Pete: [00:00:00] Good morning, Matt. Good morning, Pete. Whoa, I'm pumped up.
Nat: What do we got going
Pete: today? What's on deck? I am pumped up because child number two started her first job, gets her first paycheck, and is officially off the payroll!
Nat: Woo! That is freaking awesome. Congratulations.
Pete: I'm doing a happy dance.
Nat: You just got that much more, you know, that much more I want to say richer, but I guess
Pete: hopefully,
Nat: yeah, things are looking
Pete: up for you.
That's right. You know, you're buying dinner next time. Yeah. Yeah. Two out of the four is off the payroll. So, yeah, they, they kind of stay out a little bit right there. They're on our you know, their other on our insurance, they're on our cell phone plan. They're on our Uber, you know, so I still get hit, but But the idea is we're moving in the right direction to getting off payroll.
That's awesome. What I thought we'd talk about today is that. We see 50 year old executives out there, and I [00:01:00] believe these executives, we're in our prime, right? We're in our 50s, we've got a great position, but I believe they're facing age and unemployment discrimination, right? Really? I've never heard that.
You've never heard me say that, right? So I thought we'd talk why more 50 year old senior level executives are facing. The, these challenges out there. So what would you think one of the reasons why they're facing this kind of discrimination? Well, I
Nat: mean, I think in America in general, we, we almost have an ingrained age bias anyways.
Right. So, you know, we'd always think that we, you know, we always want to look younger, feel younger, but on the flip side, you know, I think a lot of people are like, Oh, you know, you're old. You need these readers. You can't do it to see, to see anything you can't do anything. So I think it's just stereotypes and biases that we're battling half the time.
Pete: Well, [00:02:00] I think it's that you, they believe that if you're older, you can't adapt, you're less productive, you know, that kind of stuff you can't accept new technologies, you know, things like that. Yeah. And so I think that that hurts them, but I think, you know, the, if you're in your fifties now, that's kind of the.
You know, that's the new, I mean, 30. Come on for me. That's what I'm hoping. That's what I'm hoping that but I, you know, again, I think there are stereotypes that they just, they can't adapt and move along. All right. We'll be another reason.
Nat: Well, I mean, the actuarials with the insurance companies, you know, they basically, you know, the older you get, the more expensive it is to insure you.
So I guess corporates. Corporations could be like, well, you know, man, it's like cost a lot more to help pay for health insurance. Like these old guys are expensive to keep around. I mean, that could be one thing, I guess.
Pete: Guys or gals, right? And it could be is that they've been there for a long time, so now they got a higher salary.[00:03:00]
They're more expensive from the insurance from a group policy. But bottom line is, is that it's just there's more expense associated with it. In perceived things. Okay, what else? What would be a third
Nat: Thing? Skill gaps. So, I mean, you know, it's been a long time since we've been in college or, or whatever, right?
So, I guess, you know, maybe we're not, we could be perceived as not having the same skills as some of these youngsters.
Pete: Yeah, and as the way in which everything is changing so fast. You can kind of see why that would be but as a an executive you got to kind of stay up with things to continue to keep those gaps, but there certainly is a Belief that as you get older you just you have that gap and you can't make it up.
Right? All right. We'll be another one
Nat: I guess cultural fit, you know, like a lot of times you see a lot of these corporations, you know, they've got the ping pong tables going and, you know, the skinny jeans and everything. So, I mean, you know, sometimes maybe they might feel like older people [00:04:00] don't fit the culture or the corporate image, I guess.
Pete: So, you know, it's just, it's kind of more of that vibe and stuff like that. So, I can't see myself playing ping pong during the middle of the day. I just, I couldn't, I couldn't do that. How about going
Nat: to the restoration room for a quick nap?
Pete: But, but you know, it is but as a, as a older executive, you got to kind of embrace the culture of the organization so that you fit in but I got the skinny
Nat: jeans.
Pete: Those might be outlawed, outlawed in my case from that point, that might be taking the culture too far. Yeah, there might be a few complaints.
All right. We'll be another thing.
Nat: Just generational differences. I mean, even my own sister is like 7 years younger than me. And I'm like, oh, my God, like, she's so much different than me. And it's, I think, generation differences, you know, so as, you know, we always, you know, we felt the same way about people that were older than us when we were younger, too.
It's just, you grow up a different. [00:05:00] Influences, right? So there's different ways of thinking about things or thought processes.
