We have talked about corporate loyalty recently. We all know corporations are showing less loyalty to long-term employees. Especially when their bottom line is at stake.
What about when you are an expensive line item? It's easy to leave behind someone who is over 50.
Age discrimination is illegal, but it still happens. What if it happens to you? What will you do? How can you recover?
Listen and find out.
We have talked about corporate loyalty recently. We all know corporations are showing less loyalty to long-term employees. Especially when their bottom line is at stake.
What about when you are an expensive line item? It's easy to leave behind someone who is over 50.
Age discrimination is illegal, but it still happens. What if it happens to you? What will you do? How can you recover?
Listen and find out.
Pete: [00:00:00] Good morning, Nat.
Nat: Good morning, Pete.
Pete: Whoo! I'm pumped up today.
Nat: I don't believe that. That wasn't a very good whoo. It's hard to believe.
Pete: Well, when I do it too loud, it actually distorts the sound. So I'm told now I can't whoo hoo as loud.
Nat: Come on. Right?
Pete: Yeah, yeah. So it's I'm being scaled back a little bit on my enthusiasm.
Because it's
not good. The audience probably appreciates
that too. But I am pumped up because I got to tell you, there was a first
in our household.
Nat: Okay, you got me.
What's up?
Pete: All right. All right. The first is that, you know, I'm a, I'm a car enthusiast. I love cars and I'm always wanting to get a new car, different car, that kind of stuff.
That's my thing. Right. But my wife, she could care less about the cars. Right. That's not her deal. But we bought the all new Ford Escape, the 2023. And this is a credible vehicle and I got it so that my wife could drive it. And the first was, my wife came to me and said, [00:01:00] I gotta tell you, I'm excited about driving that car.
That is an awesome car. And she's never said that ever about a car. And it is, it's a, it's an awesome car from that standpoint. So that was the first I, and, you know, we've had multiple escapes, but this is the first one. I, I, I don't know if it's the technology, it's the drive, but she says it's fun. She loves it.
And I'm like, who are you? I can't believe this. So, so I highly encourage people to look at the 2023 Escape. It's, it's an amazing vehicle and it's so exciting. My, my wife is actually likes it. She's turning into a car person. So speaking of exciting you know, we're seeing the world change. We we've talked about this on podcasts before and the world is changing.
And, but I, I think there's a constant, I think it's going to get worse. And we work with executives all the time that are sometimes in career transition and they're trying to get back into the corporate world, but they're facing. [00:02:00] Age and unemployment discrimination. And I believe that age and unemployment discrimination is going to continue to get worse.
I don't think it's going to get better anytime soon. And so I thought maybe we talk about the different reasons why there's going to be increased age and and unemployment discrimination. Sound good?
Nat: Perfect.
Pete: All right. So what would be one reason why 50 plus year old corporate executives are facing you know, basically age discrimination.
Nat: You
know, as we're talking about this topic, I'm, I'm ho I'm really hoping you and I don't end up being like the poster boys for, for why they should be discriminating against 50 year old men.
Pete: Well, that's a whole nother story. Cause I think the first, the first point is one that would probably apply to me, right?
Why they would probably discriminate against me. And you know technology and me don't get along. I don't like. Technology, right? It just better work. I don't want to know, understand it, all that kind of stuff. So I think one of the reasons why is that, you know [00:03:00] 50 plus corporate executives sometimes are less able to adapt to new technology or have the skills.
Nat: Yeah, I take my new phone. I hand it to my son. I'm like, here, fix this.
Pete: Sounds like our household. All right. What would be another reason why we're going to see more age and employment discrimination?
Nat: It's just a lot of perception of lower adaptability, which, you know, may or may not be true. I mean, I think.
You know, as we get older, we just get more set in our ways, and maybe we don't want to adapt, or maybe, you know, we kind of perceive the way that we've been doing it is good enough,
Pete: right? And that's kind of sad. I don't really believe that. Most of the executives I work with, you know, I believe they can adapt.
They can't do that. But, you know, I suppose if you're the younger generation, you know, you're in your 30s, you're going, they're dinosaurs, you know, from a standpoint. Then maybe we had that same attitude when we were we were younger. All right, what would be another one?
Nat: Well, you know, it seems [00:04:00] like the accountants run the world a lot of times so probably cost considerations or you know, just you know salary benefits packages like Older, more experienced people typically are
Pete: more expensive.
Yeah, absolutely. Right. And it could be just the overall pay. Cause I've been around for 25 years. Right. So I've hit a certain level. It can also be benefits, right. To carry, carry me on your insurance and being in my fifties is more than having somebody that's in their forties or thirties. Right. So that's just, that's just math.
So certainly a cost consideration. So that's why, you know, is. More executives need to look at kind of having that side business or investing in a franchise so that they can protect themselves from some of these things that they know they're going to be discriminated against will be another one will be another thing.
I think
Nat: probably culture or workplace culture, you know, maybe if you're, if you're not wearing the skinny, skinny jeans and, you know, whatever is trendy these days, [00:05:00] people might be like, oh, you're, you know, you're not. You know, you don't really fit
Pete: in as well. Well, and I think a little bit about the culture that I was raised in.
