I think I am. I won't get into details but this job I have been at since late June, I feel like I'm treated like an idiot. I had to go in yesterday on my day of for a mandatory meeting. I'm still mad today and left there wanting to cry. Every time I said something this younger snit had an quick terse answer back. When I was addressing the question to the medical records woman who was giving the in-service. This same snot later said "well I've only been a nurse since April" in response to something she said she didn't know about. And I thought "and yeah I've been doing this for over 25 years and you treat me like I'm an idiot" I get sick and tired of people saying things to me like I'm an idiot. I rarely respond and I'm sure they feel very smug thinking they got the last word with me. But anyone who treats me like I'm dumb is a real fool. I may not say anything and I let most things go by but if they only knew what I'm thinking. I wouldn't have a job honestly.
I was seeing some of that in EMS before I left the field. Even officially, the Texas Department of Health would introduce new programs referring to the old way of doing things, and those who did them that way, as dinosaurs. Well, for the most part, older paramedics were just as eager to learn something new as the younger ones were, and a fair amount of continuing education was required anyhow, yet the emphasis would be on training new medics to do things differently, thus separating younger medics from older ones rather than simply introducing new procedures. Given that many of the people who were hired to run things at the EMS division of the Department of Health were not very old or, in many cases, had never even been licensed as an EMT let along as an EMT-P, they operated from a supposition that, at some age, people lost the ability to learn anything new. On our part, what we saw from the younger medics, who learned the new way of doing things, was that they were trained to memorize protocols rather than to learn why they were doing the things they were doing; in other words, to follow orders rather than to understand the reasons behind them. Fortunately, unlike a hospital situation, most ambulance companies were run by those who were disparaged as dinosaurs so the age discrimination went both ways.
Thanks for your reply @Ken Anderson I don't know how prevalent it is, but I'm sure feeling it. And I don't think I'm imagining it either. Of coarse it's not everyone, but even a few make it difficult. But anyone who comes out of nursing school thinking they know it all has a problem. And I'm seeing that. My brother went in the Navy at 24. He even said as his twenty years in approached, he was dealing with people who weren't even born when he first went in the Navy and he said he had no patience for some of them.
When I was about fifty-five years I left a fofrture 500 company, Gifford-Hill & Company and went to work for a new start up company who had been in business about six months. I knew the man who started the company. He had worked for a Dallas Company and I had bought product from his company. I worked for this smaller company a little over five years when the man's son came on board. The company had three salesmen by that time. My sales were more than double the other two salesmen's combined sales. But one day the boy told me when his dad retired he was going to hire younger a man for my territory, one with a college education. I asked why but told him that was his prorogitive. He said you are going to start slowing down one of these days, that's jusdt what happens to older people. Shortly afterward his dad died suddenly. He said I'm going to move you to the wirehouse and hire a younger man to replace you. I asked when he wanted to do this. He said I think next week would be a good time. I said fine, I'll tender my resignation, effective the end of this week, or today if that that's what you want. He didn't want two weeks notice with me on the sales territory. That was a Wednesday, I terminated on Friday. I was out of work about three months. That might have been agism. The term is new to me.
@Bill Boggs Certainly ageism. If not plain harassment. I don't know how long ago this was, but people wouldn't try this today probably. If they are going to replace someone for age related reasons, they will just find another excuse and in the end, there is no real recourse or protection.
One thing, ageism is a very real thing. Haven't run into the problem much, but know it's out there. Thing is, many times a younger person is going to know more about certain things than an older person, due to how fast things change. If an older person doesn't keep up with current changes, there definitely could be a problem. My wife has a business-accounting degree (Bachelor of Arts) from 1997 and two AA's from colleges. She has been a AR/AP Accountant, Senior Accountant and Financial Analyst since she got her Bachelors Degree. After working in QA for a year and a half, she is now back working in Accounting again. For some of the work she does, she now has to be trained (OJT). She has found out just how much Accounting has changed in recent years. She is almost 69 and feels very fortunate that the company she works for is training her, instead of laying her off and hiring younger.
Mine was a sales job. I did have a certain satisfaction. I went to work for a competitor and had the satisfaction of seeing my previous employer close his doors and go out of business. In my estimation he was not a good business man, more of a playboy, although I had made a point of taking as many of his customers as I could. I had dinner with his new sales rep he had hired to replace me, a couple years later, who had himself he been promoted to sales manager. One of his early comments to me, "Bill, you're killing us." I suggested what was hurting his company was his boss staying on the golf course too much and not taking care of business, that and an expensive divorce. But, who knows?