I've noticed that this entire industry has decided that older employees are useless and have nothing to offer despite their extensive knowledge and experience. The most talented people are finding themselves out of a job and then the companies wonder how come their numbers keep going down. You'd think that those geniuses who get paid the big bucks would know how to put two and two together...
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I was in the 50+ category and was dumb thinking I would not get laid off. I was and this job market is scary for people our age. 30 jobs applied for and only 1 response. Luckily this place loves older workers and I am very happy for the first time at work in a long time. My advice, get EVERY type of certification you can get Allstate to pay for. It is a different world out there and if you have to change career paths these certifications will help you get some interviews. I was naive thinking I didn’t need them but it will really help get your resume past the robots who review resumes. The job market will turn and crave experience again but not right now.
Just personal observation Allstate up until recently fostered a tenured mediocre environment. There were siloed regions with layers of management, much useless, that kept these bodies in seats. Case in point I witnessed a 30 year mid management employee work 10 hours a week. They were available to the worker bees only for brief hellos to show their face and promote that likable image. The facing manager was given their job with no experience, full autonomy and a nice bump in pay for keeping their secret and playing the game while doing 2 jobs. This scenario played out with TONS of tenured employees I’ve encountered within Allstate. Allstate didn’t care to look close enough at those Inspire Surveys because this ship could have been turned around years ago.
In my experiences as a leader and co-worker there are two kinds of 50 and older workers. The hard working knowledgeable true roots of the operation. They make up IMO about 35% of 50 and up workers in the various fields I have been in. The other kind are the stubborn complacent set in their ways "a– in a seat" been there fir a while type person that does mediocre but barely sufficient work and thinks their tenure alone owes them keeping their job and yearly raises and bonuses. This type makes up the other 65%. I am personally all for finding ways to get rid of the "65%" but not nearly enough is done by company heads to keep the "35%". I suppose it ultimately is each of our individual opinions but when you are 50+ years old and been in a job for a few decades and have done nothing more than merely "expected" or equivalent work in the past 5-10 years then it is time for you to go.