Here I am, six months after being laid off at the onset of the pandemic in March of 2020, and I still don’t have a job.
What’s the problem?
I’m viewed as “too old”, that’s why?
And that’s wrong! Because I’m not too old—except to HR employees who are younger than me, who are convinced that DELIBERATELY IGNORING AND AVOIDING anyone over 40, is a “good” thing, when it’s NOT!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. WHERE’S THE RIOTS?
II. SENIORS DEFINED
III. WHAT’S MY BACKGROUND?
IV. A RARE CALL
V. THE BIG MOVE—AND WHY IT WAS NEEDED
—–A. THE ANGRY CUSTOMER PHONE CALLS
VI. SHE PUT HER FOOT DOWN AND DEMANDED THE BIG MOVE
VII. THE RECRUITER’S POST-INTERVIEW CALL
VIII. THE REAL MESSAGE
I. WHERE’S THE RIOTS?
In all the craziness of the violent leftist mobs of the last few years, I’ve heard or seen them protest all kinds of “isms” and “phobias”, from racism and sexism to homophobia, Islamaphobia, and whatever other real and/or imaginary injustices they’ve tried to dream up.
But I’ve not yet seen hordes of seniors (peaceful or otherwise) flooding the streets chanting “Hell, No! We won’t go! We’re not slobs! We need jobs!” or something along those lines demanding some degree of parity when it comes to being considered for the job market.
I’m sure many (and for their sake, hopefully most) seniors want a job simply because they want to get out of the house, and it’s not a matter of “survival” to land those jobs. .
Perhaps 11 months or three years of not working while retired has them going stir crazy and they’re just looking for some kind of human contact, or whatever. They are in search of the luxury of socializing with other people.
In contrast, there are undoubtedly some seniors (perhaps a huge number or even a majority of) which actually need the jobs to make ends meet, in which case, the jobs are not a luxury, but a necessity.
II. SENIORS DEFINED
However, when I say, “seniors” who am I actually talking about?
75-year-olds? Centenarians?
Not necessarily. But if they’re ready, willing, and able to work, then, THEM, TOO, yes!
Otherwise, I’ll give you a hint.
I walked into a White Castle about a month ago, ordered a couple of sliders and a large order of fries, and when I paid my bill, and got my receipt, I noticed the cashier had given me a “senior discount”.
“But I’m not 75 years old; or even a hundred. I’m 57.” I thought.
Granted, I am mostly gray-haired, so I’m not likely to ever be mistaken for a 22-year-old, that’s for sure.
And…I’m always receiving junk mail from AARP, which, I suppose, makes me a “senior” citizen, to some extent.
Hey, don’t get me wrong : I’ll take a discount wherever one’s offered; I don’t feel any compulsion to tell someone, “Oh, no! I insist on paying full price. I don’t want to save any money! “
But, the cashier obviously saw me as a “senior” and acted appropriately by applying the discount to my purchase. The nerve…
However, the term, “senior citizen”, though, seems to conjure up images of some slow-moving, hard-of-hearing, white-haired old lady, slightly bent over with a cane or walker, shuffling her feet, and saying, “What’s that, Shunny? I didn’t quite hear what you just said?”
But, I would assume, that the vast majority of people who are SOCIALLY deemed “senior citizens” are STILL of WORKING AGE …AND THEY NEED A JOB
I know that to be a fact, because I’m one of them.
I’m a senior, and I have bills to pay, so I, too, need a job.
But, here I am, six months after being laid off at the onset of the plannedemic in March of 2020, and I still don’t have a job.
III. WHAT’S MY BACKGROUND?
Customer Service in a construction-oriented business.
Specifically, I spent 18 years selling pipe tools to electrical, plumbing, and pipe fitter contractors.
My employer was a small business—a mom-and-pop tool distributor.
We sold not only general construction tools like power tools, such as circular saws, drills, grinders and rotary hammers, but also specialty pipe-fabrication tools, such as benders, threaders, cutters, rodding machines, and pipe carts.
Where we ran into a problem was in the realm of competition from the much-bigger fish in the pond.
In the field of general construction tools, we were constantly undersold by the big box stores of Home Depot, Menards, Loews, and slightly more recently, Harbor Freight Tools; and in the realm of our specialty tools, we were getting killed by the industrial distributors of Grainger and McMaster Carr.
Regardless of the competitor, the 18-volt XRP Dewalt tools we sold for $99 with one battery, the big box stores “gave away” at $59, with TWO batteries; the $8,000 Ridgid® 4-inch threader we sold, was available at Granger for $5,799.
