I've see some older guys in therapy, by older I mean over fifty. They come for as many reasons as everyone else, but there is a trend I see that is upsetting.
They tend to be more worried about their jobs than they were a decade ago, and it seems that they should be. The ones who have jobs are either doing very well in the company, and are in positions of leadership, or they are on the fringes, and they know it. Several of them are out of the companies they had been in for two or three decades, and are now hanging around as consultants.
If they are in leadership positions they know that there are people on their ass all the time and any major fuck-up and they are history. The other ones feel like so much of the work is based on using technology that they are not totally comfortable with. People who are twenty years younger grew up pushing buttons and clicking mouses, and skipping from screen to screen. Most of my guys can work with the machines but if anything happens to the technology they are screwed. The consultants especially are out there on their own and if the scanner doesn't scan everything in right then they can lose a few thousand dollars in an afternoon. It can take hours to get the systems connected.
They feel that at this age they should have respect and wisdom, but they are scared and feel that they are falling behind. They also feel that they can't learn as quickly, stay up as late or concentrate as long. Many of these beliefs are not true, but the anxiety about them make them so.
These problems are as much cultural as they are psychological. This is America '07. You are free to make a lot of money. If you don't, then nobody really cares. I see plenty of houses up for sale as I drive to work.
I am older than most of the guys I see. I am lucky because my job requires thinking and talking. I can still manage (I think).
Also, I use an Apple.
2 comments:
this is not only america '07 (unfortunately?)... the trend's been there a while and I've seen my friends' fathers pushed already more than 10 years ago in France, for those reasons you describe. they needed strong will, strong family ties and lots of pills to hang up there...
A lot of the older guys can't do it because they don't think they can.
My father is 67 and has taught himself more about computers the past couple of years than men half of his age know. He's not even particularly gifted in that area. He just got tired of paying someone to do a rotten job of fixing them. :)
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