JOBSEARCH: Age Discrimination

Thursday, August 12, 2010

August 1, 2010

Jacqueline A. Berrien
Chair
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Dear Ms. Berrien:

Not withstanding the Gross v. FBL Financial Services decision, it is STILL the consensus of most older American workers that age discrimination is rampant in today’s economy.

In my youth, I worked on the AT&T Equal Opportunity Reports. The employee, applicant, and contractor workforce demographics were parsed may different ways to demonstrate that discrimination was not be tolerated either by management action, systematic flaws, or even random chance.

Companies are a creation of the government and as such are subordinate to them. My question is why doesn’t the EEOC require all corporations over a certain size to report their demographics. If a corporation has a deficiency in a race, sex, or age pool, then there should be a de facto finding of discrimination. Now clearly there has to be some latitude for say NBA basketball teams who are deficient in short Jewish women, but I suspect that you will find that Wall Street firms are deficient in fat old white guys. As well as, a host of other corporations. To give time to adapt, you could start with a requirement on the largest ones and lower the size bar gradually to an appropriate level.

Unlike the AT&T EO Reports, this should be an electronic data exchange in XBRL. So large corporation should be able, with a minimum of overhead, supply this data directly from their payroll and personnel systems. SAP probably has a module to do it already for its European Customers.

As the Federal Government seeks to match Social Security to increasing lifespans, we as a nation have to address issue that older workers represent a too valuable asset to be “frozen out” of the employment market by de facto age discrimination. This “freeze out” is forcing 50 to 65 year olds to prematurely use their retirement savings, lose those high earning years when they are saving for their retirement. This is a double whammy. Just like the ERISA rules were necessary to stop the Aircraft industry from dumping engineers after their first five years in favor of younger cheaper engineers, so to the Commission must change the economics of discrimination. By requiring companies to report is the first step in bringing a dirty little “not so secret” secret into the daylight.

Make companies report their demographics by race, sex, and age. If they can explain it, all well and good. If not, then that’s the time for some serious conversations.

As an IT Architecture and Business Process Reengineering consultant, I know this can be done relatively quickly and cheaply. I can help or advise the Commission or its staff, at my own expense, by phone or email, anytime.

Thanks for your consideration of my input,
fjohn

Ferdinand J. Reinke
3 Tyne Court
Kendall Park, NJ 08824

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JOBSEARCH: Adjusting expectations

Thursday, July 22, 2010

http://www.sovereignman.com/expat/case-study-the-maltese-expat/

Case Study: The Maltese Expat
by Simon Black
July 15, 2010
Bath, England

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Here’s what’s most intriguing about her, though… she’s always worked. Even as a 70-year old widow in Malta, she still has a job. In her own words Emma says, “I’m a war baby. My generation doesn’t think that anyone owes us anything, doesn’t think that it’s other people’s responsibility to take care of us.”

*** end quote ***

That’s a generational difference: the past generation (No one owes us anything), the current generation (We expect the good life with little effort.), and the future generation (We’re entitled to the good life.)

Argh

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JOBSEARCH: Demographic shift and the implications of it

Sunday, July 18, 2010

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The federal government says that 40 percent of all U.S. workers will be 55 or older by the end of the year 2010. Your workforce is part of this demographic shift. What issues with the aging workforce do you and others face, and how will you deal with them?

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Just as the ERISA diktat changed the pension ripoff scam of the aircraft companies, there has to be a significant change in age discrimination law. We can have workers idle from 50 to 65. As the politicians and bureaucrats raise the Social Security retirement age, it’ll worsen the problem. The problem originates in the whole concept of benefits. Like most diktats, it distorts the marketplace. What has to happen is that people buy their own benefits. Employers have benefited form this scam for too long. And, workers over value their benefit packages. It creates a society of serfs who are afraid to change jobs. The new plantation. We need to become a nation of consultants. And the tax diktats have to change to match the new realities. Pensions, social security, and such have to be “personal”.

