Please,I beg of you, please don't hand me this bullshit about respecting the talents of older IT workers.
It is a boldface lie and a conspiratoral act of discrimination running wild throughout IT. I should know. I'm 56 and I've been on medical leave since a 2009 accident. I have already been told that my career is finished,done,dead as a doornail. Why, I asked$ My attorney's response?
"No one in network support or network management wants a 57 year old." Oh, so 26 years experience means nothing, I asked ?
Maybe it's a different mindset. Most guys my age can work the ass off a lot of 20 somethings. Most of us don't window Warcraft on our desktops.Usually,we don't quitly leave a port open here and there for our own 'private' networking access. And guess what;we don't give a shot what someone else is up too, so long as it hurts no one else or the network. Usually, especially those of us from the military, are better team players.
I have worked on projects with 20 somethings. Its a little chilly with managers;maybe we fart too much or something stupid like that, I don't know. We do seem to work better with the worst of the worst end-users.Maybe we prefer coffee to a RockStar at 8 in the morning. Maybe we don't burn a number during lunch;we'll wait until the ride home. I don't have a problem working with a twenty-something- unless he's got a problem me just because I have white hair,older tats and roll tighter joints.
What I do know is this: All of those 20 somethings need someone who has "failed,and failed often" in order to pull it off.
The basis of prejudice towards others is grounded in Mark Twain's quote, "All generalizations are false, including this one ". Yeah, I'm just too old to contribute to any team or project. Discrimination is discrination is discrimination, plain and simple.
I am waiting for a massive age discrimination law suit to get corporate IT's attention.
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Please,I beg of you, please don't hand me this bullshit about respecting the talents of older IT workers. It is a boldface lie and a conspiratoral act of discrimination running wild throughout IT. I should know. I'm 56 and I've been on medical leave since a 2009 accident. I have already been told that my career is finished,done,dead as a doornail. Why, I asked$ My attorney's response? "No one in network support or network management wants a 57 year old." Oh, so 26 years experience means nothing, I asked ? Maybe it's a different mindset. Most guys my age can work the ass off a lot of 20 somethings. Most of us don't window Warcraft on our desktops.Usually,we don't quitly leave a port open here and there for our own 'private' networking access. And guess what;we don't give a shot what someone else is up too, so long as it hurts no one else or the network. Usually, especially those of us from the military, are better team players. I have worked on projects with 20 somethings. Its a little chilly with managers;maybe we fart too much or something stupid like that, I don't know. We do seem to work better with the worst of the worst end-users.Maybe we prefer coffee to a RockStar at 8 in the morning. Maybe we don't burn a number during lunch;we'll wait until the ride home. I don't have a problem working with a twenty-something- unless he's got a problem me just because I have white hair,older tats and roll tighter joints. What I do know is this: All of those 20 somethings need someone who has "failed,and failed often" in order to pull it off. The basis of prejudice towards others is grounded in Mark Twain's quote, "All generalizations are false, including this one ". Yeah, I'm just too old to contribute to any team or project. Discrimination is discrination is discrimination, plain and simple. I am waiting for a massive age discrimination law suit to get corporate IT's attention.