Changing jobs / careers

One of the things I have to consider because of the potentially transphobic implementation of the engineer's registration bill is changing jobs - or careers. (I won't know for sure until the details of the scheme are announced in a few months.)

Ageism these days seems to start when people are in their 40s: in my case, I noticed a pronounced increase when I was in my 50s, and I think it is largely driven by an aspect people haven't talked about: personal "comfort" - in the sense of wanting to work with people who are similar, which, when that is free of bigotry, can result in stronger teams, but, in most circumstances, is simply a fancier glossing over bigotry against people for being different (exemplified by complaints against "ethnic" food, ignoring family duties of women, etc).

Workplaces are getting a lot better on this (we recently hired someone with a disability, for example), but there are still problems. In the case of ageism, I can sum up the unacknowledged residual problems for younger people working with older, more experienced people as:

I don't want to have to work with someone who reminds me of my disapproving / controlling / yucky parents

It's never in any of the surveys (nor is the extent of stereotypical gender behaviour), but I suspect it is the reason some people have problems hiring older people - beyond the usual excuses around the myths associated with older people.

The converse of this, for younger and middle aged people with good relationships with their parents (or other older significant people - teachers, family friends, mentors, etc - even friends who are older * ), is being comfortable with working with older people.

We don't know to what extent these competing aspects are present, nor how to deal with the problem one, because no-one else seems to be thinking of this, and thus no-one seems to have collected any data.

So . . . going back to changing career or jobs, there are a number of problems I would expect to encounter, and ageism is right up there at the top of the list, beginning with the ageism of our neoliberal government which keeps raising the retirement age but doing nothing to address problems such as workplace insurance (if need be, and private insurers are refusing to provide insurance because they don't have data, the government MUST step in - as done with building inspectors at state level - and provide that insurance until the data is available!).

But there are other problems as well, including:

• people saying the work I'm doing is important (wastewater treatment has public health and environmental benefits, and many of have been pointing out benefits that are now described as "circular economy" for decades, so true enough), so I should keep going: not relevant, particularly as it might NOT BE POSSIBLE; 
• well meaning idiots thinking this is about finding something I am happy about: I'm the main breadwinner in my family, and have a duty to support my family. The question of being happy is IRRELEVANT - we need money to pay the rent and other bills, buy food, cover health costs, and so on. I need something I can tolerate that meets our financial needs; and (this is the big one) 
• there is NO help to find / select other job options. Everyone I've tried to talk to about this has been trained to aid people starting their career, or people who are in a situation where they can AFFORD to study (I don't have enough working years left to take on a student debt), or have been focused on the what-makes-you-happy bullshit, and thus have been utterly ****ing useless. A Lifelong Learning Fund like Europe has would have helped if it was available a decade ago (although back then I didn't know I was going to be in this position), and "Transition Counsellors" would help if they existed in my nation.

That last comment, about Transition Counsellors, is, in my opinion, the most likely to be achievable (perhaps also a Lifelong Learning Fund, but I know the active hate businesses had for the highly successful training guarantee levy we had back in the 90s - which is the ONLY time I've been able to get sensible help with my ongoing training, so it is will be resisted by regressive / backward-looking / unadaptable businesses) and is closest to what I have written about previously - particularly given other recent measures about job cycles in my home state, but it won't be here in enough time to help me.

(I am still angry that the Foundation for Young Australians is continuing to refuse to release the data underlying their "towards a new work mindset" report - the release of that data would help EVERYONE trying to change careers, but they won't - possibly because of ageism? If there is another reason, they need to advise it!)

One final point: trying to do an internet search for any of these terms is useless: everything just goes to the bloody existing job agencies, which are useless when it comes to career change, or dealing with anything involving overcoming discrimination.

So . . . anyone got a job? 😀


 * This raises the issue of how to deal with bigotry: I favour educating people as to why it is wrong, and how to recognise it, but there are increasingly people pushing meeting the people being discriminated against face-to-face. That is not practical - in fact, it is so impractical as to be absurd, but it does highlight the role that personal experience has is inclining people towards exclusion / inclusion.