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JOBSEARCH: Form for free may be just the thing for thee

Monday, July 5, 2010

http://blogs.jobdig.com/wwds/2010/06/22/networking-tool-for-everyone-free

Networking Tool For Everyone (free)

Posted in June 22nd, 2010

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Instead, imagine that you have completed a BUILDING MY NETWORK form in advance of the meeting. The form lists the companies you are interested in, the contact people, the issues confronting the business and the department where you want to work. This way your contact has something to react to, and to refer to later.

*** end quote ***

Any free advise is good.

I like McKay66 and I like Lucht’s structured networking meeting.

But this is a good idea to have an ice breaker of targets.

If I have a gripe with it, it would be that in might get you down in the weeds BEFORE you’ve established what “field” you should be working in. Part of the structured networking is to listen to what the target has to say about your situation.

Sometimes that is something “strategic” that you never considered.

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JOBSEARCH: grid targets as a memory jogger

Sunday, June 20, 2010

http://blogs.jobdig.com/wwds/2010/06/18/heat-up-your-job-searching-skills-networking-101-and-102/

Heat Up Your Job Searching Skills: Networking 101 and 102

POSTED IN JUNE 18TH, 2010

*** begin quote ***

He had prepared an 8 ½ by 11 sheet of paper laid out in a grid. He had printed every company he was interested in, the contact person’s name, number, email address, linked in name, and issues now confronting that company (his own analysis). My new friend left me his sheet and simply asked if I knew anyone from these companies or who might know these people.

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“Guess which one I helped more?”

May I humbly suggest that you should have written: “Guess which one I was able to give more help?”

(I’m sure that Number One’s failings would not annoy you enough to deliberately NOT help. Number One just didn’t set up the framework for you to maximize your effectiveness. Never mind efficiency. Number One was much further along on the “dikw (i.e., data, information, knowledge, wisdom) curve”. Number One is asking for data, (e.g., who’s hiring me); some names. Number Two is asking for and sharing wisdom (i.e., different way of presenting the knowledge of targets and helping you fit your knowledge into a shared model).

Excellent wisdom presented, imho. (That means I’ll steal this and make it my own. With appropriate credit, of course.)

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JOBSEARCH: Gather all your contacts on GMAIL

Saturday, June 19, 2010

http://lifehacker.com/5556898/the-complete-guide-consolidating-your-contact-list

The Complete Guide to Creating a Consolidated, Master Contact List

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The most important part of the process is to pick an easy contact management solution that will incorporate information easily while still being able to export to a variety of formats (Outlook and others) and sync to your smartphone.

Google Contacts fits the bill nicely in a variety of ways. It supports CSV (comma-separated value) files from other Google accounts and Outlook. (CSV is a common export format, but the fields vary slightly between Google-exported CSVs and Outlook-exported CSVs; Google Contacts can handle either); it can also import the vCard format, which is supported by Apple Address Book.

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Plaxo has size limits and its “clients” cause problems.

Cardscan is now limited to those who buy their card scanner.

Google’s Contacts does NOT do periodic verification with contacts, consolidate the results, and replicate updates out. And it has quotas!

Outlook and Apple Mail have “address book” functions that are limited.

LinkedIn locks you in.

Too many dead ends and islands of data.

Argh!

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JOBSEARCH: “Turkey” stuff moved to my own domain

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

I’m preparing to cut my last ties to Comcast. So my famous turkey stuff had to move from “lxu” to http://www.reinke.cc/COMCAST4/TURKEY/index.htm. Feel free to use or steal as you see fit. fjohn

p.s., Let this serve as a reminder to never ever put anything up on anything but your own domain. :-) Do as I say; not as I sometimes did!

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JOBSEARCH: “Eliminating the unemployed” will be punished in the marketplace; no law required

Monday, June 7, 2010

http://www.career-resumes.com/the-unemployed-will-not-be-considered-what/

The Unemployed Will Not Be Considered. WHAT???

by Jason Alba http://www.jibberjobber.com/

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I read this article on The Huffington Post: Disturbing Job Ads: ‘The Unemployed Will Not Be Considered.’