Pete: Yeah. And there's four generations in the workforce now, right. And, and that creates all kinds of dynamics and stuff like that. So it's ability to create that bridge between them, but, but there's definitely, cause the way in which we're raised, you know, whether you're a generation X or baby boomers and stuff like that, it's much different than a millennial.
Yeah, absolutely. I could see that. All right. We'll be another one. I
Nat: think the everything's changing so fast, especially with technology, right? Whatever that 1 saying or rule is that things like it's like they double. Yeah. But maybe, you know, it could be perceived that older executives aren't going to.
You know, want to keep up or they're not going to be quite as adaptable to newer technology or changes not embrace it. So I think, you know, that, that probably is can be true a lot of times, but, you know, that can be positive or negative, I guess. Right?
Pete: Yeah, well, and I think about like [00:06:00] doctors, right?
They say now a doctor gets through medical school, their, their information that they learned is already obsolete. Oh my gosh, now you compound that where you're 50 years old, you know, you've been out of medical school for 20 years, the ability to kind of keep up with that is
Nat: very difficult. I can't, I can't tell you, I went to a new dentist like a new company or whatever, right?
And it was pretty crazy. Just all the new like technologies and x rays and all that. It was like, wow, this was like, yeah. Going, you know from the 50s to like Star Trek or something. It was it was pretty impressive.
Pete: Yeah, absolutely. All right. We'll be another one older executives might have fewer networking opportunities especially if you know, they kind of were just you know, hopping on the train, going to work year after year after year, and just didn't build their network.
Nat: So a lot of times they might be a little bit limited with that.
Pete: And I think they just have less opportunities for jobs, you know, less access to [00:07:00] job openings and potential opportunities, just based on their age. Right? And you don't have your age and your resume, but they can kind of figure out looking at your resume from that standpoint.
Totally. All right. We'll open another one.
Nat: Just you know, if people haven't kept up with training and development, I think that kind of hurts you a lot of times, you know, younger people are, you know, more in that learning mindset because they're more recently graduated from college and all that. So just lack of training, I think, you know, I think
Pete: that's right because you always have to be learning like you and I invest a lot of our what we make with our companies to to better ourselves, right?
Go to conferences, things like that. So yes, absolutely. All right. We'll be another one. I think
Nat: like you know, we kind of talked about earlier, but literally just ageism, basically, you know, corporate cultures typically value youth, our society, I think in America, a lot of times values youth and, you know, not having wrinkles and things like that, not having gray hair.
So it's just, there is a, Oh,
Pete: no, easy, [00:08:00] easy now, not having hair. All right. So you mean I might stand out being bald and a little bit of gray. Yeah. All right. Perfect. All right. What would be another one? I guess as people are nearing retirement, they might, you know, corporations could just be, you know, a little bit worried that they're not, you know, going to be in it for the long run, basically.
Nat: So I think that that can contribute to it too.
Pete: Yeah, just punching the clock. Just trying to get to the finish line to retirement. Exactly. And we'll, we can have a podcast on this idea of retirement. Do you really retire? The more I read about retiring, you know, that's, that's how you get old fast, right?
So Shannon's informing me that I can never retire because I would drive her crazy. So I don't fall into that category. You know, and
Nat: honestly, as we're kind of talking through this, you know, what Makes me like what I wanted, what I want, like my reaction, my visceral reaction, all this is like, screw, screw this, I'm gonna go [00:09:00] start my own business, you know what I mean, it's like, at some point, you know what your value is and what your worth is, and, you know, if your corporation doesn't value you, then, you know, go, there's other things you could be doing that could be possibly more enjoyable, and you I do think you need to consider every all of us need to consider working, you know Having something that we enjoy to do that makes us money, you know into our 70s or even 80s, right?
I
Pete: don't think you can change age discrimination. I mean, I think it's out there, you know in all these these 10 points We talked to you can work on that so that you stay relevant and we did a podcast on that But but the idea is is that at the end of the day you can't fight Ageism. And so you got to then figure out what do you do to take all that great experience, all your passion, your energy, because most people say, listen, I'm not ready to retire at 55.
I got too much gas in my tank. I got to be doing something. And so you go pivot, [00:10:00] but you got to be aware that this stuff is out there and you got to stay relevant. And then you got to, at some point in time, pick your path and just go totally. I like it. Speaking of going, I gotta go. All right. Talk to you later.
Bye. Thanks. On the.