Everybody went into the office, right? And there was a hierarchy and all that kind of stuff. Well, now, with a lot of meetings, basically, and companies being online or just virtual through Zooms, it's hard to kind of adapt to a culture in this Zoom generation to this virtual one. I suspect that's a little bit hard.
It's just harder for people to do that. Yeah. All right. We'll be at another reason. I, I mean, I could understand, like, if somebody thought you're really old, they might want to, you know, they might not want to hire you if they thought you're going to, like, retire next year, like, that would probably
be a downside.
Right, you're in the short term, right? They think you're a short term player, that we hire you, we're going to put a lot of time into you, but you're going to stick around for two years, and then you're going to retire on me. Then I gotta, I gotta deal, I gotta go through all this [00:06:00] again. So if I pick somebody that's got a longer runway with my career, that...
That makes a lot of sense. Absolutely. All right. Good. What about, you know, a lot of times I hear guys and gals basically say, I'm interviewing for the job and I'm, I am basically way overqualified, right? I, the stuff that they want me to do, I could do in my sleep. And a lot of times that could be held against them.
Right.
Nat: Yeah. I don't know how to solve for that. I mean, even if you're overqualified and willing to work for less, a lot of times it seems like you could kind of be discriminated
Pete: against. Yeah, or they think you're going to be bored or just, you know, from that standpoint, you know, I think another reason why, you know, 50 year olds are kind of set aside is the stereotype that they don't have enough energy and they're not going to be
Nat: productive.
Well, I can say maybe some days I don't have as much energy, but I feel like I can
Pete: still be pretty productive. The most, most the, you know, kind of 50 plus executives I work with, they still have the energy. Yeah. Right. They still, they say to me, Pete, I got gas [00:07:00] in the tank. And I think, you know, 50 is kind of what used to be 60.
Right. Yeah. You know, you still Well, no, I take that back. Right? 50 30 is kind of new. Yeah, it's new 30, right? It just you, you got more energy and stuff like that. I'm not ready to retire anytime soon. And I find that to be a lot of people, they, Hey, listen, I've still, I've got it. But, but I could see that, that that belief that, hey, as you get older, just, you know, you got less energy, less productivity.
What about, what about another one? What would be another reason why we see. Probably just like perception of the leadership team or looking to have like a more youthful innovative, At least, you know, in the photo app you know, leadership
team. Yeah. Well, I think a lot about is that the leaders now are transitioning to younger generations, right.
They're in their thirties and forties. And I'm also, I'm managing somebody that's 50, right. And I kind of want to be around younger people. And [00:08:00] so maybe it's that perception that, you know, it's just you're just maybe too old to be a leader. You
Nat: know, as we're kind of talking through this, I'm definitely thinking like owning your own business or a franchise is looking more appealing
Pete: all the time.
You mean this stuff isn't sounding like so much fun if you're in your 50s or your
60s.
Nat: Absolutely. Yeah, I'd rather just go do my own thing and you know, and not have to
Pete: deal with all that. You mean hire yourself? Yeah, I prefer to
Nat: hire myself.
Pete: All right, a little push for the book. It's all good. All right, we'll be another one.
Another reason. I
Nat: think just industry trends and disruption, you know, there's a lot like, you know, just think about the last, you know, not even 12 months. It's actually been, you know, part of a year, all the AI that's rolled out and everything. So, you know, if you're not, taking time to sharpen the saw and, and keep up on all this stuff, then, you know, you're, you could be Kind of you know, cast to [00:09:00] the side, I guess.
Right? I don't
Pete: know. Well, we've talked about that before, right? That AI is going to eliminate executive positions. And so it's, you've got to be kind of prepared for that. And that's certainly going to create some pain associated with executives that are older trying to be in the market. Okay, what's, what will be the last one?
Probably just
Nat: even like just having different things in common or, you know, building relationships or networking. Like, you're going to have a completely different network as like a 50 plus versus somebody a little bit younger. That's just starting a family and and all that. Like, you're running in different
Pete: circles, obviously.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think it's just that networking and just I think as you get older, maybe there's less networking opportunities. You know, because we go to college to network right to build a network of people. We in our jobs, we are networking. And I think it's sometimes that's a young person's game a little bit.
And or that's the perception. So bottom line is the end of the [00:10:00] day. If you're a 50 plus corporate executive, you need to protect yourself, whether it's You know, side business, whatever it is, but you need to understand why you're being discriminated against and and make sure that you're on top of this stuff so that you can you could protect yourself.
Nat: I like it. And I think the you know, in my experience, I found that franchising is very welcoming to 50 year old, you know, people that are a little bit older and they actually appreciate, you know, the soft skills, the people skills and the team building skills and, and a lot. So it's a
Pete: overall business acumen, right?
Yeah. It's like
Nat: a nice, nice pivot, to be honest, like you don't have to, you know, You know, if it is realistic, some of the places that you're working or interviewing, you can just maybe find a better home in owning your own business.
Pete: Absolutely. In your control, right? Nobody can ever walk you out, right?
You're the last person standing when it comes to business. All right. I gotta go [00:11:00] save my car for my wife. You know, she's probably doing something to it that I don't like. Parking it in a bad spot or, you know, curbing out one of my wheels or something like that. So, thanks for your time today. All right, rock and roll.