In my opinion (Jason Alba, not Career Resumes),

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>should be illegal

Argh! Sorry, but I “violently” disagree. Well as “violently” as a little L libertarian can.

Perhaps, I can illustrate the “dead end” and counter-productive nature of that reaction.

We have laws against “age discrimination”, how well are they working? Ditto “sex”. Ditto “race”. Ditto, ditto, ditto.

Using the “guns of gooferment” just ensures that it will be our collective feet that are getting shot.

Let’s examine how well WW2 Wage and Price controls worked for today’s employees. We have the “benefits trap” that tie health benefits with employment by laws and tax policy that are inescapable.

ERISA rules, make it more expensive to do business in the US.

Departing from the original Constitutional method of financing the Federal Gooferment with excise taxes and tariffs allows the exporting of jobs overseas.

Creation of the Federal Reserve Bank, (which by the way ain’t Federal, doesn’t Reserve squat, and ain’t a Bank), allows the Gooferment to monetize spending into debt and distort the marketplace interest rate. That creates “malinvestment” in the marketplace. And, the investor, entrepreneurs, the poor, the fixed income, and the worker suffers.

So, please, immediately any thought of “illegality”. It will do nothing to solve, ameliorate, or even prevent the problem. Making something “illegal” just: drives it underground (i.e., age = overqualified), increases costs (i.e., EOE = dumb disclaimers on any job ad), and doesn’t solve the problem (i.e., resumes with gaps will still be dumped automagically).

>Does being unemployed change your

Yes, it does. It’s affects your whole attitude about life, your self-worth, and your outlook. Hopefully for the better. But not necessarily. Once you’ve been nuked, I feel you become a “turkey”. You’re never as self-confident as you were pre-unemployment. That may be good. That may be just “growing up”. That may be a spark to do bigger and better thing (e.g., you with Jibber Jobber). While you’re unemployed, some of your dikw (i.e., data, information, knowledge, wisdom) ages. Data ages badly; wisdom perhaps not at all. In the Technology arena, a month can be like a life time. (A funny story: I know one techie, who was out so long when his particular technology went out of fashion, that he went to sell cars. When that didn’t work out five years later, the technology pendulum had swung back and his tech was back in style and he picked up where he left off. Just lucky or evidence of the stupidity of large organizations. It was hard on him, but he survived.)

>still a lot of ignorant thinking to change

I think that contains the seed of what will happen. Don’t you think that turkeys will have long memories? What will be that company’s reputation in the future when it has to compete for talent? And, the pendulum always swings.

And the HR type that initiated that type of restriction may not have a very long career in HR.

The economists always point out that irrational discrimination or discrimination in socially unacceptable manner costs the company dramatically. “Irrational”, like “No blonds”, eliminates all Swedes. This means that their hiring pool is artificially constricted. If that company wants to hire a Swedish translator, they may have to pay more or be unable to fill the position. That company would be at a competitive disadvantage and would lose in the marketplace. “Socially unacceptable”, like “No <insert favorite minority>”, will bring about a boycott by the minority and their sympathizers. (Note, the state transit racial segregation laws were vigorously opposed by white bus and train owners because they fear financial ruin. Prior to those laws, no one had to sit at the back of the bus.) The Free Market administers discipline quickly!

“Eliminating the unemployed” will be subverted (i.e., everyone will have their own consulting company and internet side businesses), marginalized (i.e., folks will make them “anathema”), and eventually punished by the invisible hand of the marketplace (i.e., hiring the employed will raise their costs, they will miss “bargains”, and be at a financial disadvantage to their competitors).

>You can tell this makes me mad

Me2. I’d conserve your anger for the bigger “structural” problems that we Turkeys have.