What purchasing agent is going to cut us a P.O. for eight grand, when the item he or she is looking for is available for $2,200 less elsewhere?
It’s time to turn the lights off, lock the door, and go home when your competition has created that wide of a gap between your prices and theirs.
We couldn’t compete on those terms.
If the difference was, say, only $500, maybe—MAYBE—we could still probably get the deal in some cases, where we had a close-and-long-historied rapport with the customer, because we were also a service house.
So, if the unit hiccuped, for whatever reason, and needed repair, we could personally pick it up from the job site, repair it and return it back to the job site within days if the required parts were in stock, whereas the cheaper guys usually didn’t have any in-house repair staff.
Ergo, they were cheaper on the purchase end, but they couldn’t help their customers when the product was down, and needing repair.
But a gap of a thousand bucks, or more? That was just too large of a gap for any purchasing agent to ignore, and choose us anyway, despite the huge GLARINGLY OBVIOUS “non-savings” in the price.
Our buying power of “ONE pallet of tools” (which still cost us several thousand dollars) was NO MATCH for Home Depot’s TRUCKLOAD of the same tools.
This “David” was not going to slingshot shot his way to victory over this “Goliath”.
We cried, “Uncle!’, and went home.
18 years! And then, goodbye!
Ever since we closed our doors at Recco Tool & Supply, I’ve been having some difficulty finding PERMANENT employment.
Yes, I have found employment since Recco closed, but the last company I last worked for, laid off FOUR people (at the onset of the plannedemic), of which I was one.
Moreover, that company, also passed me up initially (I’m too old), but, they turned to me when the guy they chose instead of me turned out to be an alcoholic who got CAUGHT DRINKING ON THE JOB, and ultimately ended up going to jail due to a charge that he kidnapped his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend, when he didn’t want her to leave him.
In any case, PRIOR to finding that job I had gone on an interview that really taught me that “older people need not apply” in this world of 22-year-old HR clerks, who want to staff the office and warehouse with people their own age, and no old fogies…like me.
IV. A RARE CALL
After having almost ZERO responses to my résumé, imagine my elation when I got a call from a recruiter who told me that Wheatland Tube (at 43rd and Western Boulevard in Chicago) was looking for a customer service agent (this was between August 2017, and March 2018).
“I wonder what these people saw in my résumé that enticed them into calling me?” I wondered, in hopeful anticipation that this tap on my shoulder was a sign that someone was finally going pull me out of the raging undercurrent of the unemployment waters and save me from financial ruin—which I was very close to..and which I am very close to AGAIN, thank you very much.
The only thing that I could think of was that my résumé showed lots of PIPE experience, and Wheatland Tube is a pipe manufacturer.
My background should be right up their alley, correct?
You’d think so.
So, the woman at the recruiters office, told me the particulars of who to see, and when to see her.
Then, I went to the interview.
I walked in through the front door (on Western), which led to a small lobby area that had an inner door, that was locked and remotely opened through a buzzer, once you picked up the in-house phone and alerted whoever you were there to see that you had arrived and was ready to be buzzed in.
After hanging up the phone, I was buzzed into the inner sanctum, and I believe I had to go up a flight of stairs.
I only saw two people once I was in ( what I presumed to be) the Customer Service Department—and they wern’t in their 50’s, or even 40’s…maybe 30s.
The interviewer met me en route to her office, and she closed the door behind us as we entered.
The ususal exchange of “Nice to meet you” and “have a seat”, etc, unfolded as she began the very relaxed conversation—I was hoping that was a sign that I was likely to get the job.
Especially, given the way the recruiter had portrayed Wheatland’s “excitement to interview me”, which led me to believe, I was this close to hearing, “Can you start Monday?”
What got me about this whole interview was that the woman spent a good deal of time explaining to me how important the “Big Move” was.
V. THE BIG MOVE—AND WHY IT WAS NEEDED
According to the woman who interviewed me, what the big move was all about was relocating the customer service department from one location to another.
Specifically, what she told me was that prior to their department being located on Western Boulevard ( where we were at, at that moment in time), it was downtown, in the heart of the city.
She admitted, that since she lived out in the Frankfort area, going to the downtown location was actually quite convenient since all she had to do was take the train downtown.
But…
A significant problem they had FREQUENTLY encountered was one of accuracy in quotes on AVAILABILITY.
