Greyness?

[Jennifer Piersol]

Cindy wrote in response to David's horror at 
discrimination in US workplaces:

> People assume that if you are 40 (or at least 
> look over 40) that you are set in your ways.  
> That you can't work for someone younger.  Blah, 
> blah, blah.

Well, that's what the *tell* people (and you know 
it's bad when they actually tell people something 
like that).  From my experience (as a young person 
hired instead of an older person), it's mostly 
just a matter of money.  Older people have a 
"higher standard of living" they need to maintain 
and children to support, while young kids fresh 
out of college can live in studio apartments with 
2 roommates and eat ramen and Mac 'n' Cheese from 
a box.  You wouldn't believe how much I've heard!  
As a young adjunct faculty at the local community 
college (where my husband now has tenure), 
I heard lots of gossip about how older faculty 
members are given "golden handshakes" to get them 
to retire so that they can hire young, 
unexperienced part-timers that they can pay half 
as much.  Since the educational community at 
least (I would assume this applies to other areas 
as well) pays on a strictly experience-based 
scale which guarantees a minimal raise for every 
step of the scale (and there are something like 
25 steps), someone just starting out is MUCH less 
expensive to fund than an old-timer.

Of course, I can't use this to directly 
corroborate any hirings... it's all legal and 
stuff on the surface.  But if you think about it, 
I was hired with no Master's degree to teach 
basic skills - but the "non-academic" subjects, 
like computer labs and reading labs and stuff.  
When the more senior instructors began to demand 
more money, they mysteriously left for "better 
jobs" and instead of hiring more qualified 
instructors, they just shunted ME into positions 
I'd NEVER be hired for!  I suddenly became the 
full-fledged English teacher.  Oh sure, I was 
able to teach it... it was basic skills after 
all, and I had a degree in linguistics and the 
English language.  However, all academic 
instructors were *required* to possess a M.A. in 
a related subject in order to teach it.  Not me.  
I also got pushed into the Personal Finance 
position (which on paper required a lot more 
workplace experience than I possessed, whether or 
not the actual class material needed it).  At the 
end, I was teaching English, Personal Finance, a 
reading lab, a writing lab, a math lab and a 
computer lab.  I had the most classes of anyone 
in the program.  I had more classtime than my 
HUSBAND, who is a full-time tenured professor!!!  
And yet, I made 1/3 of the money.

So I was a bargain for the college while I worked 
there.  And as I was just a part-timer, I didn't 
get *anything* when I decided to take time off 
for the baby.  My ex-boss just tried to persuade 
my husband to make me come back.  She'd never 
even talk to me personally.  My last day of work 
(and her students' graduation day), she was in 
Los Angeles working out a problem with her Visa 
so she could travel to Brazil a month later.

So you could say I'm a little disillusioned with 
the workplace in general.  Maybe that's why I'm 
so reluctant to go back to work even though I'm 
stressed out so much at home.

-Jen

P.S.  Thank you, everyone, who sent me happy 
birthday wishes.  I had a pretty good day - but 
I think that once my kids get old enough to 
understand that the word "birthday" doesn't mean 
presents for *them* it'll get better. ;)