day before. Seriously, it’s like the Twilight Zone. It takes all kinds, is what people keep telling me.

Everybody needs a job. But if you can’t do the job you’re hired to do, you need to find one you can. And these 16-28 year olds really need a stronger work ethic. Showing up is not enough. If the place you’re employed doesn’t pay you what you’re worth, or appreciate you, move on. Because they probably never will.