Rant #2,955: Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

After not hearing from out local newspaper, Newsday, for more than a month about a freelance position that I applied for, I decided to do some of my own legwork and find out what was happening with that position.
 
You might remember that this was the first job that I had applied for in two years, since I applied for more than 1,000 jobs after I lost my job just prior to the pandemic and through the point where my unemployment insurance was about to end and I had to apply for Social Security retirement.
 
So I sent out an email yesterday …
 
 
“Dear Sir/Madam:
This is a follow-up to the material I sent you on July 14 related to the above listed position.
 
I have not heard from you, and I wonder if any decisions have been made about this position.
 
Have any decisions been made?
 
I have attached my information again to this email.
 
Please contact me at your earliest convenience.
 
Thanks.”

 
Three hours and 57 minutes later …
 
 
“Hi Larry,
 
Sorry we've been a bit backed up regarding applications but have reviewed your resume and have decided to move forward with other applicants.
 
Thank you for your interest.”
 
 
Almost immediately afterward, after I did some work for my existing freelance job …  the only job I did not directly apply for during my pre-retirement time and the only one that somehow was the only one that showed interest in me …
 
“Thanks for your response.
…
You might know that several months ago, I was featured in an article in Newsday related to those older workers who lost their jobs around the pandemic period and had not been able to get another job since that time.
 
I wonder if the themes brought out in that article had anything to do with this latest rejection, including ageism.
 
You can clearly figure out my age by my resume, and I have no doubt that it might have had something to do with my rejection, although I cannot prove it.
 
I figured I was perfect for this job, with my backing credentials clearly demonstrating that I had the experience and talent to fill this position.
 
This was the first job that I applied for since I went through a year of more than 1,000 rejections and was forced to retire against my will because my job situation had no remedy.
 
I hope that Newsday did not reject me for the above-stated reason, because that would go against the grain of what that article that I was featured in was all about.
 
Ageism is the most difficult of the employment prejudices to prove, and while I have no proof here, this latest rejection has put the thought into my mind.
 
Why was I rejected for this position? Again, I hope it wasn't what I think it might have been.”
 

To this moment, no response … not that I thought there would be one.
 
If there was any hint of bias towards me shown in any response that they made, I would have a nice lawsuit against them.
 
But the same thing stands as when I was out of work just prior to the pandemic: I am a clear-cut victim of age bias.
 
At the ripe old age of 65, I am thought of as decrepit and not worthy of even a lowly freelance position, and the bias is just so obvious … but go prove it.
 
Here is what I wrote on Facebook as a follow-up to all of this utter nonsense:
 
“OK, say what you want about this, but a freelance job that fit me like a glove that I applied for with Newsday once again led to absolutely nothing, as I found out that the newspaper "went in another direction" and did not hire me.
Honestly, I applied on a lark, as it was the first position I applied for in about two years.
And no, I cannot prove that my age was a factor, although it is so obvious that it was.
Ageism is the one workplace infraction that is nearly impossible to prove, but there can be no other reason that I was not hired for this freelance position.
At a seemingly decrepit age of 65, hiring managers half my age are simply not going to hire, even for a freelance position, someone of my advanced age and experience, no matter how much our society claims that they put our older citizens on a pedestal.
Thank God I still have my current freelance job, and can just brush this off and move on ...
But I will reiterate that I absolutely abhor retirement, if this is what retirement actually is.”
 
I received a few replies to my post, which were good ones, but simply to sum it all up, I wrote the following:
 
“This is something you cannot fully understand unless you have been a victim of this. My advice is to be happy with your job even if it is not to your liking; stay with it for as long as possible; and put yourself into a position to retire when you want to do this, not when you are forced into it like I was.”
 
To date, of the 1,000 resumes that I sent out during my pre-retirement period, I have not heard back from a single company, not even one.
 
If that doesn’t prove ageism or bias against older workers, I don’t know what does.
 
Supposedly, right now, we are at a very low level of unemployment, and there are even thousand of jobs that are going vacant because employers have been unable to fil these positions.
 
That is true if you want to believe the numbers.
 
Unemployment levels are always skewed and never tell the truth about the real unemployment levels, simply because people like me drop out of the mix, and for every one like me, there are millions of others who are fed up and simply don’t even look for jobs anymore.
 
So you can pretty much quadruple whatever numbers are out there, because there are a heck of a lot of people who are unemployed than are being reported.
 
I dropped out and went right into Social Security,, and I have a freelance job that pays me about a quarter of what I should be making at this stage of the game.
 
I am very thankful for it, but let’s be honest about it, that is not the way I should be blazing a trail into retirement.
 
And with all the obstacles which forced me into this situation, I may never apply for another job again.
 
Why waste my time on what appears to be such a waste of time?