Seniors at work : why does our Society care so little ?

Recently a acquaintance of mine got fired at the age of 61. He had been fighting this decision for months and finally accepted his fate. With much sadness he slowly got convinced that he had become useless and left the company he had been working for for 14 years.

Beyond the mere pain of getting fired, I was touched by his feeling of being useless.

I watched him change from being revolted and highly motivated, to being tired of fighting.

I watched him change from being convinced of his value, to accepting he wasn’t good enough for this organization.

I watched him leave on a Friday with tears in his eyes and I was wondering what you feel when you know you will never be back to work.

I watched him leave on this Friday while all his colleagues were looking at their screens and didn’t even turned their heads.

While I was rethinking about this famous Friday, I wondered :

Why is it that “seniors” are deemed to be useless, to miss the energy to harness challenges.

Why is it that organizations care so little about people they dismiss after so many years of good services ?

I’m not shocked about people getting fired. Sometimes it’s necessary.

But I’m really shocked and angry about lack of respect for what people have done. No one deserves to be treated like he/she had become useless.

We are all good at something and an organization has a responsibility in using talents at their best potential. Organizations that don’t pursue this goal, don’t deserve our respect.

Photo : shutterstock

By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab Dr. Pierre-Nicolas Schwab is the founder of IntoTheMinds. He specializes in e-commerce, retail and logistics. He is also a research fellow in the marketing department of the Free University of Brussels and acts as a coach for several startups and public organizations. He holds a PhD in Marketing, a MBA in Finance, and a MSc in Chemistry. He can be contacted by email, Linkedin or by phone (+32 486 42 79 42)