I recently saw a spotlight on a morning news show celebrating a man in his 80s who was still working at his job. It was a heartwarming story, and everyone so happy for the man, and his dedication.
Screw.
That.
I completely understand that as a Gen X man I was born into a world that had a different work ethic than the generations before us.
I totally get it.
I also get that things are different than they were for past generations – very rarely will you get a job at a younger age, and keep it through your career. As it is, you’re lucky to retire at all. The threat that there will soon be no safety net for retirees looms large.
To say it’s crazy that many of the people in power in Washington are elderly, is putting it mildly, but then you partner that with the madness that too many of them want to elimnate those safety nets because they CLAIM it’s all a handout, and that people want their money in their pockets. That sounds swell in front of a mic, but we all know that that money will never be given to the people.
That’s not how the system works.
That we have normalized people working late into life is terrible, just like how they’ve normalized people having ‘side hustles’. It’s all to mask the fact that the system, always broken, is now dismantled, and we’re working for a machine that no longer bothers to have a human face. We work for boards, and investors. We work for the benefit of other who don’t see us as people.
In another time you felt connected to a company because you felt safe. They helped you achieve a dream that Americans clung to – a house, enough to eat, and a safe place to live with their family. They even helped get you the finer things, like a new car, new clothes, and other things considered luxuries. They were loyal because they had no choice, and society looked at work as a duty, and one people took on happily. Today, we don’t bother with the niceties.
It’s work, or lose everything.
Not that anyone owes any of us anything, it’s not that at all, but to expect loyalty to a company when they can fire you at will, is crazy.
It’s a mutual usary.
You both need something, so you maintain that relationship while it benefits you both.
And there are people who love what they do, who feel complete with the work they do. I know that, as well. But even those people shouldn’t HAVE to work until old age. If they choose to, then fine. Some people do. Some people need work to feel useful. They don’t know how to turn off.
My dad was that way.
That’s a problem too, how we foster a culture that teaches us that our jobs define us.
That our work is our identity.
It isn’t.
Our passions are our identity.
Our work is how we pursue those.
Once in a while the two meet, and that’s great, but for most, it’s not the case.
And we need to stop heralding how older people are working later, and later, and later, as if it’s a good thing.
As if helping them retire, and find peace, and joy in their final years is a sin.
We have allowed our leaders to rake in money illegally while they cut benefits, and jobs, and then shrug when asked how people will survive.
Boot strap it!
Get three more jobs.
I know so many good people who are out of work because their jobs decided they no longer needed them.
Whether they ‘deserved’ it or not isn’t part of the conversation, because unless you have a dialogue and help people become better employees you never know what they can do, and you’re hiring again.
They fire because it’s cheaper, they think.
This isn’t the American dream.
Not the one people cling to still.
It’s a lie.
Yet another in a long line of them.
I pray I am long dead before someone looks at me and say, boy, that fella sure did work a long time.
Naw, man.
I hope I don’t have to, but I suppose we’ll see.
Just don’t shine my shoes with crap and tell me they look great.
If I am working at a job because I have no choice when I am an old man then man, just put me in the ground.
…c…