On more than one occasion, a customer would call to check stock on a quantity of a given product, say, half-inch EMT and some 2-inch rigid, or whatever; and I can just see the series of frustrating phone calls going down something along the lines of :
A. THE ANGRY CUSTOMER PHONE CALLS
“I need 100 pieces of 1/2″ EMT and 20 of two-inch rigid.” says the customer.
“Lets see…” the CSR (Customer Service Representative) says as she taps away on her keyboard, checking the inventory system.
“Yep! Looks like we got ’em both!” the CSR exclaims.
“Great! I’ll send my driver, my P.O. is 14U24ME.” the customer adds before hanging up.
20 minutes later….
Ring!
“Wheatland Tube. This is [fill-in-name-here]. How can I help you?” the CSR greets the inbound caller.
“I forget who I talked to, but someone told me 20 minutes ago that you had all the pipe I ordered. But, now, my driver’s there, in the dock, and he’s calling me, telling me that your warehouse guys are tellin’ him there is no pipe in stock! Do you have the stuff, or not? If not, I’m gonna need to call Allied Tube, ’cause I need this stuff today!”
Unbeknownst to the customer, the CSR’s were NOT in the same building (in fact, they were MILES AWAY from the warehouse) and completely unable to verify with their own two eyes, so they were WHOLLY DEPENDENT on the eyes of those physically in the warehouse, so they could visually check.
“Let me put you on hold for a second, while I look into it, OK, [Fill-in-name-here]?” the CSR says, pressing the hold button.
While the CSR has the customer on hold, she’s got to contact the warehouse ( whether that’s by phone or through some inter-company radio system, is anyone’s guess) to find out who erred in verifying the non-existent product.
Maybe the pipe was actually there at 10:20 AM, or whatever, when the customer initially called, but another employee came along at 10:32 and pulled the pipe for some other customer who had called prior to the current customer, BOTH of whom are in the dock, now, but only one of which is going to be receiving what they came for in the first place, and the other leaving empty-handed.
Not the best of customer service stories; and if you tally up enough of them, you know you have a serious problem that needs immediate attention to solve A.S.A.P.
I’m sure miscommunications like that happen all the time in every industry; it’s just a matter of implementing a system that solves the problem as thoroughly as possible, and having the CSR department physically in the same location as the product would be a good start.
So, that’s what the interviewer told me.
VI. PUT HER FOOT DOWN AND DEMANDED THE BIG MOVE
She told me that she went to her superiors and DEMANDED that the CSR department be relocated to the warehouse to prevent the COMMON PROBLEM of errors in verifying inventory for customers—especially those who are literally en route to pick up the product NOW!
“Granted!” the Great Oz thundered much to her satisfaction.
It was done! The CSR department was now relocated from downtown to the near southwest side of the city at 43rd and Western.
All good now.
She must’ve spent a solid 20 minutes explaining the need for such an important logistical maneuver.
“The only drawback to the move,” she said, “was that me living out in the Frankfort area allowed me to take the train to work. Now, I gotta drive to work and…ya’ know, dealin’ with traffic, and all that other crap.”
This was NO SMALL SUBJECT throughout the interview.
However, a day or so later, the recruiter called me.
VII. THE RECRUITER’S POST-INTERVIEW CALL
“Hi, Floyd.” said the female recruiter, “Yeah, I got some bad news ….Yeah, they’re , uh, gonna pass on hiring you…they’ve decided to move the CSR department out to California.”
“The state of California?” I asked all shocked by what seemed like “fake news” to me.
“Yeah, that’s what she was sayin’.” the recruiter replied.
“Huh. She spent a good solid twenty minutes explaining to me why they absolutely needed that CSR department at the Western Avenue warehouse. That just doesn’t sound right.”
“I dunno. That’s, uh…just what they told me to tell you.” the recruiter said, starting to sound uncomfortable with my doubt on Wheatland’s excuse for nor hiring me.
The recruiter could have said, “They’re going with a more-qualified candidate, and I wouldn’t have questioned it.
But…
“They’re moving the CSR department to the state of California?”
Come on, that sounds far-fethched.
If that’s true, it is what it is.
If it’s NOT….
VIII. THE REAL MESSAGE
As far as I’m concerned, the woman at Wheatland Tube, might as well have screamed at me, “You’re too old to work here! Get the f— out of my office, before I call security”.
But she didn’t; that’d make her anti-old-people bias WAY TOO OBVIOUS, and then I’d have a legitimate complaint against her. Maybe not, who knows?
But no. She kept her unfairness camouflaged in the cloak of polite conversation—the way the pros do it.