Being fired at 50.
My husband was fired about two weeks ago. Not for doing a poor job in his position. Not for not making the company profits, but for being too old. This happened the day before his 50th birthday. Not only did they fire him for being too old, they haven’t paid him his last paycheck, which is sure to have and has had financial repercussions. They’ve begun already but we’ll survive them. We have to admit this is a first. Being in construction, he has been laid off and so on because there just weren’t enough jobs to go around, as new construction waxes and wanes with the economy, but being fired is a new one, especially for the reason he was fired. The person who did the firing told my husband he wasn’t impressed with his 30 years experience in the field, having only 3 years of his own experience as not even considered an apprentice craftsman, yet, and numerous courses under his belt as well.
Now, in a slow economy, it really doesn’t make sense to fire one of the very few people in your company who has the knowledge and experience to bring in a construction project on budget and with a healthy profit, but that’s what this company did. Oh, the new owners of this company are young, too. When my husband contacted one of them about his being fired, he was told it “was probably best because they wanted to build the company around people their own age.” This was when he also found out the person who fired him had been promoted to Field Supervisor.
All they have left now are young people. Young people with lots of book knowledge and no practical experience. Oh, one other thing they did was they doctored my husband’s last time sheet to say he quit voluntarily in spite of the fact that he was fired in front of witnesses. This will prevent him applying for unemployment benefits. Why would they do that, you ask? Because they have to pay the insurance and it goes up if there are a lot of claims against them.
Can we say lawsuit? Actually, yes, we can. Will we? Probably not. Yes, it’s been a demoralizing experience and yes, it is hitting us a bit hard in the financial department, but in the end, there’s no amount of money that will repair the damage done. In the end, the damage the company has done to itself will be more than enough reparations but that’s another story and not really worth telling.
Welcome to the left. The way this company is being operated reminds me of the Democratic Convention and the happenings around it. I’m not watching live but can’t help but be inundated with video clips and parts of speeches and so on. Everywhere you look there are young people with lots of education and no practical knowledge, but easy to control. They believe they are liberating themselves while signing on to government control. Every censure they commit will, in time, be committed against them tenfold. When they realize what they’ve done they’ll chafe against the bonds to which they willingly submitted but there will be no other recourse as they are bent on destroying the greatest democracy on the face of the earth.
For a good idea of how the young left thinks, here’s This.
Just like there’s no amount of money to repair the damage done to us in terms of self-worth and other frustrations with which we have been beset, there is no amount of money that will repair the damage done by people who will advocate and force upon us a system that has failed time and again throughout history. They will work to hide the bad parts while talking about how they will save this nation’s soul and make the world what it should be. They talk about change as if it’s some miracle that will happen the day Obama is elected to the presidency. Without practical real world knowledge, I suppose it’s easy to buy that notion. However, those with real world knowledge know that change must come from inside firstand is usually commiserate with life experience. Only children believe it just happens magically. I know, raising my own children, that this was a reoccurring thought process. They believed that when they became a certain age, they would magically be imbued with all the knowledge that other people of that age have; that they didn’t have to listen to older and wiser people who have already experienced what they are about to experience. It never worked out for them that way, which they slowly realized over time as the knowledge never materialized at the magic hour, no matter how often they wished for it. It’s called growing up. I’m unsure why some believe it would work out for a nation in that manner. Perhaps because they haven’t learned that lesson, yet.
One could respond to this by pointing out that you have to let them learn from their mistakes and I agree with that to a point; the point where their mistakes can do irreparable harm not only to themselves but to others. Before that point is reached, those with more knowledge and experience have a duty to interfere and prevent the harm from happening, in spite of the fact that we’re hated and reviled for it.
Unlike waiting for future vindication against that company who fired my husband for being too old for them, we can’t allow the attrocities of total government control to happen because, once done, it will be impossible to undo without a complete dismantling of the country and starting anew.
So, we fight and continue to fight against such encroachment. In the end, we may lose as it seems we have steadily been losing to a larger bloated and ever greedier government, but that doesn’t mean we stop fighting. If we stop fighting, we’ll surely lose and the result will be untold suffering. I can’t live with that on my conscience. How about you?
August 27th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
“Welcome to the left. ” ? Interesting. Common knowledge that the GOP could care less about employee rights. You sure that company (of young
know-it-alls) were a bunch of dems? Glad to hear
Mr. HB got on elsewhere..there is always a need for
experience.
August 27th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Got any proof of that? Or is it common knowledge because the left said so?
August 27th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
In 2000 the Supreme Court overturned the age
discrimination act:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/jan2000/sup-j14.shtmldiscrimination act
..by the same 5-4 majority (Stevens, Breyer, Souter and Ginsberg in the minority) which essentially elected GW Bush president. The GOP judges you guys like to get appointed…..
