Older Worker Laid Off Story

Closed door. Two women are arguing in the office:

- Don’t tell me I’m doing something wrong! I’ve done enough good things for this place! And you know it!

- Well, I think ‘enough is enough’, ends the conversation one of them.

A month later, 56-years-old Nika is fired by her manager Tara. Nika, who devoted about 10 years of her professional life to this business, is no longer needed in here. Tara is a much younger female who thinks old Nika is doing ‘silly’ things and can not be the supervisor in the place SHE owns.

In Tara’s opinion, the old supervisor is not enough computer-savvy, not interested in technical new stuff and far behind the new modifications and upgrades she wants to implement in her business.

Nika sees the situation in other way: she did everything possible to make the business actively develop over the past years and attract more customers to the house. SHE believes that the hard work she has demonstrated is worth a thousand words and led to the positive results she has achieved from the her first day at the workplace until today.

Moreover, Nika will be replaced by a younger and as someone believes ‘perspective’ woman - Tikha. Tikha was hired by Nika and was taught all necessary skills to be effective and a bit better team member among about 20 other employees. Ironically, her apprentice surpassed the master in some computer skills. So now the master has to find another place to make a living.

At this point, no one can say what went wrong. But when Nika looks back at what happened recently, all she sees is the despair and loss of self-confidence caused by oppression and criticism imposed on her lately. Her performance was questioned and discussed by her associates. She feels restless, abandoned and as if ‘betrayed’ by her workmates she has always helped.

As Tara told her during that significant closed-door conversation, she is not competent enough in computers’ stuff. But for a second, who is 100% competent in any field? Some of us may learn new things while working or solving certain issues. The need to successfully complete a task in a different way within the strong motivation intuitively pushes some of us to explore new useful programs, tools or skills and acquire new knowledge. This is just one of the many factors that makes learning new skills natural and easy for people of any ages.

There is no such perception here. “You have to leave quietly. Tell everyone here that you are returning to your country to join your husband”. But Nika’s family has settled in this city for the last 15 years. Then, Nika simply has to tell colleagues some reason, that would present her current manager as a good and understandable person. Because some people may think that she fires one of her best, most loyal and reliable executives. “Say so that no one suspects anything”. So that reason can hide Nika’s anxiety and disappointment as she leaves her post to go nowhere.

Nika is almost 57 years old, all she can do is take care of her job, manage and train personnel, take some extra responsibility while dealing with complicated cases, resolve any issues that arise in operations between businesses and customers. While performing the role of supervisor, she always tried to go the extra mile whenever she could, keep her work up and promote the business to get more leads and clients. This is supposed to be the original purpose of any employee hired for the role by a business. However, not every business, while striving to multiply its capital can appreciate and acknowledge some of its employees’ most efficient efforts in making the business stronger.

Nika is not the first nor the last elderly employee with great field experience, amazing personal and professional qualities and other valuable abilities who is fired from her long-term job. This happened because someone in senior management thought that older individuals could not cope with the new technology’s innovations and adapt to a rapidly changing work environment.

However, even those leaders who make fateful decisions in the lives of their employees also age over time. Circumstances may change suddenly. That is why employees of any age group may need to be trained in technology and other areas. Companies that would take initiatives in training their workers will get more benefits than just financial resources.

As it is obvious, no experienced and skilled employees want to be left without a job they like to do. Anyone can find themselves in a situation similar to Nika’s, regardless of age and qualifications. Therefore, everyone should be prepared to face some challenges in the fast changed work environment.