When 59-year-old Bob Manewith was downsized from his well-paying job in public relations at WGN, where he had worked for 38 years, he had no idea what his next step might be. He had assumed he would work at the station until retirement, so he had no concrete plans when he was told one morning that his services would no longer be needed.
The West Rogers Park resident called his wife, then his attorney, and in the weeks ahead, negotiated a separation package with the station, applied for unemployment compensation and eventually started looking for a new job.
For many people over 55, looking for and finding a job can be a humbling experience. In spite of an enviable work record and reports of a flourishing economy with a surplus of jobs, finding a suitable position with comparable pay can take a lot of time and effort for older workers–more so than for job seekers in their 20s or 30s.
A worker may be able to get an interview, but a job offer may be harder to come by after a potential employer meets an applicant and realizes that he or she is past a certain age.
Manewith is one of the more fortunate ones. After doing some freelance work and working as the office manager and press secretary for former U.S. Rep. Michael Flanagan, he is now happily situated in a position at Comm 2, a public relations firm in Chicago.
“Though I initially thought I might have trouble finding a job because of my age, I really didn’t perceive a lot of age discrimination,” said Manewith. “The congressman who hired me had no qualms about age, and it was the same with the public relations firm that I now work for.”
Others aren’t so lucky.
“Older people that I talk to are having a rough time,” said Elva Harton, employment information and referral specialist at Operation Able, which is run by the Illinois State Job Service. Founded in 1977 to help people over 55 find jobs, the agency now serves people of all ages.
“A lot of people I see are afraid that they’re not going to get another job because of their age,” Harton said. “I saw a 60-year-old man recently who had been with a company for 10 years. He had never missed a day’s work, never been late and had nothing but glowing reports in his file. The company downsized and they let him go and kept younger, less experienced workers.”
Still, there is evidence that labor force participation of workers 55 and up is increasing, and is expected to reach record proportions by the year 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As the population ages and average life expectancy rises, more people are deciding to stay on the job. And many who have already retired, or been laid off, are looking for another full-time job, while others opt for part-time employment or consultancy positions.
Lots of these people are turning to temporary and contract work, with no long-term commitment on either side. According to a 1998 survey of human resource professionals conducted by the Society of Human Resource Management and the American Association of Retired Persons, 62 percent of respondents said that their organizations are currently hiring retired employees as consultants or temporary workers. In addition, nearly half (47 percent) said they provide training to upgrade the skills of older workers. At the same time, approximately two out of three of said their organizations do not actively recruit older workers.
Kelly Service Inc.’s Encore program does recruit older individuals to fill temporary as well as permanent positions. The program, which was created in 1987, places people over 50 in a variety of jobs, from office jobs and grocery demonstration positions to jobs in the computer, accounting and engineering fields.
“The Encore program was created because we were finding that the mature worker segment was and is a very fast-growing segment of the population,” said Bonny Koffler, Kelly Service’s Chicago Region Manager. “In the late 1980s, we were looking to address this issue and we’ve found older workers to be extremely reliable and to have great skills and a great attitude. Currently, 15 percent of our workforce is part of the Encore program.”
The state’s Operation Able has two programs specifically designed for the older worker: Title V program for people over 50 seeking part-time office work in the Chicago Loop, and a program for retirees over 55 seeking part-time work.
When meeting with job applicants, Operation Able’s Harton tells them “it’s not impossible to get a job at your age because I got my job at Operation Able when I was 56.” But she also knows from experience what age discrimination feels like. Though the 75-year-old dynamo was hired by Operation Able in 1980 when she was 56, she stumbled a bit before landing the position. After staying home and raising her children, Harton found a succession of jobs, including waitressing, working as a food supervisor at a department store and performing secretarial duties at a real estate firm.
Then at 55, she interviewed for a job as a dental assistant. The interviewer quoted her a salary, told her what days she’d be working, then looked at her job application again and noticed her age.
“I asked him what difference that made, and he replied that he’d let me know about the position. I never heard from him,” Harton said.
Harton also advises clients before interviews to stress their reliability, their experience and that they can do the job as well as a younger person.
When it comes to the computer skills that are so necessary in today’s marketplace, Harton advises employers not to give in to the stereotype of the older worker as being leery of new technology. “You need to give the older worker an opportunity to learn the computer,” she said. “Older people may not latch onto it quite as quickly as a 12-year-old, but they can learn the computer. . . . And there are a lot of older people who already know how to use computers,” said the computer-savvy Harton.
Judith Lansky, president of Chicago-based Lansky Career Consultants, said, “Sixty-five to 70 percent of job hunters find their jobs by networking through informal contacts such as professional associations.” So she advises getting on the phone and talking to all your contacts first.
Lansky also advises going to meetings for people who have similar interests. Whatever field you’re in, there’s probably a professional association composed of people who do that sort of work, she said.
In many cases, said Lansky, older individuals are wise to concentrate on smaller companies. Bigger companies are more rigid in their thinking when it comes to hiring, Lansky said. Some industries, too, are more apt to hire a younger job applicant. “Unless you’re applying for a job at the very top, certain industries, such as advertising, are less likely to hire older people,” she said.
An effective “marketing-oriented resume” is a must, Lansky added, and the resume should reflect an older person’s skills and what he or she’s achieved during a career.
“When you’re an older person in the workforce, you have years and years of experience,” Lansky said. “That’s an advantage. If you’re in sales, tell an employer that you increased sales 40 percent while you were with a particular company. The implication is that you can accomplish this for another employer.”
Lansky also advises older job applicants to project as young an image as possible when applying for a position. “This doesn’t necessarily mean dying your hair, but you do need to look current in your dress, hairstyle and even in the type of briefcase that you carry. You don’t walk into an interview looking like Grandma, because you won’t get hired.”
