Walmart has been employing the elderly as door greeters for decades. When I worked there (oh god) 20 years ago, I’d always hang out and bullshit with them. Some were cool AF, some were batshit crazy. Either way, it was entertaining.
Before that, I worked at a restaurant where the staff was an even split between teenage stoners and grandma-aged old ladies. Like, you couldn’t write a better odd-couple workplace comedy.
All that is to say that for my entire working life, I’ve worked with (and continue to work with) people that should have retired already.
Not to deny any of the very real economic reasons for this (everything from low wages, pensions being replaced by 401Ks, etc) but it’s also important to remember that the babyboomer generation was the largest ever generation until millennials claimed that record, so any statistic that looks primarily at raw numbers as opposed to percentages is going to be higher simply because there are more people.
Worked also at Walmart over 20 years ago. Most of those old people were retired and only worked at Walmart part time out boredom. Same probably at that restaurant.
We are talking about people who are working at old age because if they didn’t they be homeless.
That very well may be true. My sample size is limited to the state I live in, and generational and general poverty have likely had their thumbs on the scale here for ages.
Is this a new development?
Walmart has been employing the elderly as door greeters for decades. When I worked there (oh god) 20 years ago, I’d always hang out and bullshit with them. Some were cool AF, some were batshit crazy. Either way, it was entertaining.
Before that, I worked at a restaurant where the staff was an even split between teenage stoners and grandma-aged old ladies. Like, you couldn’t write a better odd-couple workplace comedy.
All that is to say that for my entire working life, I’ve worked with (and continue to work with) people that should have retired already.
The number of people unable to retire is a new development. It used to be much lower.
https://www.epi.org/blog/no-way-out-older-workers-are-increasingly-trapped-in-crummy-jobs-and-unable-to-retire-growing-disparities-in-work-and-retirement-in-30-charts/
Not to deny any of the very real economic reasons for this (everything from low wages, pensions being replaced by 401Ks, etc) but it’s also important to remember that the babyboomer generation was the largest ever generation until millennials claimed that record, so any statistic that looks primarily at raw numbers as opposed to percentages is going to be higher simply because there are more people.
People who spent their whole lives voting for the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” party: “Why isn’t the government taking care of me?”
Worked also at Walmart over 20 years ago. Most of those old people were retired and only worked at Walmart part time out boredom. Same probably at that restaurant.
We are talking about people who are working at old age because if they didn’t they be homeless.
That very well may be true. My sample size is limited to the state I live in, and generational and general poverty have likely had their thumbs on the scale here for ages.