Working conditions so poor...

wotsthat

merrydance wrote: »

I would question the fact that there are many firms that are willing to take on workers over 60 for paid work. Voluteering yes. How this government expects people to keep working longer until they get their pension is laughable if it wasn't so tragic. Where are all these jobs?

If you were 15 I could understand why you might think of a person of 60 as decrepit but as you're 60 yourself maybe you've just got a negative outlook.

Employment rates in older people have been increasing for a while so older people are managing to work for longer with employers willing to take them on.

merrydance

Oh I certainly do not think 60 is decrepit but most employers do!

Sapphire

chucknorris wrote: »

I do feel really sorry for those that plan to spend their latter years being a potato couch (some even do it at half that age).

Some have no choice. There are many people in their late seventies and eighties with crippling diseases who would love to have the physical ability to go out and work, but do not. They certainly don't 'plan' to do as you say. It must be an awful situation to be in.

chucknorris

Sapphire wrote: »

Some have no choice. There are many people in their late seventies and eighties with crippling diseases who would love to have the physical ability to go out and work, but do not. They certainly don't 'plan' to do as you say. It must be an awful situation to be in.

Do you really imagine that I was talking about people with crippling diseases? I know people who do very little exercise, and they are not only perfectly healthy, they have not even reached their 50's, never mind 70's!

I know it isn't pleasant being immobile, when I was 24 and recovering from a car crash I spent 3 months in traction, then a year wearing a long leg calliper, then over 6 months as an inpatient in a physiotherapy hospital, and I still wasn't right for another two years after that. It was very depressing, and that was with an end in sight too. That is one of the reasons that I will do my best to keep myself fit, there isn't much you can do about having rotten luck, but there is a lot you can do to keep yourself fit,l if you are healthy.

wotsthat

merrydance wrote: »

Oh I certainly do not think 60 is decrepit but most employers do!

..but employers are taking on ever increasing numbers of the over 60's and have been for years.

They can't all be working at B&Q

merrydance

Please tell me where and I'll apply!

wotsthat

merrydance wrote: »

Please tell me where and I'll apply!

Have you thought of asking working friends your age?

merrydance

Yes I have, don't know any currently looking for a job. All either not working or have been in their jobs, like me, for a long while.

wotsthat

merrydance wrote: »

Yes I have, don't know any currently looking for a job. All either not working or have been in their jobs, like me, for a long while.

How can you be sure employers aren't willing to take on people your age when you and all your friends who want a job have one?

Sapphire

chucknorris wrote: »

Do you really imagine that I was talking about people with crippling diseases? I know people who do very little exercise, and they are not only perfectly healthy, they have not even reached their 50's, never mind 70's!

I know it isn't pleasant being immobile, when I was 24 and recovering from a car crash I spent 3 months in traction, then a year wearing a long leg calliper, then over 6 months as an inpatient in a physiotherapy hospital, and I still wasn't right for another two years after that. It was very depressing, and that was with an end in sight too. That is one of the reasons that I will do my best to keep myself fit, there isn't much you can do about having rotten luck, but there is a lot you can do to keep yourself fit,l if you are healthy.

I agree. I've also had a couple of periods of illness in my life and it did my head in not being able to get back to work at the time. I have a relative who is 84 and has worked as an academic (to professor level) all her life in various parts of the world, including Australia and Africa. Even now, she still gives lectures (her speciality is electronics), has written and published a book of quite good limericks, and is gathering together material for her memoirs (she has had a very interesting, sometimes traumatic life due to war, etc.).

Another relative was a very senior archaeologist but had to retire at 55 due to severe ill health (as did her husband, a specialist in the field of zoology). However, she is now on vetting committees of various kinds (e.g. for high office appointments), healthcare bodies and so on, and additionally advises museums around the world on how they can be run for the best results. (She does this work despite continuing ill health.)

Academics, creatives and the like do tend to continue working until they drop, since they find their work interesting and can constantly develop it. I do, however, think it may be tricky to keep up an enthusiasm for work if one has done a deadly boring job all one's life. Additionally, some people don't have the imagination/drive/ability/experience to be able to branch out into other things, for a variety of reasons…