Forum Topic

Not  forced out to pasture at 65. 

I am interested in peoples views on the governments announcement that employers can't automatically get rid of staff at 65 after October next year. Any thoughts on this?

Steve Taylor ● 5781d23 Comments

I worked with two people who had quite good degrees - unfortunately putting a letter together was way beyond them, and their spelling!!!! I won't even mention punctuation. I really don't see this improving what with texting etc. these days. I can remember very clearly compiling a letter being part of my English lessons when I was at school. The trendy thing when my sons started at school was it doesn't matter about their spelling etc. as long as you can understand what is written, I find that wthout punctuation you need to read things several times to get the gist, it can alter completely the interpretation of something. Although having said that the one thing I cannot be doing with is figures, I believe that there is an equivalent of dyslexia but with numbers, and I've got it!

Vanessa Smith ● 5774d

At least you can take some comfort from the fact that she failed the LPC.

Sara Dodd ● 5774d

Update - she's already gone after a whole 2 weeks employment - not sacked by the way because the senior partner had no clue as to how dim she was - she simply called in sick on Monday and then on Tuesday called again to say she needed time off for re-sits.  Clearly even getting her name right was a problem!  I really wish I could post the letter on here, you would not understand a  word of it but you would laugh.  Every day at work I call it up at least once and fall around laughing for a good 10 mins as I always find another mistake previously missed.  I particularly like the reference to "my college James Conman" which should have read my colleague James Conlon.  It's a real howler.  Education clearly isn't what it was.

Bernadette Paul ● 5774d

"If thats the case it,s a wonder he has any employees." Welcome to the forum Rosemary.  It is indeed a shame Robin and Manria are obsessed with injecting such venomous spin on any contribution one makes to these forums. Whilst it may be acceptable to Robin and Maria that people throw lit cigarettes on the ground on a windy day and follow up such irresponsible behaviour by tossing their empty cigarette box on the ground, it isn't acceptable behaviour to me.Did I ask the person nicely to put the cigarette out because it could cause a fire?  Yes I did. Did I ask the person why they didn't put the cigarette out in the company provided ashtray? Yes I did. Did I ask the person why they threw their cigarette box on the ground  instead of placing it in the company provided litter bins? Yes I did. Did I suggest to the employee that she was behaving like scum? Yes I did. Do I make any apology for saying it? No I don'tI am happy to say said person no longer works for our company and ALL staff are extremely grateful for that and I am sure very many of them will certainly want to remain with our excellent company when the 65 year compulsory retirement age law is consigned to the litter bin.

Steve Taylor ● 5775d

Bernadette - the warning signs were there - I'm assuming she was not able to secure articles (would your firm have employed her as an articled clerk?). Did she get her degree from a 'new' University?

Sara Dodd ● 5778d

I work for solicitors  We have just taken on a young lady as receptionist.  She supposedly has a law degree and has taken the LPC.  Part of her job is to help out with typing.  I wish I could post on here the letter she produced from dictation.  If it wasn't so tragic believe me it would be hilarious.  English pitiful, spelling worse, this girl cannot construct a sentence, punctuate or even speak.  She told me the other day that she believed she had "shrinked".  Do they give out degrees these days for knowing your own name?  Because I really cannot credit this young lady with any sort of expertise whatsoever.  What hope is there for the young if she is the best they have to offer?  No wonder they want oldies to stay at work.  I should add, I have an 11 year old grandaughter who I think would have made a better attempt at transcribing this dictation than the lady in question did.

Bernadette Paul ● 5778d

Bring back apprenticeships,stop importing cheap foreign labour,stop indulging fecklessness,make sure the school system provides them with a decent standard of literacy and numeracy?Stop offering a life on benefits as an option?Probably quite a few other things that can be added to the list.

Keith Iddon ● 5778d

Yes a very good point.  I am not sure how they are going to tackle the issue of getting the youth into jobs.

Steve Taylor ● 5778d

Good point.

Keith Iddon ● 5778d

I can understand the desire to reduce the cost of providing state benefits by 'encouraging' people not to retire and removing obstacles such as a mandatory retirement age but I can't help but think that it will do little to reduce youth employment.