We, as a society, “we” collectively “waste” expensively a lot of “human resources”. From around age 15 to age 25, we confine workers to what is euphemistically called “school” from which they emerge with a bug debt, unrealistic expectations, and no ROI. From age 50 to 65, “we” again discriminate against the “older expensive worker”. From age 65 to 75, “we” again waste frivolously and expensively in “retirement”. With life spans lengthening and political, financial, and intellectual memes failing to recognize and adapt. we have BIGGER problems to solve.

The silver lining is that: (1) such stupidity will be punished in the marketplace; (2) the unemployed will compete by forming their own businesses (as you know, I think were bound to become a nation of one man bands like the movie industry); and (3) Americans have rebellion, energy, and innovation in their genes and memes.

We will survive. The turkeys will inherit the earth! So lets go peck them to death!

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I did over look three ideas which I should have gotten in about unemployment and how it changes the individual.

(1) It wipes out your savings.

It does something else.

(2) You never look at companies the same way again. Your motivation never aligns with the company’s again. Any company. It’s like the monologue by the character Colonel Jessep played by Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men”.

“Son, we live in a world that has walls, … … Because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want it all to be back the way it was. You hang on every illusion that it was all just a mistake.”

One of the points I missed was that: (3) you still cling to the innocence that you deep down in your heart know it was all a mistake. Your name just wound up on the wrong list. You’re really not the turkey. But like we used to say in Delta Beta Mu a long time ago, you’re a turky because you being at the turkey farm is prima facie evidence that you’re a turkey and it was not a mistake. The sooner you learn that the better off you will be.

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JOBSEARCH: Revising SFYG again for 2010 (June 2010)

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Success for your generation is:

  1. Recognize that you may not work professionally from Age 50 on;
  2. You mush have ruthless financial discipline — no bad debt;
  3. Cultivate an interest in life long interest in learning — education — get a degree cheap — they can’t take it away from you;
  4. Seek a NON-OFFSHORABLE white collar job in order to save big bux;
  5. Develop a blue collar skill for hard times — never saw a poor plumber;
  6. Start one or more internet based businesses — your store is always open;
  7. Create a second business or avocation – under the radar – start small part-time;
  8. Grow a large will-maintained network of people who can “help” you;
  9. Buy assets that hold their value over time; and
  10. Emulate the Amish and Mormons for their sense of community, simple thrifty living, and true to core values.

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JOBSEARCH: Myths are killers in job search

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/6-myths-that-stand-in-your-way/

6 Myths That Stand In Your Way
April 18th, 2010 by Mark Harrison

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1. Myth: There is time

2. Myth: You can rely on other people

3. Myth: You are important

4. Myth: You should put others before yourself

5. Myth: Conflict should be avoided

6. Myth: The difference between success and failure is LUCK.

*** end quote ***

Ahhh, myths, I can relate to this one. I was so … … stupid, lazy, dumb,

Shoulda, coulda, and woulda!

Paradigms are the way we perceive the world (i.e., the JoHari window). Memes, like genes for ideas, are the units of thoughts that transfer and modify behavior.

Myths are a erroneous paradigms and memes.

So is the problem, the difference, that we now perceive them as “wrong”. By what standard?

So we have paradigms and memes that, being wrong, interfere with a successful life and a successful jobsearch.

Some of them that have particularly screwed me up.

1. I believed people. They lied. I acted on those beliefs. And, I did damage that I can’t even know or assess.

2. I “coasted” when it would have been trivial to do the work. Again, another hit that can’t be assessed.

3. I read a mensa piece (i.e., human being owner’s manual) many many moons ago. I thought it was a joke. Little did I know how true it was.

4. I have heard many of the self-help gurus and read many of the self-help texts. Read, but didn’t grok. Preused but didn’t action.

5. I didn’t play the “political game” at my various stops along my career path. Who knows what could have been?

6. I urged people to forgive themselves. I have to do the same. The “more than a year” amnesty. All sins forgiven; not forgotten.

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