We are all everyday psychologists . . .

We are all everyday psychologists. Psychology, the study of human behavior, is something all we use every day of our lives whether we realize it or not. The aim of this blog is to gather and reflect upon web-wide information about human behavior to enhance understanding of ourselves and others.

Saturday, June 2, 2018

Too Old To Work? Age Discrimination, Employability, Implicit Bias, and Other Related Musings


Do you doubt age discrimination exists in the job market? Well, I don't, not only from my own experiences and the experiences of other higher education professionals I know, but from stories like the following -- this incident that I personally witnessed.

Yesterday I was helping a friend's mom get set up to do freelancing work on Upwork. She is someone who has worked hard in a wide variety of occupations all her life and takes great pride in the quality of her work. Most recently, she had been a long-time remote medical transcriptionist making good money with the company she worked for -- until they decided to outsource all their transcription work overseas and permanently eliminate all US-based transcriptionists. They did provide some limited severance benefits, not without jacking the ex-employee recipients around mercilessly at every step, but in no way did it make up for the lost earnings to a meaningful degree. While wrestling with these idiots to get what she's entitled to under the terms of the severance contract, she has been diligently and consistently applying for jobs online. She showed me her logbook of every place she has applied to and I was impressed. I thought **I** sent out lots of apps looking for more online teaching work; she has me beat 10 times over.

Anyway, as we're sitting there crafting an Upwork profile, the phone rings. She picks up, and a cheerful female job recruiter's voice comes on the phone. While the recruiter is going through her spiel, my friend's mom starts to laugh and shake her head. She answers some initial innocuous questions, and then the recruiter asks "what year did you graduate high school?" My friend's mom replies "1955." There's dead silence on the other end, my friend's mom bursts out laughing, and held the phone out to me to see.

"She HUNG UP?"

"Yes, yes, it happens all the time! I sent out applications, I get these calls, and when they figure out I'm 80, they just hang up."

"But -- what the hell! You may be 80, but you're a hell of lot sharper than most people I've worked with half your age!"

Yes. This motivated woman who has many, many skills to share is 80, and wants to keep working, and is fully capable of continuing to work. I don't know her super well, but I do know her well enough to know that working is a strong part of her identity, and it's important to her to be independent as possible as long as possible. Her mobility is not great, but her mind is sharp, and she's applying for almost 100% remote jobs where her mobility would not matter. (She did apply for a local job assisting seniors with Alzheimer's disease and other issues.)

Why do we live in a society pays that pays copious lip service to valuing wisdom and experience while punishing those who have the wisdom and experience with lack of opportunity and inequities?

I know that workplace age discrimination exists on the other end of the spectrum too; I remember the long-ago (and I do mean LONG ago) days of being the youngest person working as a law office staff member and having a lot of incorrect assumptions placed on my intelligence, capabilities, and dedication because of it. That's wrong too. People should be assessed as individuals. I was no more a "typical" 19 year old in that law office situation than my friend's mom is a "typical" 80 year old in her position.

Now that I am in my mid-50s and having transitioned to my career in higher education going on 20 years ago, I realize that by the time I attained my master's degree, I had, in the prevailing higher ed job market, likely already "aged out" of full-time faculty job market viability. Compared to other people my age, I had far less experience because I was a second-career non-traditional age student and just starting over in many respects. By the time I accumulated enough professional experiences in teaching psychology and research to be attractive from an employability standpoint, I don’t doubt that in some cases my age did not help me. Don’t get me wrong; I have been known to interview awkwardly at times, so I know in certain cases, my self-presentation in an uncomfortable suit in a small room with 10 people judging my every word and move has not been optimal, to say the least. In fact, there have been some interviews I have flat out bombed. I know which ones those are, and I wouldn’t have hired me either. But there are others where I did present myself, my skills, my abilities, and my passion for psychology very well indeed, and yet, to use the old and slightly sexist saying, I am “always a bridesmaid, never a bride.” If I apply for a full-time teaching position in my field within the three counties I can readily drive to, 85% of the time I get an interview. That’s a pretty good hit rate, so I know I look decent on paper. I have many students who inquire near the end of semester “what are you teaching next semester? I want to take another class with you; I learned so much and enjoyed it.” Granted, I’m not everyone’s cup of tea as an instructor, but, for the most part, feedback from peers and students makes me feel that I am actually good at what I do.

It would be excessively simplistic to point at age as the only factor or as the primary factor as to why my friend’s mom, I, and countless other seasoned workers of all kinds experience these roadblocks. Hiring is a complex process, and I know for certain, within the higher education environment, there’s a whole lot more to consider than meets the eye – I’ve sat on more than one hiring committee myself. Yet age is a factor that cannot be ignored in the process either. 

Where is that particular crossing point where “highly experienced” becomes “too old?” As an experimental social psychologist by training, I believe implicit bias against older individuals is an important place to start exploring this phenomenon. While implicit bias research is especially rich in examining racial and gender constructs, a casual search of empirical literature does not show ageism as a popular topic, much less as to how ageism might affect employment prospects. If I had more time for research in my professional life, I’d relish taking this topic on; but, as an adjunct who is unemployed at the moment, waiting for unemployment benefits to kick in and hustling for freelance work in the meantime, and hoping nothing happens to eliminate the summer classes I have tentatively scheduled to start in a few weeks, it seems it’s in my best interests to concentrate on using my hard-earned skills and abilities to make sure I can pay the rent next month.


Copyright 2018 by Linda S. Krajewski

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Follow Think Psych on Facebook!

Due to time constraints (as of March 2017, I'm teaching 8 classes at 3 different colleges and driving nearly 600 miles per week and somehow still trying to have some semblance of a life in there), I will be maintaining Think Psych primarily on my Facebook page. Please join me at


Think Psych Facebook Page

While on Facebook, you might also want to check out my College Success Insider page where I dispense advice, tips, and insight about thriving in higher education as a student.

College Success Insider Facebook Page

Thanks!

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Screentime and Children: Pros and Cons

Technology is everywhere one turns. It permeates every aspects of our lives -- work, play, education, and so on. There are ongoing controversies about the effects of interacting with technology -- "screentime" -- on children's development. Here are two articles showing differing viewpoints on the issue.

Screentime Is Making Kids Moody, Crazy and Lazy

Screentime Is NOT Making Kids Moody, Crazy and Lazy

Sunday, May 8, 2016

The Science of Intuition

Intuition -- that gut feeling, those instincts, that sense of just "knowing" that seems it doesn't involve any rational processes. We've all felt it, we've all used it to guide our decisions from time to time, but what is it exactly?

Intuition is far more than just a feeling. According to recent research, we unconsciously take in information and process it on such a rapid-fire basis, we're not aware of the cognitive processes taking place.

 Intuition - It's More Than a Feeling

Friday, May 6, 2016

Brain Knowledge: 8 Myths

There are plenty of commonly-held misconceptions about how the brain works. This brief Mental Floss article hits upon eight of them heard most frequently. Want the facts? Turn to the science.

8 Brain Facts We All Get Wrong

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

The Do Good Bus

What a fantastic idea to encourage people to volunteer for community projects! I could really see something like this working very well for service learning activities for high school and/or college students.

 http://dogoodbus.com/