August 27th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Bad link, bb, and I have to question the source as well… a Socialist site?
In addition, the age discrimination act of 1967 is alive and well: http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/adea.html
August 28th, 2008 at 7:10 am
Sad to hear the news. These things are never fun, having been through at least two layoffs (which are not as bad as firings). I am very surprised you are tying that event with the left. Isn’t this fundamentally a purely free market capitalist decision?
I think the link BB-Idaho wanted to send is this:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/jan2000/sup-j14.shtml
You can see the wikipedia entry here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimel_v._Florida_Board_of_Regents
By briefly reading it, I don’t think it applies to you because in that case the issue was about the rights of the State .
Anyways, I would be really cautious about giving away valid rights you might have.
August 28th, 2008 at 9:39 am
That WAS a terrible link, I can’t even find the original now. But, I know what we agree on…no matter what happens, its the other sides fault!
Example, every time I hit my thumb with a hammer
or spill paint on the basment floor, I blame the GOP for controlling all of the last 40 years, except for 12.
August 28th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Nope, it’s not always the other side’s fault. Can’t agree with that. It’s just that one side can’t always blame the other side when the blaming side is at fault. Besides, I don’t hate all Democrats, just the marxist ones, which unfortunately is all that is left on the left. They ran all the good ones out of the party.
August 28th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
“It’s just that one side can’t always blame the other side when the blaming side is at fault” Oh, sure they do. Talk to any conservative and blame Bush’s deficit on Jimmy Carter…they agree to a person! I might still be Republican if it wasn’t for Nixon..now Rove. Still got my I Like Ike button. Whatta guy.
August 28th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I don’t blame Bush’s deficit on Carter. I blame Carter for Carter’s nightmares of 29% inflation, extremely bad foreign policy, and a host of other stupidities. Nope, Bush’s deficit is, in part ,because of a long mismanaged war… not that it was a wrong war, mind, just mismanaged… and greedy politicians with their stupid pork barrel spending and pet projects that have absolutely nothing to do with governance.
No, my liberal friend, Bush is not and has not been perfect. However, neither has he been anywhere near as bad as the left make him out to be. But then, Reagan wasn’t perfect either. None of them are, no matter what party affiliation they claim. But Reagan… he believed in this country like none have believed in this country for so long, most of us had forgotten what it was like to be believed in.
That’s why there are so many crying for another Reagan. This country needs a leader that believes in it. Maybe McCain does believe in it enough. I don’t know but I’m sick and tired of all the people claiming to love this country yet do nothing but criticize it.
If such happened one on one between two people in a relationship it would be called an abusive one. Why is it that people don’t see it the same way when it’s the government being the abuser? How can you lead a country that you don’t love and don’t believe in?
August 28th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
The Reagan magic ran right off me. Guess I’m a teflon dem. But, to give them credit, both Reagan and Bush are folksy kind of guys.
August 30th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
If you say so, BB.
August 31st, 2008 at 7:06 am
AC, I just fished your comment out of moderation. Don’t know how I missed it before but am sorry that I did. Layoffs are not fun, to be sure, but those are expected in his industry. What happened to him, however, was worse than just being fired.
How did I tie it to the left? Well, what they did and how they did it. Hubby got them out of a bind but instead of rewarding him for it, they fired him. On top of that, they have touted their age and book knowledge as more important than anything else. Isn’t that why we’re supposed to be supporting Obama?
There is no true capitalism in this country, not with government intervention and subsidizing failing businesses… which is something FDR started, you know, during the Great Depression. If you understand nothing else about capitalism, you should understand that.
August 31st, 2008 at 8:05 am
Look what happened to the russian economy.this is what the left is advocating for this country.
August 31st, 2008 at 8:51 am
“which is something FDR started, you know”
Actually, ‘government subsidizing failing business’ goes back at least as far as the railroads. They were given alternating huge acreages upon which to lay their track. A. Hamilton was a big backer of gov’t as a tool for big business. Veering way off, my spam seems to have peaked at 1500 a day and is starting to taper off. When will it get down to a normal 25 a day so I can try that IQ test again?
August 31st, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Paul, I know but they’ll get away with it because no one wants to really challenge them of those who could do something about it. We have some fine conservatives in Congress but there are just too few of them at the moment and they have to work against members of their own party who would rather be more like the Democrats than Republicans.
BB, I didn’t care for Alexander Hamiltion when I was in American History classes. Oh, he had a few good points but he had a lot of cockamamie ones, too.
I have no idea when it will drop off BB. I refuse to take any internet test that requires an email address.
August 31st, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Yeah, Hamilton had a lot of enemies. Aaron Burr and his dueling pistol come to mind…..
August 31st, 2008 at 4:23 pm