Transcript
Speaker: Hey, stop. Yeah, you. go Have you ever walked into into work and and felt invisible? Not not fired, not not warned, just quietly erased?
Speaker: It's not in your head. That is ageism. And last year in 2025, it blew up all around me. Here's the thing. I didn't start this channel for fun. I started it because my phone wouldn't stop ringing and my inbox kept filling up last year.
Speaker: Let me be honest with you. 2025, it felt like a wave. Layoffs on Monday, early retirements on Friday, good people gone by Tuesday. People I'd worked with or or known for years, people with with mortgages, with with kids in college, with years of wins behind them.
Speaker: And and they were they were reaching out to me, whispering, John, what did you do when this happened to you back in 2020? What did you do in the in the interviews? What can I do next? How do I tell my spouse?
Speaker: That hurt because it it dredged up memories for me. So I started Ageism Survival Guide, not as a guru, but as a peer to help people get through what I went through. And today i want you to see what is it that they do that pushes us out.
Speaker: It's not performance. It's a pattern. Let me show you the five pattern types that I keep hearing about. And I know that you'll recognize them. Let's start with how they talk to you. It's never, you're too old, get out. No, it's it's sweeter than that. And frankly, it's a lot slimier than that as well. It's, wow, you're so sharp on Zoom for your age.
Speaker: For my age, what did you expect? Smoke signals, two cans on a string? Then there's the, let me print this deck out for you. It'll be easier for you to read.
Speaker: Easier to read, i ran operations on five continents. I know that I can handle a PDF. And then there's there's my my favorite. We need fresh blood on this.
Speaker: Fresh blood, irony all alert. We're not vampires here. Well, maybe those guys in finance who put the head cut reduction spreadsheet together, those might be the vampires.
Speaker: But here's the thing. The language is the early warning system. And when compliments to you start to sound odd, you're not you're not actually being praised, you're being labeled.
Speaker: Next up, you get deleted without being deleted. You you build that client report for 10 years. You know every tab, every quirk, and and you go to every weekly meeting, and then suddenly there's no invite, no heads up, nothing.
Speaker: You find out from some 26-year-old who pings you and goes, hey, man, you got any background on on this account? Background? I am the background. or Or you show up in the room and and someone goes, oh, we we thought you didn't need to come to this one.
Speaker: Didn't need to come? I've never missed one in a decade and I built this whole thing up from scratch. So let me be honest with you, you're not being forgotten, you're being filtered out.
Speaker: They end up keeping your work and you lose your chair. Now let's talk about growth or or lack of it. So just imagine there's an upcoming AI workshop, posters are all over the place in the in the hallway and everybody under 35 gets invited.
Speaker: You ask and then you hear back, hmm, this one's really more for the digital natives or we'll catch you up later. Spoiler, later never comes. And that leadership program, we're looking for high potential long runway folks.
Speaker: Translation, you're too old to invest in, but young enough to lay off. Hire any alert, they'll spend 20K on a new trainee with two years of experience, but Training for someone with 25 years of experience, not worth it.
Speaker: Here's the thing. If they're not training you, they're not planning on keeping you. You're being managed out by neglect. Okay, this one is really ugly. And if you've lived it, you're going to feel this one in your stomach. I've i've seen this happen, but I have to admit that fortunately, I never experienced this one myself.
Speaker: So you have 15 years of of exceeds expectations in your reviews, 15 years of bonuses and awards and thank you notes. Then when do you get a new manager? He's 32, great hair, those fashionable designers, sneakers, and loves to use the word agile just a little bit too much.
Speaker: 90 days later, boom, performance improvement plan, the the dreaded PIP, PIP. for communication, for collaboration, for culture fit. Culture fit. I fit this culture before this guy even had a driver's license, before the guy even went to his prom in high school.
Speaker: So let me be honest with you. A PIP after 20 years of good reviews isn't coaching, it's paperwork. It's them building a file, a case, if you will, so HR can say, see, it's not age, it's performance. It's a slippery slope because once that hit hits, you're not on a plan. You're actually on a countdown timer to the exit.
Speaker: And if that's you right now, save everything. Save the reviews, save your emails, take notes about everything that your boss or HR say. Get the dates, the times, who was in the room, the subject matter.
Speaker: You're gonna thank me later. And then comes the the finale with with cake. HR smiles real big. Hey, we've got a wonderful opportunity for you.
Speaker: An opportunity? to leave, they slide that packet across the table. Early retirement, more time with your family, go enjoy life. And and everyone's nodding at you like like it's a gift.
Speaker: Irony alert though, if it's such a gift, why do they give you a deadline to accept? Why is there a severance waiver? And why don't they want you to talk to your lawyer first? We need to stop calling a push out an opportunity and call it what it is. It's a layoff, a discarding.
Speaker: Look, it's it's not retirement if you don't choose it. It's actually removal covered in frosting candles and probably your name spelled wrong on the cake as well. So let's name it.
Speaker: it's It's not about your skills. it's It's not about your energy. It's not about Zoom or Slack or AI. It's about cost and comfort.
Speaker: We're expensive because we're good. and And we make some folks uncomfortable because we've seen things that they haven't seen yet. But here's the thing. We've survived recessions and mergers and and bad bosses and and midnight shutdowns. We know the terrain.
Speaker: If you're feeling this right now, you're not alone and and you're not done. I want you to do three things for me, if you would. One, drop a comment below. which Which one of these five patterns hit you first, or or maybe more?
Speaker: Two, hit the subscribe button. We're building a community here who who gets it. And three, check out ageismsurvivalguide.com for more information and resources that that help you fight back smart.
Speaker: Youth runs fast, but age knows the terrain. I'll see you in the next one.