Sara Dodd ● 5778d

You may be right Paul although I could not be less interested in what he has to say.As a matter of interest,was the question I asked a reasonable one in you opinion?

Keith Iddon ● 5778d

I expect Robin will respond on Manrias behalf Keith

Paul Fisher ● 5778d

Hello Manria,Answer the perfectly reasonable question I put to you 20:41 29/7 on the 'Well done the French' thread and you may be taken more seriously by others.Avoiding questions is a sure sign of a weak and ill thought out position.

Keith Iddon ● 5778d

General consensus on TW8 and C4 seems to be that this new law is a good thing.  I would agree. At least employees will now have a choice.  As one contributor on C4 put it nicely:"One of very few actions of the current lot I can support, since it clearly favours workers over management*.  Right on, Brothers Cameron and Clegg."Within our company the average length of service is 12 years. Some employees have left us and come back. One lady who joined us at 20 has left 3 times and is now in her fourth term of employment at 40 years of age. We have always encouraged staff to come back if they find the grass isn't greener elsewhere  Our previous MD was quite open to letting good staff stay until 66 or 67/68 if they wanted to  but our current MD stopped that and I have seen decent, hardworking staff forced out to pasture. With very few exceptions most of those who have retired over the last four years would definitely have preferred to stay on.

Steve Taylor ● 5779d

If thats the case it,s a wonder he has any employees.

Rosemary Junefield ● 5779d

Rosemary,Robin's referring to the fact Steve Taylor called one of his own employees 'scum'.  Would you like to work for an employer like that, because I know I wouldn't

Manria Kaur ● 5779d

Why are you always so nasty in your replies?

Rosemary Junefield ● 5779d

I would have thought that most of Steve Taylor's employees would be keen to retire as early as possible.

Robin Taylor ● 5780d

I'm not sure that employers won't find a way to get rid of you at 65 if you want to stay on. As I understodd what was being said on the box yesterday, it's all about if you're still up to the job, if you are still performing satisfactorily etc. etc. As with the current age discrimination legislation employers will just give you another reason besides your age and then you are left trying to prove that they are not being fair as the law stands. Anyone who is in their 50s probably has experience of knowing fine well that they have been more than capable of doing a job advertised as well as anyone but have been palmed off with some spurious reason as to why they didn't get said job. They know it's cobblers and that the rejection is because of their age so do the employers but how do you prove it? That would seem to be the fly in the ointment. Also people doing heavy manual jobs may not be physically able to keep working on, where does this leave them? I worked 3 years over retirement and went because I wanted to and because upheaval was on the way that I couldn't be arsed with, however, I believe I am quite capable of carying on working if I decided to, but now I just don't have the time!

Vanessa Smith ● 5781d

I don't think it necessarily depends on the job you do as much as a) your job satisfaction levels and b) your general health.  I work in an office and you're probably right I probably do have "a big arse" whereas someone on a farm or doing some or sort of manual work would probably be 10 times fitter and stronger because of the nature of the work.  However, if you have poor health it really doesn't matter what job you do, 65 is old enough to retire - if you can afford it!I'm still working and earning what is supposedly a better than average salary but I can't afford anything now so God knows what I would do with a pension and, I may add, having worked in offices all my life I can tell you I have NO private pension - that does not necessarily come with the territory.

Bernadette Paul ● 5781d

There needs to be flexibility with retirement age in my view. Some people can't wait to retire and in this catagory might be people who are stuck indoors in a shop say all the time...especially if they have no money problems.Others might feel that being "forced out to pasture at 65" is poor reward for say 40 years service. Maybe a gradual reduction in hours worked is better. Self employment is no guarantee of a successful and early retirement! I've been working for 53 years and there's no end in sight yet!

Jim Lawes ● 5781d

Spot on Rosemary.Office workers quite often have better pensions than manual workers too and are not knackered by the time they are 65.Maybe have big arses though from sitting down too much.Who would want to work on a farm or on a building site when they are older.As we get older,we do not get any stronger or better physically.

Keith Iddon ● 5781d

I suppose it depends on the type of job you have. Working in a foundry you might have different feelings than someone working in an office type job.

Rosemary Junefield ● 5781d