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Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Retirement


A term I have never embraced.  After a professional career with travel, monetary rewards and many business acquaintances (friends), retirement was never a big goal. I found my work/profession rewarding and fulfilling; I enjoy work.  

At The Office 2005

After selling my software company, I am the person who fought retirement. I volunteered, worked as an administrative assistant and office manager for over 15 years after my first failed attempt at retirement. "All dressed up and somewhere to go." was my mantra. I had the professional female wardrobe to live the mantra. 

The National Center for Transgender Equity (NCTE) just gave me likely my last job rejection e-mail.  One I never expected. They were seeking an  "Outreach Survey Coordinator", with community ties; perfect. This is a seven-month assignment to help with the 2020 Transgender Survey; already over a year late. The NCTE is in disarray with mass resignation and the board firing of its founder, Mara Keisling.  Many internal problems.  

On their website, there are detailed blanket statements concerning diversity to counter all the bad press from 2020. In my case, I feel they violated one of the chief cornerstones of diversity/discrimination; age. I have been exceedingly overqualified for many administrative and assistant positions I have worked. However, this was not the case. I was exactly qualified. I am hurt that I was not even considered for an interview with my over 30 years of outreach and community involvement. Shame on you. 

So what is next: 

Yet today, I am easing into a leisure lifestyle quite nicely. I am not going to call it retirement. I have made some great friends at my beach house with morning walks, time by the pool, and seem to be accepted as one of the "white hair", ladies there. 



 

5 comments:

  1. Age discrimination is pervasive. And wrong. Sorry you suffered from it.

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  2. Sorry to read about the age discrimination! Such a shame.

    At 70, I am better at what I do than I ever was, but I would probably have to deal with age discrimination, too, despite my qualifications.

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    1. It is the knowledge that you could do the job and be disqualified simply because of age that hurts. There are so many subtle ways they probe for age - "the year you graduated college" to "the dates of previous employment". Prospective employers will never come out and tell you why you were rejected and always mask the rejection with praise for your experience. With age comes the depth of experience to do the job. Sad and discouraging.

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  3. It sounds like you dodged a bullet. I had a similar experience thirty years ago. Being rejected for illegal reasons hurt, but getting the job would have hurt more. I know the guy who got the job. For the next three years, every time I saw him, he had a big, dark cloud over his head. He then quit and went back to Indiana to the company he came from. He now is a leading figure in our business and he seems happy. I landed a position three months later, a job I still enjoy. As I said, the illegal rejection hurt but it saved me a lot more pain. —Abby

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  4. A very good point Abby - For all the good the NCTE has done over the years, they really seem to be in a state of disarray now.

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